ROBB FLYNN On His Evolution As A Vocalist: 'I Didn't Have A Lot Of Confidence As A Singer' On MACHINE HEAD's Debut Album

During a recent appearance on Scream Dudes' "The Story Behind The Scream" podcast, MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn discussed the evolution of his singing voice. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, the first two bands that I was in — I was in two thrash bands, one called FORBIDDEN and one called VIO-LENCE. And I was just playing guitar, but then I was doing backing vocals, so we had kind of hardcore gang vocals. So I was singing heavy like that at that point. And I always sang. Even as a kid, I always enjoyed being on stage. I always was doing the school plays or school — not musicals, but they'd have a contest where you'd sing a popular song of the day or whatever, and I was always entering it. And I was pretty shy as a kid, and that was kind of my way of expressing myself. And once I started doing the gang vocals in VIO-LENCE, at some point — I always loved singing. I was always singing. I was, like, 'You know what? I can do this shit. And I'm just gonna start my own band and I'm gonna be the singer and then sing harsh.'"

He continued: "Looking back now, when I listen to my first album [as the lead vocalist], I didn't have a lot of confidence as a singer. I did some clean singing, but it was all very low. It was mostly heavy vocals. And at the time I was playing with death metal bands and hardcore bands. And so singing wasn't like it was — it was there, but it was cooler to be heavy. And so I just kind of focused on that. And then just over time, I just kind of learned, like, 'Wow, I can actually do more singing. I can do kind of a bunch of stuff. I could do death metal stuff, I can do high cleans.' And it was a pretty cool learning experience along the way."

Elaborating on how he learned to prepare for MACHINE HEAD live shows properly after taking on all the vocal duties, Robb said: "I would just ask my friends, and I would just go on stage and just sing. I would just sing as heavy as I could. I think especially from rehearsing — we did rehearse a lot back then. We always wanted to rehearse. We were rehearsing, like, four times a week, and then doing shows probably two times a month, or sometimes more. And I just kind of found my style. I was friends with the guys from BIOHAZARD at the time, and Billy [Graziadei] from BIOHAZARD had taken vocal lessons. And he gave me the cassette tape of his warmup. He's, like, 'This is a cassette tape of the warmup,' and recorded it. And he's, like, 'Dude, just do this 20 minutes before the show, and this will help you a lot.' And just whatever that little bit of kind of getting going, it really kind of set me on my path. And then, funny enough, I go on tour and I'm on a death metal tour. I'm opening for NAPALM DEATH and OBITUARY. This is my first tour, and I'm, like, 'I don't need to warm up. That's for pussies. I'm on death metal tour. I'm not gonna do that shit.' 'Cause I was, like, 'If I lose my singing voice, it won't matter. I'm on a death metal tour.' But what happened is I lost my heavy voice, and alls I had was my singing voice. And I was, like, 'Oh, this ain't gonna work.' … It tripped me out — it really tripped me out. And I remember the last show, we were playing playing in Corona, California, and it was like a gnarly fucking crowd, like all fucking 'cholo vato' dudes and hardcore kids. And I'm barely croaking out vocals and I'm, like, 'This is not gonna work. I need to be able to have my heavy voice.' And looking back, it was kind of stupid that I even stopped doing the vocal warmup. Like, why? Who cares? … About a week into the tour, I got back into the vocal warmup, the cassette vocal warmup that Billy from BIOHAZARD had given me. And from that point on, I swear by it."

In a 2011 interview with the Phoenix New Times, Flynn confirmed that he enlisted the help of Lady Gaga and Mick Jagger's singing teacher Don Lawrence during the recording of MACHINE HEAD's seventh studio album, "Unto The Locust". He said at the time: "I [also] took lessons from Melissa Cross, who did a lot of great work with us. It was really just trying to get better at my craft. I've never had vocal lessons and I'[d] been singing for 19 years. 19 years into my singing career I took my first lesson. [Laughs]"

He added: "I never took singing lessons because I never wanted to learn someone's style; that's the same reason I never took guitar lessons. I never wanted to have [the influence of] somebody else thing put on me. I had buddies when I was younger who went to take lessons and they all come back and sound the same. I didn't want that… I wanted to go out and find my own thing, so I did that with vocals and the guitar. I actually did take classical lessons in high school as an elective. But I mostly just smoked weed and played BLACK SABBATH songs with my friends. I got a C minus — but it worked out in the end."

Asked if there was anything he took away from the lessons that he was surprised about, Robb said: "Yeah, definitely. It helped me out with my upper register. It taught me basically that I can get the same effect for about half the effort, which was great to know I was wasting too much energy before. It was a very positive experience. I liked it a lot."

This past June, guitarist Reece Alan Scruggs announced that he would sit out MACHINE HEAD's summer 2025 European tour in order to stay home with his father, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Playing guitar for MACHINE HEAD at various shows on the trek were the band's longtime producer Zack Ohren and DECAPITATED's Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka.

Kiełtyka, who joined MACHINE HEAD's lineup prior to the launch of the band's "Burn My Eyes" 25th-anniversary tour in late 2019, left the Flynn-fronted act in February 2024 and was replaced by Scruggs, who has previously filled in for Vogg on a couple of tours.

Reece made his live debut with MACHINE HEAD in November 2022 at Strummer's in Fresno, California at the opening show of the "Electric Happy Hour (Live)" tour.

MACHINE HEAD's eleventh studio album, "Unatoned", came out in April 2025 via Nuclear Blast/Imperium Recordings.