The Jordan Harbinger Show
1150: Randy Blythe | Making Peace with the Wars Inside His Head
Tue, 06 May 2025
From addiction to Czech prison: Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe shares his journey of sobriety and accountability in extreme metal's unforgiving world.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1150What We Discuss with Randy Blythe:In hindsight, Randy Blythe is grateful his metal band, Lamb of God, grew a gradual following over 30 years instead of catching instant fame and fortune. He credits this slow growth from humble beginnings for his survival, maintaining perspective and gratitude for the band's success.After battling alcoholism for 22 years, Randy made a life-saving choice in 2010 that he's maintained ever since: sobriety over ennui.In 2012, Randy was arrested in the Czech Republic on manslaughter charges after a fan died following a concert two years prior. Despite advice not to return, he chose to face trial to give the family answers and was eventually acquitted.Randy emphasizes the importance of regularly examining and questioning your own beliefs — despite how scary the answers you find might be.If you feel powerless and you're looking for a small way to have a big, positive impact on the world, Randy suggests joining the National Bone Marrow Registry (formerly Be The Match). It's free, only requires a simple cheek swab, and you could potentially save someone's life. Contributions are especially needed from underrepresented minority donors.And much more...And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps! Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course!Subscribe to our once-a-week Wee Bit Wiser newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom!Do you even Reddit, bro? Join us at r/JordanHarbinger!This Episode Is Sponsored By:Oura Ring: 10% off: ouraring.com/jordanAirbnb: airbnb.com/hostAudible: audible.com/jhs or text JHS to 500-500Homes.com: Find your home: homes.comAG1: Welcome kit: drinkag1.com/jordanSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: How did Randy Blythe start his journey to sobriety?
Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger Show. 2010, we were in Australia on tour with Metallica. And I woke up one day and I looked out on my hotel room balcony and I was like, I don't want to live anymore. It wasn't like I was suicidal. I just wanted to be erased from existence. James Hetfield and some of his guitar techs, who I knew were sober, they had talked to me.
Dude, you might want to dial it back a little bit. And then I was like, maybe you stop drinking and doing drugs, James. your life might get better.
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Just visit jordanharbinger.com slash start, or search for us in your Spotify app to get started. Now, today on the show, lead singer of metal band, and it's probably even like Heavier than that, but whatever. Lamb of God. Randy Blythe joins me here in studio.
I'm not much of a metal guy, but Randy has quite a story from his upbringing to his music career, the way he views the business, creativity, touring, recording, merch, and more. He's battled addiction, the music industry, even a murder charge that landed him in a Nazi prison castle in another country, which, well, yeah, we'll hear about that. It wasn't necessarily a fun time.
However, this conversation was fun. It's insightful, and I think you're really going to enjoy it. even if you don't listen to music that's loud enough to break your car windows. All right, here we go with Randy Blythe. 30 years in the band. That's an objectively long time for any project, but I think for music, it's got to be top percentile of we haven't killed each other yet.
I'm just astounded by constantly. I realize that we're heading into legacy territory, and it's super rare. A lot of the great bands that I listened to when I was younger lasted five, six years.
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Chapter 2: What is the story behind Lamb of God's musical success?
Yeah. It's surprising when you read that. You go, wait, what? That was seven years?
But they're eternal in your mind and in your sort of emotional connection to this music because it's so important to you.
What genre would you say it is?
Because everyone has their different sort of... It's just extreme metal, just descendant of thrash or whatever. Just extreme metal.
Do you guys all get along pretty well? Yes. That's important, eh?
Better now than we ever did before.
That's impressive.
And it's rare. That's another thing.
Grievances add up over time. I think every human knows that.
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Chapter 3: How does Randy Blythe handle fame and ego?
That's an interesting way to look at it. That's a very sort of Ryan Holiday, who I know you know. He's a good friend. Good mutual friend of ours. It's a good way to look at it. He's got that memento mori thing, but he's also got the kind of stoicism where it's, you're the emperor today and tomorrow you're sweeping the streets. Yes.
We talked about how your band grew slowly-ish over the 30-year period. Do you think that was healthy for you guys? 100%, I'd be dead if not. Because the overnight fame's not good for anybody, but you see these bands where the kid's like 21 or 20, and you go, wow, there's no human on earth that's equipped to deal with this, and your brain's not even fully developed yet. Yeah, it's not done yet.
And you're like an A-list celebrity. You're never going to recover from this.
No. I've seen that. I know people in our world who got pretty famous... At 21 years old. And some of them are still trying to recover from that. You're not equipped to deal with that stuff at all at that age. And our quote unquote fame has been very gradual, steady, incline up. we're grateful for that. Every new thing that happens for us, we're like, wow, this is cool.
To be grateful for it. Yeah. But yeah, that's an interesting way to look at it. It probably keeps you thinking about how lucky you are to be in the position that you are.
I don't come from money. I started working my first job when I was 12. Who hires a 12-year-old? A bookstore. I got paid like $2 an hour and I found out what the 18 and over people were making and the owner was like, what are you going to do? Yeah. And I was like, oh, screw you.
I could report you, but then I probably wouldn't be able to keep my job.
Then I'd be a snitch, you know, and I love working at the bookstores. I wound up just mostly doing lawn work after that, making better cash than sitting in the bookstore.
