LAMB OF GOD Frontman: 'No One Goes To A Heavy Metal Show To Hear Some Dude Up There Preaching'

Jon Wiederhorn of AOL's Noisecreep recently conducted an interview with vocalist Randy Blythe of Richmond, Virginia metallers LAMB OF GOD. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Noisecreep: Who were your biggest inspirations as a performer?

Blythe: I loved Henry Rollins and Nick Cave. David Yow from the JESUS LIZARD was a huge influence on me because he's just nuts. I've seen them so many times. He's such a fucking freak and it's just disturbing to watch it. He's an old man now and he can still pull it off. I just love the way he deals with hecklers. He completely destroys them when they fuck with him. At the last show I saw, this guy was fucking with him in the front row, and Yow just took the mic and smashed it right on the guy's forehead. And he was scolding him like a school teacher. He said, "That'll teach you a lesson, you whippersnapper." And the dude's sitting there bleeding out of his head. He's just an amazing man.

Noisecreep: Does being unpredictable keep performing fresh for you?

Blythe: Well, doing the same old thing again and again, it's hard not to fall into a rut. I certainly like amusing myself, and being unpredictable is a lot more amusing to me than doing the same thing over and over again. I like when you never know what's gonna happen when you see these bands, and you might get a story out of it instead of, "Oh, I came and got whiplash from banging my head.: I wanna see some dude do something fucked up. But I don't get as much of a thrill — a knee-jerk reaction out of shocking people — as I did when I was 16 and I had a big chip on my shoulder the size to match my stupid Mohawk. I'd go into a store and people are looking at me. I'd be like, "Why are they staring at me?!!" Duh, 'cause you've got a two-foot high green Mohawk, you asshole. But that seems really childish now. We all go through that stage, but there's still a little devil inside me that does smile when someone gets disturbed.

Noisecreep: You used to speak your mind on stage about the war in Iraq and the Bush administration. Do you think being political on stage can impact an audience?

Blythe: I don't know. Right now, I'd rather do that lyrically. No one goes to a heavy metal show to hear some dude up there preaching. I'm not a very good frontman as far as the whole talking to the crowd things goes, anyway. It's something I've had to learn how to do. It's kind of painful for me. But as our audience has grown it's something my band has talked to me about. I miss the old days when you just jumped on stage and threw beer bottles at people, mostly. But I don't really want to listen to anyone preach, so I try not to preach. I'll say some things every now and then, but mostly I try to deliver what I'm concerned or distressed or angry about through my lyrics. The world hasn't stopped being a fucked up, chaotic, angry place, and in fact it's only getting worse. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I keep doing this.

Read the entire interview from Noisecreep.