MACHINE HEAD's ROBERT FLYNN: We're Not Giving Up

MACHINE HEAD frontman Robert Flynn has posted the following band update via the group's official web site at www.machinehead1.com:

“Touring...What is it all about?

“Ahhhh touring... free booze, free pizza, stinky buses, you and the crew drinking 'till 10 in the morning, walking into walls babbling, and really pissing off your tour manager. Touring definitely doesn't suck.

“Frequently asked questions...

“When are you coming back? Our future plans are doing a festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil April 20, working on a Japan/Australia tour, a European festival tour, and then possibly headlining in the States again in September.

“What's up with the 'Crashing Around You' single? Well, it was rescheduled from the original September 12 release date after we figured releasing a song called 'Crashing Around You' the day after September 11th was just mind-blowingly bad timing, and wasn't going to work. We then decided to release 'Deafening Silence' as the single, but after some bizarre remixes Roadrunner had done (that we weren't comfortable with),we mutually agreed to go back to 'Crashing' again on January 21.

“Roadrunner Records has now decided that they will not release a single off of Supercharger at all. Why? Because 3 and 1/2 months after release in America, Supercharger hasn't sold that well in America. How come? Well...... because releasing a record in America 3 weeks after Sept. 11th with no radio single and no video, was...... crazy, but we took the gamble, and to win, you have to take gambles. Both RR and ourselves understood full well it was going to be a challenging, and often times difficult undertaking. It was going to require both us and RR to look past the short-term results, and look at the long-term possibilities, keeping our eye on the long-term goal of getting the record out to as many people as possible. But hey, like the ROLLING STONES sang some 30-odd years ago...... 'You can't always get whatcha want.' The funny thing is, when we asked Roadrunner why they had made a commitment to release the 'Crashing' single in January, only to flip-flop, their answer, if spoken by the great character Smokey, from the movie Friday, would have went something like...... 'Man, why you gotta bring up old sh.t?'.

“Are we mad? A little. Disappointed? Definitely. Giving up? Absolutely not!

“Don't take this as some anti-Roadrunner rant either. There are some totally dedicated, real, and genuine music-loving folks at RR, a lot of whom have literally bent over backwards, and gone way out of their way to get this band heard, and for all of them, we are truly appreciative and grateful.

“But things are different now, it's going to take a lot to get things back on track.

“Surprisingly, if the shows are any kind of gauge, who the hell needs singles and videos? We've been out for about 5 weeks now and I gotta say, Supercharging America has been rockin'. There have been a couple of wacky shows: Dallas blew, Clifton Park blew, but hey, then you got Houston... sick, Orlando... sick, Atlantic Beach?? Amazing. Philly, DC, Wustah, awesome. New York City... oh my god!!! Cleveland... OH MY GOD!!! We really do have the best fans in the world. Whatever has happened in the states, The Burning Red-forward, has really brought some incredible people to the band. And we aren't patting ourselves on the back or anything, the reason those shows ruled was because of you. Hell, the way we see it here in MACHINE HEAD, everyone's coming to the world's best Kegger party, we just happen to be the house band, giving ya 150% full-on beer-soaked mayhem.

“And that... is what it should be about.”