Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe Recalls the Last Time He Had Stage Fright (and Why It’s Happening Again)

Lamb of God‘s Randy Blythe revealed in his recent chat on Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show that his upcoming spoken word shows have brought about a feeling of stage fright he hasn’t experienced in quite some time.

Within the chat, Randy spoke of the last time he experienced stage fright approaching the Download Festival by car in 2007 and seeing the 70,000 strong crowd that they would play for. The rush was something he’ll never forget, explaining, “I felt like Wolverine or something” after the experience was over.

A bit of that feeling is coming back as he hits the road solo for a spoken word tour supporting his Just Beyond the Light book. As he tells Jackie, “There is extreme trepidation” about the shows, adding, “I am experiencing stage fright for the first time since 2007.” “I am nervous, and I don’t plan on hiding that,” he continues. “In fact, that may be part of the show.”

Elsewhere within the chat, Randy shares his passion for writing books, gives us some insight on where he’s like to put his book writing skills next and he shares some of the inspirations for his Just Beyond the Light book.

Plus, Randy speaks about a recent issue that he’d like to bring attention to, comments on where things stand with new music and discusses the joy that Headbangers Boat has brought him the last few years. Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie and I am so excited to welcome back to the show Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe. Randy is here in support of his new memoir, Just Beyond the Light. And he’s also hitting the road for a series of spoken word shows to promote the new book. Randy, as Lamb of God’s frontman, you’re a natural performer with a gift of connecting up there onstage. But is this a whole different beast, so to speak, getting up there and sharing your stories that are more close to the vest. Is there any trepidation or do you get a different vibe or feeling from these experiences than you would a regular concert?

There is extreme trepidation. I have a substack called Randonesia and I wrote about this in the last one. I am experiencing stage fright for the first time since 2007. The last time I experienced stage fright was at the first time Lamb of God played the Download Festival. And I was in the car on the way. It was the first time we played the main stage there. I was in the car going around the racetrack there at Castle Donington and I came around the corner and I saw the audience and there were 70,000 people. And I was like, “Whoa.”

The driver was like, “Are you all right, mate?” And I’m like, “Yeah, that’s just a lot of people.” He’s like, “Yes, it is. Now go get them.” I got onstage and I came off the stage and I felt like Wolverine or something. It was incredible. But I was nervous.

READ MORE: Randy Blythe Issues Warning Ahead of Spoken Word Book Tour

That was the last time I had experienced stage fright was 2007. And we went on to play to even bigger audiences at upwards of 100,000 people. And I’m never, ever nervous. But with this, I am nervous. I definitely am because it’s just me and I don’t have my band and my band is my security blanket. They’re like a middle aged receding hairline, an extremely hairy security blanket with bad knees. So I don’t have those guys. I don’t have pyro, I don’t have any of the stuff. But I do have a bunch of killer stories and I’ve been going through them and I’ve been talking to some friends of mine who have done this kind of thing before, such as Scott Ian, shout out and some comedian friends of mine and asking them for advice. They’ve given me some really good tips.

So I’m confident that it’s gonna be a good show. But, yes, I am nervous, and I don’t plan on hiding that. In fact, that may be part of the show.

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Randy, your approach to this book is an exercise probably a lot of us could benefit from. What was it like to take a step back, analyze those that you admire and pick out the lessons you’ve learned from them that influence your behavior positively? How often do we actually look at the good habits we’ve picked up and acknowledge that. Was there a person or a key moment that initiated this path to discovery for you?

This book was much harder to write than my last one. The last book I wrote, Dark Days, is about some legal problems I had over in the Czech Republic. That was not fun to write that book, but the story was already there.

With this one, I just knew the main theme I wanted out of the book to be perspective and how I’m attempting as a daily work in process for me. I’m not saying I have answers for anyone, but how am I attempting to adjust my perspective and function in this crazy world without losing my mind.

In order to do that, I started thinking about things that my perspective is off on. And the first thing I thought about is fears. What is the ultimate fear of human beings? It’s death. Right? So I knew that I wanted the book to open up with something dealing with mortality.

Every chapter in the book is named after a song title by a song I like, by a band I like or whatever, except for the first one. I do like the song, but it’s a Lamb of God song. It’s called “The Duke.”

