LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe has spoken about his sobriety in the past and he recently reflected on the destructive path he was on for a recent “Life Lessons” piece for Metal Hammer, revealing his drive for getting sober was based on a fear he was heading towards death.
Blythe said: “It’s a well known fact that I was a f*ckin’ alcoholic and I’ve not had a drink in well over 10 years now. Unfortunately, I’ve known people who didn’t embrace the choice to try something different… and they’re dead now.”
“I don’t know what it is within me – I’m certainly not saying I’m special, or made of stronger moral fibre than anyone else – that I made that conscious decision, but I did, and I feel pretty f*cking lucky. The driving force was, ‘I’m going to quit drinking, or I’m going to die’.”
As Blythe recalls, it took him four-and-a-half years of trying to get sober, before he finally managed to get sober.
“One morning on tour in Australia I woke up and just felt horrible and empty,” he admits. “I was in a good place; we were on tour with METALLICA – it doesn’t get much better than that – I had money in the bank, and my personal life wasn’t too much in tatters. On the outside, everything looked good, but I just felt like there was this horrific void. I realized I had to try something different.”
Blythe revealed that he doesn’t have issue with those who do drink, but adds, “There was something wrong with drinking for myself, and drinking in the way I did.”
Back in 2013, Blythe spoke of his approach to drinking, telling RVA News: “For me, as a creative person, drinking and opiate-based pain pills – I used those back in the day to some effect – they unlocked a certain part of my consciousness. But then that stopped working, and for years it was me drinking and eating pills, sitting in my shed listening to Black Sabbath and pretending to write lyrics. Justifying it.”
As stated, LAMB OF GOD were on tour with METALLICA when Blythe was finally able to embrace his quest for sobriety. In 2019, after James Hetfield had been readmitted to rehab to address his own sobriety issues, the singer spoke of Hetfield‘s role in helping him in his sober quest.
“A HUGE FACTOR in my willingness & ability to get sober while on f*cking heavy metal tour was the fact that I had James & some of his crew who were also sober to talk to- I didn’t have to do it alone,” he continued.
“James & crew babied me through my first month of sobriety out there on the road- it was a heavy trip. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
