LAMB OF GOD Frontman Quits Twitter, Calls It 'A Gigantic Waste Of Time'

Vocalist Randy Blythe of Richmond, Virginia metallers LAMB OF GOD has deleted his Twitter account. In his final tweet, which was re-tweeted by the band's official Twitter account, he wrote, "After a few short hours of no Twitter on my phone, I feel much better. Although I believe social networking can be used in a positive manner, I also believe it is, for the most part, a gigantic waste of time. Especially for me. It doesn't hurt that it's kinda addictive, and I certainly have that aspect of my personality. So peace, I'm fucking outta here. If you see someone on Twitter or Facebook claiming to be me, don't believe them, because I've never had Facebook and in about three minutes I won't have Twitter. So it was nice to meet some of y'all. I wish you well. Now I'm gonna go read a good book."

In a January 2012 interview with MetalInsider.net, Blythe spoke about his feelling on Twitter in detail, explaining, "A friend of mine told me about Twitter when it first started. A woman who lives here in Richmond, and she was like, 'You gotta get one of these things. It's Twitter, it's micro-blogging, it's a blog post in 140 characters or less.' And I'm like, 'Well, that sounds really stupid,' because what can you say in 140 characters or less? And I tend to be long-winded, as several of my Twitter posts illustrate. But I just started it, kind of on a lark, really. And as I continued doing it, people started following me and I started noticing its potential and its downside as a communication tool. As its potential for talking to a fan base, it really is unparalleled because it's an immediate response to a question from a fan or whatever. And it's not like you have to e-mail them and you can answer questions all day long. . . And I saw it as an instant communication medium with the fans. But also I began to see it in a way to de-mystify the whole 'rock stars are like these bizarre entity' type of things because I really don't feel like a rock star. I'm just a dude with a regular band and I think the perception of myself and the members of my band by our fans is very erroneous about our day-to-day lives. So I engage people on Twitter about different topics that don't deal with my band for the most part. I'm not foolish enough to state that all these people are following me because they think I'm Einstein or something. But it's a way for me to kind of talk to them on almost a one-to-one basis."

He added, "As I said, I saw the potential for it to be a great communication tool. There's also a huge downside: number 1, speaking face-to-face with a person communicates what you're trying to say in the manner you say it far more efficiently than typing 140 characters. Nuances of speech are just lost and sarcasm is pretty much, unless you just make it so wrenchingly, blatantly obvious, it's just lost in Twitter. . . And the other thing with me with Twitter is I actually like engaging people and discussing topics that interest me and might make someone's head turn a little bit. They might think a little bit after arguing with me — I love arguing as well. And I do that quite a bit. And that's another thing, it's funny, a lot of people on the Twitter are like, 'How can you argue with your fucking fans?' And I'm like, 'I'm not Mr. Heavy Metal Robot. You don't just press a button and say, 'Rock on, dude.'' If I want to say something, I'm gonna say it. And you're a human being, you have a brain, if you disagree, you and I should talk and hash it out. And Twitter is kind of good for that. And with that being said, I have something now approaching something like 24,000 followers, that's a whole lot of people to discuss with. So it can get kind of hectic and I waste too much time on it sometimes. But it is pretty useful."