CHILDREN OF BODOM's ALEXI LAIHO On Toning Down His On-The-Road Partying: 'We Are Not 25 Anymore'

Ramon of Dutch webzine Lords Of Metal conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Alexi Laiho of Finnish metallers CHILDREN OF BODOM during this year's Musikmesse trade show, which was held April 15-18 in Frankfurt, Germany. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Lords Of Metal: [Your] live DVD showed you guys having lots of fun. There was quite some partying going on on there…

Alexi: That was in the good old days. [Laughs]

Lords Of Metal: You do not do that anymore?

Alexi: We do, but it's just, we are not 25 anymore. The thing is, things change, we still have a lot of fun, but it was pretty insane back in the day, man. But…

Lords Of Metal: Wait, you mellowed down? Why is that?

Alexi: It's just… when you get older, your body can't take as much as it did like when you were a twenty-something, you know. Hangovers get so [laughs] violently brutal, I just can't fucking deal with it anymore, man. I started to feel, in the middle of the tour, I didn't wanna go out on the stage anymore. I always did my fucking job, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I should. So when something like that happens, I just feel so fucking bad about myself that I just had to take it easier and take better care of myself and make sure I feel 110 percent when I am out on the stage, because that is what I do, that's my job, that's my life. So I can't let anything or anybody get in the way with that, especially not drinking, or anything like that. So I don't really drink when I am out on the road anymore.

Lords Of Metal: Not at all?

Alexi: Hardly. I might have a couple of beers, but that's it.

Lords Of Metal: And you can keep it down? There is no urge for you to keep going?

Alexi: No, no, no. Not at all. It was kind of weird at first. The first tour I did after I decided to do it sober and it was really weird. I always was the craziest [one] on the tour. And all of the sudden I am not a part of it and to me it was quite of getting settled in just let them do their thing and not be a part of it. But once you had done a couple of tours sober, you kind of get used to it and before you know it… I am actually enjoying it. Being out on the stage is just so much more fun. Right before you are hitting the stage, you are not puking your brains out [laughs], or have to do a couple of whiskey shots to get an even kill. It kind of got to that point. I never got drunk before the show, I just needed to level. It works for me, everybody does what he does. I have always been a road dog and I always will be. Whether I drink or not has nothing to do with it.

Read the entire interview from Lords Of Metal.