And the first chapter is a story. This was in the press a little bit, but this is a longer version of this young fan I had met named Wayne Ford in Arizona. And he had leukemia. I got to know him during the last few months of his life. He was 33 years old when he died. But the way he handled his mortality as such a young man was, for lack of a better term, it was inspiring. He chose to live his last days on his own terms. And for me, I’d like to think I would. I would face my own inevitable end with the calm demeanor that he did, but I don’t know.

However, I do know it’s possible because I watched this young man do it, and it had a very profound impact on me. So the book starts off that it’s like the ultimate fear. Basically the root of everyone’s base fear is dying. And I talk about how I watched this young man handle it with such grace and poise and a stoic demeanor. And then there’s so many people I’ve run into through my life that I’ve tried to learn from.

There’s a whole chapter about my grandmother. She was raised during the depression. She came of age in a different time, and a lot of things she said to me when I was younger didn’t make sense, but they do now, So I knew I wanted people definitely in there, but everything else was kind of like, let me figure this out as I go.

Randy, I recently had Henry Rollins on the show and he discussed how his primary path of creativity has switched from being a music artist to consistently writing and documenting daily. It’s become his primary passion. You’ve been openly stating in a past interview that you want to write books until the day you die. Not that Lamb of God is going anywhere anytime soon, but what has made writing and creating books such a passion for you? Is there a different satisfaction you get from creating books than finishing an album? Or do they compare?

They don’t really compare. Writing books is, at least in my case, much, much harder and so far, much less financially lucrative than being in a band. At least being in my band, I’m a glorified traveling black T shirt salesman with Lamb of God. We get paid to travel, not to make music, really. But that’s not really the case with writers most of the time.

So with me, my first true love wasn’t music, it was reading. When I was a little kid our television exploded during a lightning storm, a power surge and a lightning storm. And my dad decided he want my brother, he wanted my brothers and I to experience childhood without TV for a little bit. And we groaned about that. But I’m very grateful in retrospect for his decision because without TV, as a young child, I fell deeply, deeply in love with books and always have been.

I used to have a drinking problem. Now I have a book problem. I have way too many books. I’ve always loved them. I love what they do. I love how they are in a way, they’re time travel because I can read something by Shakespeare 500 years ago or Marcus Aurelius from 2000 years ago and I’m right there with that person. It’s really time travel achieved.

So it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and it’s something that I can do till the day I die. Lamb of God never has to break up. I don’t think we ever will. We’ve talked about it. We don’t ever have to break breakup officially. But I don’t know if at like 85 I’m going to be capable of running around onstage and whipping up mosh pits. I just don’t. It’s a very energetic performance you put on. I can’t see it. Nobody wants to see 85.

Also, I see you’re vaping, so I don’t know, man.

Oh, see, I should have turned my camera off, but as long as I don’t get too senile and the memory is slipping a little bit, I reckon I can write books until I die. It’s much less physically punishing, but they’re apples and oranges, man.

I love making music and I love writing and I love photography. I get different things out of all three of them, but there’s no reason why they all can’t exist.

Randy, in parts of the book and some of your actions over the years in general, there’s a definite moral compass instilled in you. There are only so many hours in the day and places you can be. But are there things you would like to give more attention to in terms of taking action and lending support?  I’m giving you a platform to speak on something that’s got your attention at the moment.

Oh, man. Right now as we’re doing this, Los Angeles is on fire. I’m very worried for several friends of mine. Everybody I know is safe, thank God. I’ve been in communication with tons of people over the last few days.

But, pardon the phrasing, when the smoke settles we’ll have to see what kind of damage is there. I feel I’ve been lucky enough to have this actual platform and be able to use it to raise money for people in need at times.

Social media is a double edged sword because on one hand it sucks and there’s so much negativity, but on the other side it’s beautiful because people come together to help each other. And that’s the one reason why I haven’t deleted my Instagram account yet. Because I have used it to help people. I think it’s for me there, as you said, there are only so many hours in the day. But when something bad like this happens in our community or whatever, it’s something that I’d like to be able to try and help in some way.

Bad things are always happening, it seems. But good things are also always happening. There really are. It’s just a matter of trying to keep that perspective in balance a little bit and not become combative and not become consumed with nihilism and despair. That’s I think, one of the hardest things and that’s really what the book is about. It’s one of the main things it’s about is me trying not to just get so negative.

I have to do the best that I can in any situation with the tools that are provided me. And I hope that’s a question that some people will take out of the book.

