Mary Ouellette, shewillshootyou.com / Ethan Miller, Getty Images Hollywood Undead are gearing up to release their third studio album, ‘Notes From the Underground’ in 2013. With another year coming our way, rock and metal acts from around the world will attempt to create the biggest buzz of the year, capturing the spotlight for themselves and their music. To give Hollywood Undead a little extra boost for the new single ‘We Are,’ the band has recruited Slipknot ‘s Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan to direct the song’s music video. Crahan has helped Slipknot achieve phenomenal success since the group’s inception, and the artist will now seek to lend his talents to Hollywood Undead for the ‘We Are’ video. “We are very excited to be working with someone that thinks as progressively about their art as we do,” says Hollywood Undead’s Da Kurlzz. ”Clown is a great director, and together we are going to deliver something truly memorable.” Band member Johnny 3 Tears elaborates, “The song [‘We Are’] is about collective resistance. It’s the silent majority, but we’re using Los Angeles as the backdrop. Every time we work with Danny, he takes our music to the next level. Think of it as an ode to our misled youth.” Johnny continues, “We’ve maintained an underground identity. When we write songs, we’re coming from a place people don’t like to look at or talk about openly. As people get older, they get used to lying. We have a bond with so many kids because they appreciate that honesty. They don’t know how bad some things get yet. We tell them the truth.” The ‘Notes From the Underground’ album title is an homage to the great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Stay tuned for the ‘We Are’ video and the 2013 release of ‘Notes From the Underground.’ [button href=”http://loudwire.com/hollywood-undead-notes-from-the-underground-webisode-1-exclusive-premiere/” title=”Next: Watch the First ‘Notes From the Underground’ Webisode” align=”center”]
Razor & Tie All That Remains singer Phil Labonte appeared on Loudwire Radio recently to discuss the military, religion and the band’s new album ‘A War You Cannot Win’ with the show’s host, Sandman. In case you missed it, check out a transcript of the interview below. Sandman: Your band, All That Remains, on the verge of putting out your sixth album and coincidentally it’s on Election Day. Is that coincidence or not? Phil Labonte: You know, I’m very political and I think that most of the people that are … there’s people that are into a band that pay absolutely no attention to the members, and there are people that are into a band that want to know what the band think and what they had for dinner and blah, blah, blah. Anyone that’s into the band members and wants to follow us on the Internet, whether it be Twitter or Facebook, whatever, those people know that I’m very political. And … it wasn’t my idea! I swear to god, it wasn’t my idea to spit it out on Election Day! I swear to god! I’m not the guy that’s going to go ahead and try to keep people with my crap, I’m not afraid to tell people the truth so it’s like, people may think “Oh, Phil wanted to go ahead and do this because he’s all into politics and that.” It wasn’t my idea at all. When they brought it to me, the label said “Hey, how about we do this on Election Day?” And I like “That’d be way cool! Yes! Let’s do this!” It wasn’t my idea; I didn’t come up with it. S: You were only compliant. That’s it. P: Exactly, exactly. I was, I was, definitely. I was the label’s bitch at that point. S: The album ‘A War You Cannot Win’ is the latest release that will be out on Election Day and the single ‘Stand Up’ is in the Loudwire Top 20. You guys have really, I think, over time — and I’m pretty familiar with the band from its early days — have really honed your craft and, man, very impressive progression through the years. P: Thank you. Thank you. S: I’m curious as to your military background. Does that weigh into your politics in any way? P: Mmm … I don’t know that my military background really weighs in that. Can I be honest with you? I was in the Marine Corps for, like, less than a year when I joined and I’m old now … I’m almost 40 … and I joined the Marine Corps, I went into basic in ‘93. I got a medical under honorable conditions, it’s not like I was screwing off or whatever; I got an actual injury in training, and I got sent home in ‘93 — I’m sorry, ‘94. I’ll talk like, ‘Yes, I was in the military,’ ‘Yes, it’s for the military’; my wife was deployed to Afghanistan once, Iraq twice. My old roommates, one of them got blown up by a rocket. He was a contractor and he was in the National Guard, the other one was in the military. I come from a military background; my dad was in the military, my grandfather’s, both of them were in World War II, my uncle was in the Air Force … So, I mean, I come from a military background, I’ve been in the military. My actual contribution … it’s irrelevant, I didn’t do anything. All I did was, like ‘yeah, I want to go!’ and then they were like ‘oh, you got hurt, go home because we’re cutting the military.’ I mean, when Bill Clinton got into office he really made a lot of cuts in the military and that was right when I joined. So anyone that was less than perfect … they were doing a lot of ‘forced retirement’ in ’93 and ’94. So, I can’t say that … I did join, but I can’t say that I’ve done anything worth noting, you know? I mean, it’s like I showed up to class and they were like, “Go home,” and I was like “Uh…okay.” So, I definitely support the military and I’m a big fan of people that support our country and support our military and stuff but I can’t take credit for anything other than being like, ‘Hey, can I go?’ and then were like, ‘No.’ And now we’re going to get a little deep into my politics … You can be pro-military and not be pro-imperialism. You can be pro-military and pro-national events and still think that we have too many bases in foreign countries that we just don’t need. And you can’t think that the military would be better served if we weren’t trying to have military bases — I mean, we have military bases in literally over 100 countries. I believe over 150 countries. I think it’s 190. I’m saying “ I think” because I don’t have the numbers in front of me and I don’t like to say I’m sure of anything unless I can actually verify it. But, it’s definitely over 100, probably over 150, and I think it’s somewhere around 190 countries in the world with military bases. Do we need that? I mean, does that make America safer? Or does that make America an imperial power? You know? I tell you what, I think we should go ahead — and I’ve said this before — my personal opinion is that we should cut the Army by probably 75 percent. Take 25 percent of the money we used to put into the Army and put that into the Navy and the Air Force because that way we’re not actually occupying other countries; we still have the ability to project influence. Because I tell you what, you park an aircraft carrier off the coast of a country and their opinion changes instantaneously. S: Yeah, that’s a big statement. When you roll up on somebody’s coast with your aircraft carrier that makes a statement for sure. P: Yes, because the aircraft carrier, they can see it. There’s a support group that goes, there’s a submarines that go, there’s a whole air wing and, you know, there’s probably 3,000 marines, a marine experteer unit that’s on every aircraft carrier. I mean, it’d be the U.S.’s ability to project power just by showing up and saying ‘hey, we’re paying attention to you right now. Knock it off.’ I mean, we don’t need an army that can physically occupy territory because we don’t need to be in other people’s territory. If we want to influence their politics … ?? … between sanctions … ?? … an aircraft carrier, basically a combat unit, which is an aircraft carrier that supports the Marine Corps and then the threat of nuclear missiles. You don’t need a big army that’s going to go in and hold land. That’s unnecessary. S: Right, occupy a country. P: Yeah, it’s unnecessary. We don’t need to. We should go ahead and start making decisions that are based on “would military action promote our national security, our general welfare?” If it doesn’t then stay the hell out of it. I think the U.S. needs to do more ‘staying the hell out of it’ and also, on the same token, you need to go ahead and decide okay, it will support us, so then we should just say “we’re going to kick the s— out of you” more. I mean, that’s your option. It shouldn’t be ‘let’s get in there with troops and influence and nation build and try and work with the people.’ No. Okay, are you cool with us? Cool. We’re cool with you. Let’s trade. Are you cool with us? No. You want to f—ing shoot bombs at us and blow up our buildings. Okay, we’re going to smoke you. Like, it should be a little more black and white. S: I could not agree more. I mean, maybe that’s just the Republican in me coming out but, um… P: I don’t think it’s very Republican. I think it’s more… S: American. P: Yeah. I mean, because, the thing is, I think there is a lot more countries that would say if we didn’t have faces all over the world I think there would be a lot more countries that would be like, “Alright, cool. So, you’re sailing the seven seas and you’ve got a lot of military power in the Navy but you aren’t putting bases into foreign countries.” A lot of geopolitical perspective in the Middle East, which is where most of the tension is, a lot of it is based on their religion, which, I don’t believe in any ‘steady guy in the sky’… I don’t care whether it’s Phoebus or Muhammad or whatever, I don’t care. I think when you’re dead you’re done, and that’s cool. Period. The period ends it. So, I don’t worry about offending your silly god, I don’t worry about, like, if Jesus is going to come back because your not and if he does it’s only going to be a really charismatic guy who’s going to be able to fool the Christians into thinking “See? It don’t end. I’m Jesus again!” and doing a sweet dance, or whatever. But, religion goes into politics so much and the reason that the Muslims that hate America — and not all of them do — the Muslims that really hate America, they hate us because we have bases in a whole bunch of Muslim countries. So we should pull all of our bases out of Muslim countries and then if they blow up American stuff then we should “give” them nuclear weapons, but not give them to