To be fair, that guy was doing you a favor by paying you at all. Yeah, he was. I don't know how useful 12-year-olds are in any environment, generally speaking.
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Chapter 4: What led to Randy Blythe's arrest in the Czech Republic?
Yeah, the whole hip-hop scene, exactly. You do seem, and you have a reputation as a down-to-earth guy, Isn't being the front man of a successful band kind of like gasoline for an ego? How do you keep that in check? Because that could be a problem.
We call it LSD, lead singer's disease. For me, I think no offense to the city of Los Angeles, but I don't live in Los Angeles. I don't live in New York City. I don't live in an epicenter of the music industry in Richmond, where I'm from. A lot of people, except for the younger people, they're like, oh, that's Randy. He used to be a line cook at Third Street Diner. That dude made me pancakes.
And they were terrible.
No, they were great. I'm very egotistical about my pancakes. We as a band are pretty cognizant of the dangers of that and act very purposely to not be jerks and to stay right-sized. It's got to be tough, though, because. Dude, when you start believing. Yeah. People are like, you're awesome. You're God. I've had tons of people and I know it's an expression. They say, you're a God.
And I'm like, you need a better deity. I suck. I'm fallible. Even just saying that is reinforcing that in the back of my head. And once you start believing your own hype that you're this awesome thing, I find that's when your talent tends to abandon you.
Yeah, why do you think that happened? Drew Carey said something similar on the show earlier. He said comedians get decidedly less funny as soon as they start making money. His rationale was comedians are griping about everyday things. So if you're taking your private jet with your assistant and they're going shopping for you, you just get less material that people can relate to.
But with a band, why is that happening with music, for example?
It's a matter of purity of expression. And I sing about things that matter to me and things generally that upset me a lot of the times because I make a decent living. I'm not a multi-bazillionaire. I don't have a Rolls Royce and all that other crap.
I make a good living. Would you ever buy a Rolls Royce?
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Chapter 5: How does Randy Blythe view the impact of beliefs on personal growth?
It'd be refreshing. It's like an outtake at the end of a comedy movie where you're like, oh, they screwed up the line in that scene.
That's hilarious. We're humans and we don't play to a click. We are a live rock band. And as such, mistakes happen, but not often. No Milli Vanilli moment where you're going to... No, we don't run tracks except for like during the intro, there's an intro or whatever. There's no vocal tracks, no guitar tracks, none of that crap.
Do you guys do pyrotechnics and stuff?
I haven't seen the live show, but I assume... Yes, we started doing that a few years ago.
What do you think about that?
It was... I love it. It's cool, right? It's very cool, but it was very scary at first. And the first time we did it was in 2021, I believe. It was the first tour we did coming out of COVID. And we started it in Austin, Texas. There's a venue at a racetrack, a Formula One racetrack out there. And it was in July or August in Austin. And we had a pre-production day where we ran the whole set.
Including the fireworks?
Oh, yeah, yeah. And I'm on stage and it is, I think it was like 110 degrees outside.
We need more fire.
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Chapter 6: How does Randy Blythe balance personal and environmental ethics?
Yeah. So that sort of mythos, I bought into that. Of course I drink. I'm in a heavy metal band.
It's beneficial for my voice to smoke this cigarettes and nonstop.
And being a train wreck kind of was expected. So it got worse and worse, though. My band was doing better and better, and I was getting worse and worse until finally in 2010, we were in Australia on tour with Metallica. And I woke up one day, and I looked out on my hotel room balcony, and it was a beautiful day in Australia, Brisbane. And I was like, I don't want to live anymore.
It wasn't like I was suicidal. I just wanted to be erased from existence.
I see. Shut the machine down.
Yeah, done. And then I was like, maybe you stop drinking and doing drugs. Your life might get better. And it did. Yeah. So how did you stop? You just... I stopped and I talked to some of the dudes who were out on that tour who I knew were sober. James Hetfield and some of his guitar techs and stuff. Because they had talked to me.
We were on tour in Metallica for about a year over the course of two years back then. And every now and then they'd be like, dude, you might want to dial it back a little bit. Because it partied across America, Europe, then on into New Zealand, Australia. And I knew those dudes were sober. So I went there. I'm like, please. Help. They're like, just breathe, dude.
We were wondering if you were going to have this conversation.
Exactly.
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Chapter 7: What challenges do musicians face on tour?
And it's just, oh, God, there's so much. And I think that if you're a socially or environmentally conscious person at all, You can't concentrate on everything. You'd lose your mind. Because you begin to feel helpless and without agency. And I think that feeling of helplessness and lack of agency causes some people to just say, Screw it. Yeah. I'm going to just do whatever.
And that's not the answer. So for me, just try, man. I'm trying just to do what I can. And I know I'm not perfect, but don't give up hope on doing the right thing just because it's difficult.
I agree. I got a little derailed there, but you said in the book, my head is a bad neighborhood to get lost in.
Yeah.
What do you mean by that?
I mean that I'm a great catastrophizer. That means that I start with something relatively minute, maybe that has gone wrong, or more likely that I have screwed up, and my mind immediately kicks off like an English soccer riot and draws an entirely logical sequence of events that ends in the worst possible outcome.
Complete destruction of your life.
Everything, my friend. I'm from the 1970s, a child of the Cold War. And the worst logical outcome is global thermonuclear warfare.
I forgot my laminate. Dot, dot, dot. Exactly. Thermonuclear warfare.
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