That’s the main question. And I don’t have answers. I just want people to ask themselves a question. What are the tools I have at the disposal to improve my own life? And to make the world a better place and then get to it.

My tools are writing, photography and music. That’s what I’m suited for. I don’t know what anybody else’s are, but everybody can do something.

Randy, in a recent interview, you had suggested you had three different fiction books running through your head. Have you got an order for what’s on deck first? And as a book writer, have you developed a process or is each project its own unique approach?

I wrote a novel years ago that I have in a file that I hope maybe I’ll pick up. I think the concept is still there. So I think writing fiction is for me. As I recall the process and what I’m looking forward to with my next book, which will be a fiction novel, but it will be a lot more fun than looking at aspects of my life and tearing them apart and trying to find a meaning or message, at least for myself. They’re trying to learn something, and I know fiction writers do that as well.

But in fiction, if something bad happens to a main character and you don’t like the situation they’re in, you can just say, okay, they can fly and they’ll go into the air or whatever. That’s what I’m looking forward to. I’m looking forward to playing in the land of make believe a little bit. I think it’ll be much more relaxing than nonfiction.

Randy, it looks like you’re making good use of Lamb of God downtime. John Campbell recently stated in an interview that a new album is in the works, though he cautioned it wouldn’t be anytime soon. I know your mindset is on the book at present, but have you started finding things that are inspiring you creatively, musically, and does something like last year’s Ashes of the Leviathan tour with Mastodon, which was a blast, by the way, spark anything?

I don’t think the Ashes tour inspired for me any new ideas as far as a new Lamb of God record. Like John said, there’s one coming, but no one should hold their breath. You know us in the band, we’re always working. People are always like, are you working on a new record yet? We’re always working. Mark [Morton] and Willie [Adler] never, ever, ever stop writing riffs. And as for me, I constantly have lyric ideas and I jot them down and come back to them periodically. So there’s never something that’s not happening.

So that’s one reason why no one should hold their breath for it. It’s not coming out next week or anything. We aren’t going into the studio. We’re just doing our thing. And it will come when it comes.

Right now I’m really focusing on this book, so I feel kind of schizophrenic. When I do have lyric ideas. I want to start writing a song. And I’m like, “No, you have to work on this.” Then focus on one thing.

Yes. It’s a problem. It’s a problem because I’m getting ready to do this Leica talk with B&H Photo. Then I’m thinking about photography and what I want to go shoot, and it’s like, no, you have to do the book tour. It’s a constant battle in my head. I’m a bit of a creative schizophrenic, and I’m trying to work on that.

Randy, while the tour schedule looks empty for 2025 right now, at least. This fall will bring about the Headbangers Boat again. You’re now a couple years into this, and there’s another great lineup involved. How enjoyable a venture has this been to invite some bands you’re friends with and fans of and have this get together on a yearly basis?

Well, that’s the greatest thing about it. I’m not a cruise guy. I’ve never been on a cruise that I wasn’t working, but the rock and metal cruises seem to be a little bit better, a little bit different. If you enjoy shuffleboard playing or whatever, then go on a regular cruise. But I don’t think that’s what most people come on our cruise or any other rock or metal cruise for.

It’s been really fun, and that’s one of the greatest thing is just inviting friends of mine that I’ve known for over 30 years. Some of the bands that have been on the cruise ship, I’ve known longer than Lamb of God has existed. That’s just one of the coolest thing. It’s like to call up your buddy and be like, “Hey, you want to go on a cruise and get paid? Yes.” That’s the coolest feeling. So it’s a lot of fun, and everyone on the cruise has just been lovely, man. All the fans have just been lovely, lovely, lovely, and it’s been nothing but a good time.

We’re really looking forward to this one as well. With Kublai Khan, the boat might sink, I’m afraid. We’ve had some pretty heavy, heavy bands so far, but Kublai Khan TX makes me nervous, though. Those dudes are heavy. Everybody hold on to your life jackets.

That’s right. Well, Randy good luck with the book, the spoken word shows and all things to come. Always so great to catch up with you.

Our thanks to Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe for the interview. His new Just Beyond the Light book is currently available to order. Stay up to date with Lamb of God through their website, Facebook, X, Instagram and Spotify accounts as well as Randy’s Instagram account. And you can look into the 2025 edition of Headbangers Boat as well if you’re interested in the cruise. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.