them. S: I think that’s a pretty great philosophy. I would agree with all that. I think you’re right in the fact that countries react to you being up their ass and being in their country and occupying their country and that’s what Osama Bin Laden took offense to in the first place and how a lot of this got started. P: I don’t care what any Republican tells you, Osama Bin Laden does not hate Coca-Cola. S: Ha-ha. I’m sure he did not! He watched TV! He was watching TV when they, you know, raided his compound. P: He loved VCR’s because he’d watch himself. Narcissist prick. So, my political perspective boils down to bringing American troops out of other countries. There is enough water on Earth where the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps and the Air Force … well, there’s enough air … even though the Air Force doesn’t actually on Navy ships, but, anyway, that’s besides the point … There’s enough water where the U.S. can influence the rest of the world. “Influence” not “control” but “influence” the rest of the world. Then, if a country attacks us, then turn them into glass. I mean, just don’t attack us. We should stop being an imperial power and trying to force our way onto other people, we can influence them, but don’t force them, don’t occupy their country. And when you stop occupying their country and they attack us, well then, kill them all, violently. S: And that’s that. Ha-ha. P: Yeah, I mean, if we don’t attack you, if we stop instigating violence … which is kind of what we do. S: We do. P: A lot of times. If we stop that and then we’re attacked then we have a moral to defend ourselves, right? Or to retaliate. Right? That’s what happens. S: Right. Talking to Phil Labonte, lead vocalist of All That Remains. Their new album “A War You Cannot Win” is that title … is that a mental war? Or is that a reflection on the world today and the things you and I have been talking about here? P: This one’s pretty political. I’ve got a sweet girl that I’m with so it’s not all emotional poppycock or whatever. I’m fairly simple as a dude, like, I write lyrics and songs and stuff about things that matter to me. And the first things that matter to me are family and my woman … and after that it becomes politics because writing a song about how the Boston Celtics are doing or writing a song about the Red Sox or the Patriots or whatever, or another handful of things that I’m actually interested in … People don’t care. S: Nah. That’s your hobby, that’s your own stuff. P: Yeah, well, I mean, I’ll write songs about politics and freedom and stuff and there are people out there that will interpret it as me saying something about guns, which is another hobby that I have, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about personal freedom and stuff and politics. S: But the great thing about art is that it’s interpreted by the consumer, you know. It’s left for interpretation. And, really, when you write a song about the Red Sox or the Patriots there’s nothing left to interpret, it’s laid out for you. P: Yeah, I tell ya, that’s a great segue into being the lyricist. A lot of people, when you do interviews, will be like “Hey, what was this about. What was that about? What were you thinking when you wrote this.” And my first response is—and I got this from Jeff Walker from Carcass, hopefully some of your listeners know who he is—but, he used to say is “I don’t like to explain stuff because I explain it and then it takes away from the listener.” And that’s so accurate because they’re people that have sent me e-mails and they’re like “I heard this song and this happened in my life and this song helped me get through.” And my first thought is “Ha-ha. What? How do you think that that song equates to what you just told me that happened in your life?” Now, I don’t send that e-mail back or anything … That’s just me comprehending what they say. But the important part about writing a song and putting it out and letting people interpret it, letting people hear it, is not me. The important part is the listener. Like, if they are on the same page and hear what I say or hear the lyrics and they understand what I was thinking then cool, man, that makes me feel good. But it doesn’t matter if it makes me feel good, all that matters is: they hear it, they relate to it, they like it and they find something that means something to them. I mean, it doesn’t matter if it makes me feel good because the vast majority of people that are going to hear All That Remains songs I’ll never hear anything from. I’ll never talk to them. I’ll never hear what it means to them, what they think about it, you know? It doesn’t matter. It’s cool when I get an affirmation, when people understand what I was thinking and are like, “Hey man, I get what you’re saying here and this is what I think you’re saying” and it lines up with what I’m thinking. But it’s just as cool when people say “Hey man, I heard this and this is what was going on in my life and this is what that means to me” and it doesn’t matter that when I read that I say “That is not at all what I was talking about.” I would never tell them that because the important part isn’t me, the important part is them. S: You’re a very intelligent guy and