PHIL DEMMEL: MACHINE HEAD ‘Became A ROBB FLYNN Solo Project’

Robb Flynn Phil Demmel

During an appearance on Talk Toomey, former MACHINE HEAD guitarist and current member of VIO-LENCE, Phil Demmel, opened up on his last-year departure from the band saying it “became a Robb Flynn solo project” toward the end of his time in the band.

“I’m not gonna badmouth the breakup or [Robb],” Demmel said. “I think he’s an amazing musician, and the times I had in MACHINE HEAD were awesome. The last few years just weren’t. We just didn’t work as people anymore.”

Phil continued: “I think [Robb] strayed from the path of being a band. He stayed on his path. Instead of us being on the same path or asking to be on the same path, it just became, ‘This is what we’re doing.'”

Phil also talked about the making of latest album Catharsis, a record that he says “he hates”: “There’s moments of what I wrote that I like. I wrote most of the music to ‘California Bleeding’, but then [Robb] wrote the lyrics on top of it that I just wish that… Me and Dave [McClain, drums] talk about it, like, ‘F*ck! I wish I could take my riffs back.’ [Laughs] ‘No, that isn’t what we want them used for.’ So, I think, in that sense, it just became a Robb Flynn solo project, and that isn’t what I signed up for. And the last few years were basically collecting a paycheck. And I just couldn’t do that. The stress and all the talks and all the ‘can’t do this,’ ‘don’t do that,’ ‘don’t do this,’ ‘don’t stand there,’ ‘don’t say this,’ ‘don’t sing the words to the audience,’ don’t point.'”