During an appearance on the latest episode of “The Jasta Show”, the video podcast hosted by HATEBREED‘s Jamey Jasta, LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe was asked if he watched this year’s Grammy Awards. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “No, bro. No… I was happy that GOJIRA won [in the ‘Best Metal Performance’ category this year]. There’s the homies. I’ve been a longtime backer of them. But I don’t ever watch the Grammys.”
He continued: “The thing about the Grammys, and I’ve been told… People are always, like, ‘They don’t know anything about metal,’ and, ‘They don’t know anything about this,’ and, ‘Why did this person win?’ Most of the members of The Recording Academy, and I’ve been informed this, they don’t [know much about metal]… ‘Cause you have to vote for every single category. You can’t be, like, ‘I’m into metal. I’m a member of The Recording Academy. I’m gonna vote for this, because that’s my expertise.’ No. You have to vote for every single category. So half the time, a member of The Recording Academy, who is some member of the record industry, whatever, hands it to their secretary and says, ‘Fill this out.’ It’s not a jury of your fucking peers.”
Blythe added: “I’m very proud of GOJIRA that they got this, and I’m not trying to denigrate their achievements or anything, but the Grammys mean fucking nothing to me. I have five nominations.
“They don’t even send me the invite anymore because I auctioned my Grammy medallions off for charity.
“To quote Flavor Flav, who gives a fuck about a goddamn Grammy? Not me. I don’t care. I don’t care about prizes and I don’t need a cookie. If I made what I like, it’s cool.
“If that’s important to someone else, fine. But I don’t give a fuck.”
Back in 2007, then-LAMB OF GOD drummer Chris Adler told TimesDispatch.com that Blythe was staging a personal Grammy strike, even though their band was nominated at that year’s event — alongside MINISTRY, SLAYER, STONE SOUR and MASTODON — in the “Best Metal Performance” category for its tune “Redneck”.
“Randy, in his own mind, is staying true to his rock roots and boycotting the show,” Adler told TimesDispatch.com at the time. “He’s been calling us sellouts in rehearsal. But we never asked for this. As long as we’re creating the music we’re happy with, what other people think is irrelevant. To me, it doesn’t feel like we’ve sold out to anything.”
Blythe‘s second book, “Just Beyond The Light: Making Peace With The Wars Inside Our Head”, came out on February 18 via Grand Central Publishing (GCP).
“Just Beyond The Light” was described by Blythe as a “tight, concise roadmap of how I have attempted to maintain what I believe to be a proper perspective in life, even during difficult times.”
In December, Blythe announced more spoken-word and question-and-answer events to promote “Just Beyond The Light”. The special “evening with” event includes a spoken-word performance, an audience question-and-answer session, a copy of “Just Beyond The Light” and an opportunity to have the book signed.
In 2012, Blythe was arrested in the Czech Republic and charged with manslaughter for allegedly pushing a 19-year-old fan offstage at a show two year prior and causing injuries that led to the fan’s death. Blythe spent 37 days in a Prague prison before ultimately being found not guilty in 2013.
Blythe‘s prison experience inspired two songs on LAMB OF GOD‘s 2015 album “VII: Sturm Und Drang”: “512”, one of his three prison cell numbers, and “Still Echoes”, written while he was in Pankrac Prison, a dilapidated facility built in the 1880s that had been used for executions by the Nazis during World War II. It also led him to write his first book, “Dark Days”, in which he shared his whole side of the story publicly for the first time.
Source: blabbermouth.net