I don’t know what it is about you New Englander’s but, I’ve interviewed the guys from Godsmack and Staind and other bands and you guys are all pretty smart dudes. P: Well, I appreciate the kudos. I guess you haven’t talked to our guitar player Mike Martin, he’s an idiot. S: Ha-ha! Not yet! P: You should totally put that on the Internet everywhere. That should be the headline. “If You Haven’t Talked To Our Guitar Player Mike Martin, He’s An Idiot.” Because all we do is give each other complete hell. S: I can tell. P: That’s a Massachusetts thing, I tell ya. All the bands that … you know … Unearth, Killswitch Engage, The Acacia Strain, All That Remains like, we’re all from Massachusetts and we are all so comfortable just giving each other just boatloads of crap. And I know some wonderful dudes from other places in the country that are sweet, sweet people and I am fortunate to know them but I would never say the terrible things to them that I would say to anyone from Massachusetts just because it seems like if you’re from Mass, if you’re a Masshole, you’ve got so much thicker skin. I can take almost anything from most of the guys from Unearth and Killswitch and definitely all the guys in my band and they’re just like “You’re an idiot. Shut your face.” And it’s like “okay” we get that as a joke. If I were to say terrible things to some of the dudes from California I feel like it would just be butthurt central. S: Ha-ha! You’re probably right about that. You guys just have thicker skin, man. That’s how you survive the cold. P: Yeah, probably, you know. S: Probably so. Phil Labonte, All That Remains, thank you man, so much for taking time for Loudwire. Good luck on the new album and the tour and it’s been a pleasure. P: Thank you, sir. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/loudwire-radio-station-list/” title=”See Which Stations Air Loudwire Radio” align=”center”]
Epic – Lamb of God ‘s Chris Adler shares what the period was like during Randy Blythe ‘s incarceration from the band members’ perspective. [ Loudwire ] – The daughter of rocker Jon Bon Jovi was arrested after an alleged heroin overdose. [ Loudwire ] – Soundgarden ‘s November mini-trek is underway, with a review and photo gallery from the New York performance. [ Loudwire ] – Stone Sour have offered up a trippy new video for their single, ‘Absolute Zero.’ [ Loudwire ] – Black metal and Internet memes apparently do make a good combination. Check out a few funnies from the dark side. [ Loudwire ] – Ever wonder how the Metallica song ‘Creeping Death’ came to be? [ Ultimate Metallica ] – Ted Nugent ‘s drummer Mick Brown has entered a guilty plea to a DUI incident with a golf cart this summer. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – ZZ Top , Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rush were among the names called at the Classic Rock Roll of Honor. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – The Clash had a lot of great songs. Check out this list of their 10 Best. [ Diffuser.fm ] – AWOLNATION are heading to late night, then hitting the road. [ Rock Music Report ]
Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Kid Rock ended up being one of presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s biggest celebrity supporters in the run up to the election, and the vocalist revealed on the Howard Stern Show how he managed to warm to the buttoned-up politician. According to CBS Detroit , Rock and Romney met in person before the musician decided to publicly lend his support. He told Stern that it was important to him that Romney was “not just a rich guy who wanted to become president to out-do dad.” He explained, “I know what it’s like to want to be better than your father. Of course, I’m getting these ‘I really want to help America’ [answers], and I said, ‘Cut the s—, this is my living room. This isn’t going to leave here.” Once Romney addressed the commitments he had specifically toward Rock’s hometown of Detroit, the pair began to bond further. Rock says that while he dipped his toes into the political arena by publicly supporting Romney, he’s not necessarily into right wing politics. “I’m less into government,” explained Rock, who added, “If gay people want to get married, I don’t give a f—.” He went on to add, “It’s OK to stand for something … I’ve got friends who didn’t vote. I want to smack them upside the head.” With the election behind him, Rock is more focused than ever on his hometown. As in recent years, he’s backed a drive to provide families in need with Meijer gift cards for the holidays. Plus fans will be able to catch him kicking off the United Way holiday campaign by performing at halftime of the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day game. Kid Rock’s ‘ Rebel Soul ‘ album arrives in stores Nov. 19. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/kid-rock-new-single-lets-ride/” title=”Next: Listen to Kid Rock’s ‘Let’s Ride’ Single” align=”center”]
