NAPALM DEATH's BARNEY GREENWAY Says COVID-19 Deniers 'Need To Open Their Eyes': The Virus Is 'Very Real'

NAPALM DEATH frontman Mark "Barney" Greenway spoke to Australia's Riff Crew about how he is dealing with the coronavirus crisis and what the touring circuit might look like post-pandemic. He said (see video below): "On a personal level, I'm dealing with it okay. I've been keeping busy. I've done about seven weeks of interviews, and I'm not joking. I'm not exaggerating; it's literally that. But why not use the time? If it's time when we're not out there playing gigs, if there's enough people that wanna talk about the [new NAPALM DEATH] album and the band to fill that time, then why not? So that's been the thing, really.

"My situation is okay," Barney, who lives in Lancing, west of the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England, continued. "Presently, I live alone. I've only got myself to answer to, which is not to say that's the same for everybody. People that have families and dependents, it's a very hard slog for them.

"This virus thing [isn't] messing around. Luckily, I haven't had any direct family members that have died or been seriously ill from it thus far, but I know people that have, and it's very real. All these people that say it's a hoax, they need to open their eyes a little bit, because this is just simply not the case.

"In terms of NAPALM itself, we're just on ice, in terms of the live situation," he added. "But there's not much I can do about it. It is what it is, and many people are in this boat, not just musicians, although we have been hit particularly hard, because gigs are gonna be the last thing to open up. But I'm mindful that right now it's about the safety of people in general. I would never wanna cut adrift more vulnerable parts of the population, such as older people with serious conditions. To disregard them is just not the human thing, as far as I'm concerned.

"So, I will live with it for now. We'll take what comes and we'll deal with it in the process of time. But I do miss the gigging and stuff — I really do. I miss getting out there. We were due to come to Australia — we were in talks to come again — but it hasn't happened. And it's disappointing, in some respects, but I'm not gonna sit here and jump up and down about it, because I think that would be a bit sort of arrogant, and I just don't wanna do that."

NAPALM DEATH released its latest studio album, "Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism", in September via Century Media Records. The follow-up to 2015's "Apex Predator - Easy Meat" was again recorded with longtime producer Russ Russell and features artwork by Frode Sylthe.