LAMB OF GOD Drummer: We Have A New Appreciation For Being On Stage With Each Other

Bob Zerull of Zoiks! Online recently conducted an interview with drummer Chris Adler of Richmond, Virginia metallers LAMB OF GOD. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Zoiks! Online: You've been building up momentum year after year, you released a great new album and then the stuff with Randy [Blythe, vocals] goes down. When he got back [from being incarcerated in the Czech Republic], was there ever a thought, for even a second, that you wanted to take a break and walk away from this mess that had been created?

Chris: For me, no. I think we were all a little uncertain initially if Randy was going to be interested in jumping bank into work. At this point in our career, we've been around, like you said, 16 or 17 years and it's been kind of this slow burn, but it's been growing the whole time, and to have something like this happen was pretty shocking. So nobody was really sure 100 percent what the future would hold for the band and we were waiting to see how he felt about it. I think everybody certainly wanted to continue; we never wanted to stop to begin with. It was just a shock that left us all kind of wondering what the next step was going to be. Then we heard from Randy's lawyers as it was getting closer to him getting out that he was definitely interested in doing the two SLIPKNOT fests we did and getting back to work obviously to support the record and keeping our families and the crew and the people that work for us and their families, keeping food on everybody's table. It was good to hear him and we're certainly lucky and happy to be getting back to work this fall.

Zoiks! Online: The amount of support you guys and Randy got was pretty amazing. How surprised were you to see that level of support?

Chris: I spend a fair amount of time on the Internet looking up new music, so I'm not immune to the blogs out there with all the metal fans arguing over who's true metal and who's not. I see all these subdivisions of metal fans and I'm a fan of all different types of heavy music so I still laugh at most of it, but it was really the first time where I saw everybody — well, not everybody, but most people — coming together for one particular cause. It was really refreshing to see the metal community come together like that. There were bands that we're good friends with, guys that we see everyday like DEVILDRIVER and MACHINE HEAD. We were getting calls from them and getting their support, guys like HATEBREED as well. But then to have like Ozzy and Slash, the upper echelon of rock stars come out and give their support, too, it was really shocking. I didn't know we had that much of an impact on the rock world. People do look at this particular scenario and see the danger in what could happen if Randy is held responsible. It could mean that any performer or anyone who decides to go on stage is held responsible for the general well being of everybody that walks through that door. That doesn't only affect bands at our level or smaller, but that goes all the way up the chain to bands like Ozzy or even pop stars, it'll be a whole new world if this is how it goes down.

Zoiks! Online: When you took the stage for the first time after Randy got back how overwhelming was that moment?

Chris: It was incredible, man. Like I said earlier, it was quite a shock to have this whole thing happen and we were all questioning as to what the future would be for the band — if there would be a future, if it was going to be all over in a blink of an eye or if we were going to continue. It was like therapy to be on stage again. I think we were all very excited. One of the things that made it so special was that the crowd at both of those festivals we did came over to our stage early and were chanting for a good half an hour straight, "Randy" or "Randy is free." Not just the name of the band, but they were familiar with the situation and really vocal about their support. There was this renewed energy on stage because we had realized just how fragile what we do is and coming into those shows we had a new appreciation for being on stage with each other and playing the music that we do and also to have that reflected in the crowd response to us and have their support. It almost felt like some sort of reunion show, we wouldn't market it like that but that's how the crowd was supporting us, it was pretty incredible.

You can read the entire interview at Zoiks! Online. The chat is also available in audio format.