Loud & Proud Queensryche have spent most of the year in the headlines for their legal issues with now former frontman Geoff Tate , but the time has come to put the court issues on the backburner and get back to making music. Fans can now check out the first taste of what a Todd La Torre-led Queensryche will sound like thanks to a new trailer that’s surfaced online. Helping to build the buzz, the trailer begins with the simple wordage, “Remember now. Remember how it started.” What follows is a string of snippets of songs that show off the range of La Torre, who can hit some of the highest highs that Tate used to hit, but also use his low register as well. In addition, it’s clear that being without the frequent creative force hasn’t led Queensryche members Scott Rockenfield, Eddie Jackson and Michael Wilton too far off course. The longtime Queensryche trio, along with veteran guitarist Parker Lundgren who joined a few years back, stay true to the roots that the band created years ago, at least in the snippets heard in the trailer. The band has been working with producer James “Jimbo” Barton on their forthcoming release, and as the trailer states, the new album will be “coming soon.” Watch Queensryche’s New Album Teaser Trailer [button href=”http://loudwire.com/queensryche-vocalist-todd-la-torre-denies-using-geoff-tate-vocal-tracks-at-live-shows/” title=”Next: Queensryche Vocalist Denies Using Geoff Tate Backing Tracks” align=”center”]
Meme [ meem] noun : A pervasive thought or thought pattern that replicates itself via Internet forums, providing comedic delight to large groups of like-minded cyber surfers. Black metal music and Internet memes have come together to create an unexpected marriage of hilarity. In perhaps the first documented black metal meme, photoshops and comedic artworks of Norwegian band Immortal began to compile on a metal music message board in 2003, using the band’s trademark image and official photos for side-splitting creations. Ever since, black metal memes have swarmed the internet like a winter’s frost, entertaining both fans and naysayers for nearly a decade. We scoured the Internet for memes and even created a couple of them ourselves for our Funniest Black Metal Versions of Famous Memes feature. Rebecca Black: ‘Ermahgerd’: Chubby Bubbles Girl: The Most Interesting Man in the World: ? Haters Gonna Hate: ‘Y U NO’ Guy: Bad Luck Brian: Matrix Morpheus: Good Guy Greg: Condescending Wonka: Musically Oblivious 8th Grader: Uber Frosh / College Freshman: Idiot Nerd Girl: LOLcats: ‘Meanwhile in …’: [button href=”http://loudwire.com/catchiest-metal-songs/” title=”Listen to the 10 Catchiest Metal Songs” align=”center”]
Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com It’s been a roller-coaster year for Lamb of God , who released their latest album, ‘Resolution,’ in January, but spent much of the summer dealing with the very serious allegations against frontman Randy Blythe . The vocalist spent five weeks in prison after being accused of manslaughter stemming from an alleged incident at a 2010 show in the Czech Republic. While that case is not over yet, as Blythe will likely have to go back to face trial, Lamb of God are back on the road headlining a U.S. tour with support from In Flames, Hatebreed and Sylosis. We recently caught up with Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler, who discussed a wide range of topics concerning the band. In part 1 of our interview, Adler talks about the band’s current U.S. trek, their experience in the Czech Republic and Europe in the days following Blythe’s arrest and how the situation compared to the Dimebag Darrell tragedy of 2004. You’re headlining a U.S. tour with In Flames, Hatebreed and Sylosis, which is an impressive bill. Can you talk about your relationships and experiences with those bands? With Hatebreed and In Flames, we’ve toured the world with those guys two or three times and become good friends and there’s poker buddies among us. We really have become on good terms with a lot of those guys so it’s a lot of fun to catch up with them again, and Sylosis is a band from England that got off in 2008 and they’re such a huge band. I think they are a good band that’s kind of modern day thrash and I thought they’d be a great add-on to the bill. Lamb of God played Knotfest shortly after Randy Blythe’s release from a Czech prison, but after all the band and Randy went through this past summer, do you think this headlining tour serves as a cathartic experience of sorts? Knotfest was almost therapeutic in a way. There was so much frustration and just general questions about what was going to happen for so long, so it made us all certainly anxious. At least for me, I felt very energized and awakened to the idea that what we do is very fragile and it could be gone very, very quickly, and every night that we play onstage, where we do the thing that we love to do, is special. Sometimes when you do these kind of things for a long time, you just get caught up in the day job aspect of it and while it’s a great job, it becomes a job. To have something happen like what happened with Randy to derail us so violently; it was a wake-up call for me to really get back to that energy that brought us together to begin with, and that definitely came out at Knotfest from the band and the crowd. It was crazy to hear the crowd chanting, “Randy is free, Randy is free, Randy is free,” over and over again. That energy mixed with the kind of renewed sense of, I don’t want to call it ‘innocence,’ but the idea that we somehow bring out that initial motivation and that initial drive that makes us do this, and we had the opportunity to do it. Going forward, I’m looking at every night on [this] tour as a very special night. We’ve heard a lot about Randy’s experiences during the five weeks he was incarcerated, but what was that time like for you and the other band members? It was frustrating. I’d think that would be the closest descriptive term. We were of course primarily concerned about our friend and our bandmate’s well being and getting him out of there, and we all believed that kind of sense would prevail and he would be out any second. We just couldn’t believe what was going on and on and on. We weren’t allowed to speak with him, more or less see him, so it was only though his lawyers that we found out that he was doing well and he told them specifically to tell us not to worry. We did what we could to help and so we knew that he was doing well. Of course, then the question is, “Is this guy, who’s 41 years old … when he gets out of prison is he going to want to get back onstage and be in a band even if they don’t convict him for this?” And he definitely let us know that he wants to keep going and he wants to be back onstage soon as possible. And then of course we kept jumping through hoops to do our best to respect their system and to come through with their requests. It seemed like every time we jumped through a hoop, there was another delay and another hoop in front of us so it was very frustrating to try and piece together how this could have happened and what it could lead to, especially because there was no reserved time as to when he could get out. It’s still a very difficult situation; he’s slated to go back in January for the trial. It’s not over and it’s still very scary as to how this all happened and I think back here we were just trying to pool our resources and make sure we had the best people we could working on the case and trying to do what we could to get him out. The day that he got out we had no idea; we were told the day before he got out that it was going to at least be another week because his paperwork had to get through his guy or something like that, which is what we were told for four weeks straight. But the day that he got out, it was a surprise call saying they let him out. So even though it was good news, it was unexpected. What was your personal experience like in the Czech Republic during the initial hours of the detainment? Confusing. We got off the plane and we were corralled together. Our band and crew were taken into a side room off of the jet way and told that what was about to happen would scare the shit out of the other passengers on the plane. They put us in a room basically with a SWAT team. I mean guys with machine guns, knives, full out body armor. It was like these guys were ready for the apocalypse and right away we knew something was very, very wrong. At that point, I didn’t know it had anything to do with us. I thought we were going to be questioned for something or somebody that did something wrong. We knew somebody did something wrong and we’ve found out about all these spectacles that were done in Europe and maybe they are questioning everybody, maybe they saw something. We weren’t even sure about what happened and then they gave us this piece of paper that explains what the charge was and where it came from and they explained to us that they were keeping us all for questioning and that they needed to go through the entire crew and the entire band. They were taking Randy to jail immediately and it was just shocking. Two things were kind of added to the mindset. One was that it was the first time that we heard that someone was brutally injured at one of our shows, so there was immediately a sense of sympathy for that person’s family. It was a very depressing feeling comes over you; “Oh my god, I can’t believe this happened; it’s the very last thing we would ever want to happen at one of our shows.” We play in this band because we love doing it and the people that come and see us, hopefully they have a good time and they have a good story to tell when they leave. This is the last thing we would ever want to have happen, so we’re kind of caught up with that and then to add to that, they’re arresting Randy now, so of course we’re forced to be somewhat defensive and say, “Hell no, how could you possibly arrest our friend and how can you stop our business? How can you do this? This doesn’t make any sense!” And so, those two things don’t really mix well together; sympathy and being defensive about it at the same time. We were heartbroken about the situation so it was very confusing. The following day was an entire day of interrogation with the police, which took hours. We had a band and crew of about 12 people, so it took the entire day and that to me felt somewhat routine and you know, this person’s doing a job that needs to be done and I’m sure we’re all going to get out of here and they are going to let Randy go after they piece things together, but this was obviously a random accident and they didn’t let him go. Then the next morning, they didn’t let him go and we started getting a message from our legal representative there in the U.S. saying, “It might be smart for you guys to cross a border, just in case the situation gets worse or extends to other members of the band.” We drove to the German border and stayed there for two days thinking that they’ve got to come to their senses soon and let him out and we could come back and pick him up. We had tour dates planned but at that point we were just confused on how they could be holding him for this, especially after the testimony everybody had given. I think most of us thought we would continue the next couple of shows only, and it got to be the second day in Munich when we were sitting in Germany where we heard it was going to be a week, if not more before anything was going to happen. There was going to be no official statement about anything and they had complete capability of keeping him at least until any sort of charge or orders. So at that point, we were just hemorrhaging money to sit there for a week, so we sent everybody home early and from there and just tried to pull our resources and get him out of there. We interviewed Vinnie Paul from Hellyeah and Pantera, and a lot of people liken this situation the Dimebag situation. This is what Vinnie Paul told us: “After this happened to my brother, none of us thought there was an evil bone in that guy’s skin when he came up onstage. He looked like a security guard or a cop, and 10 seconds later, four people are dead. You don’t know whether it’s going to be a high five or a loose cannon with a knife.” And he went on to say, “If Randy did anything to protect himself, he had the right to as far as I’m concerned.” Obviously you guys didn’t know what happened until this summer, even though the alleged event occurred two years ago. But now that you’ve heard about the incident, can it be compared to the Dimebag Darrell case? I think a lot of things changed that day [that Dimebag was slain]. I think that the way performers now look at the stage itself and the idea of people coming on it has changed because of that date. Since I was a kid, I don’t remember ever going to show, you know my very first shows, as a kid, where I didn’t see people jumping on and jumping off. It’s just such a normal part of the hard rock culture to have that involved. For us as a band, what happened to Dimebag certainly made us take a step back and take note that maybe, it obviously doesn’t reign as a thing that happens, but it certainly is a wake up call that it could happen and that you need to be careful of. The rules we have are in place just to protect ourselves. I think for the most part, it wasn’t that bands were deciding, “Okay if you’re going to be onstage you’re going to be attacked,” or something like that. So at this particular [2010 Lamb of God] show, and I’m only speaking for myself, I don’t remember that specific show. I’ve seen videos of that night and I’ve seen kids jumping off the stage and that is totally not unusual of any other Lamb of God show in the last 16 years that I’ve been the drummer for the band. So there was nothing at all that stuck out that night that was unusual, so it’s kind of the other way around, but to have any sort of altercations or fights or some sort of threat; that would have stuck out. I would have remembered an act of violence whether it was a kid or Randy or something and it’s just people doing what people normally doing at our rock show and it was just such random series of events that I don’t think that we would have had a 10-foot high barricade or chicken wire on the stage or a rule that’s in place that nobody was allowed on. I don’t think there was anything we could have done to change this scenario and it was just so random. It wasn’t something that we came there to do, obviously. We’re trying to have fun so I don’t know what we could have done differently. Is the band taking any special security measures on this current tour? Well, everything that we had in the past is staying in tact, which is that in all of our contracts and all of the paperwork that goes out for management and booking agents, to the clubs, and to the promoters and it calls for security that ensures the safety of all those in attendance. There’s not much more we can do. I don’t know that if we made everybody sign a wavier when they walked in the door, or put the band in bubble suits … I don’t know if that would have saved anybody’s life. I really think this was a random set of circumstances. Of course, you won’t want this to happen again and we’re certainly going to be working with the crew and having security maybe every night at the venues. Certain things are not allowed, and that kind of thing that we’ve always done, but I don’t think people should be more or less concerned whether certain things are enforced. They can do whatever they want to have fun. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Chris Adler interview, in which the Lamb of God drummer discusses the album ‘Resolution,’ the band’s plans for a follow-up disc, his favorite all-time drummers and more. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/lamb-of-god-philadelphia-show-to-be-broadcast-live-on-axs-tv/” title=”Next: Lamb of God Concert to Be Broadcast Live” align=”center”] ?