Former Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler has broken his silence on his 2019 exit from the band, calling the experience “devastating” and describing it as the end of what he saw as his “life’s work.” In a new interview with Loaded Radio, Adler detailed the circumstances leading up to his departure, including a battle with musician’s dystonia, a rare neurological condition that impaired his ability to play drums, particularly with his right foot.
Adler, who helped found Lamb of God and played with the group for over two decades, revealed that personal hardships, including a motorcycle accident, a divorce, the loss of his mother, and the dystonia diagnosis, compounded the challenges of remaining in the band. Despite sharing medical paperwork and offering performance adjustments, Adler said tensions rose, especially after he briefly joined Megadeth and recorded their 2016 album, Dystopia. Eventually, he was let go via email.
Adler admitted:
“It was devastating to me. It really was. Like I said, I really considered that kind of my life’s work. But from my side of the street, I understand. I wasn’t capable of playing the songs that we really needed to be playing. These were the songs that were — not all of them, but there were two or three songs that were fairly popular songs, and I understand that would cause them pause as far as why we can’t play that. And again, with me taking on the Megadeth record and that doing so well, with me taking on the Protest record and that doing so well, I think the tensions were just high. And like the metal sites always say, everybody’s replaceable, right? So, I did take it hard, I did take it personally, and it sent me spiraling for a little while. But I’ve worked through those resentments, and I’ve got nothing but love for them continuing on and for each one of them. It was a difficult time, I think, for everybody, and, yeah, it hurt me a lot. But thankfully things have drastically improved in my life. I’ve gotten remarried, we’ve got three teenagers, I’ve got a nice little house, we’ve got dogs, cats. And now I’ve got Firstborne that is keeping me busy all the time. So I could look back on that and really be very, very proud of the time, effort and career that I had with them. And I wouldn’t do it any other way. It’s unfortunate it ended the way it did, but in the end, looking back on it, I also think that I in that I was forced at the time to walk away from it, since that time, I don’t know that there would’ve been a better time for anybody to depart. At least personally, I do feel like we achieved more than we ever set out to do, and it had gotten to the point where, again, it doesn’t really matter what the accolades were, but we had received basically all of them. So now it’s just kind of this rinse and repeat proving to everybody that we’re still around. And I didn’t feel like there was much higher to go. We reached, again, way higher than I ever thought we would. And all the best to them and good luck continuing on. But looking back now, despite where my headspace was at the time, but looking back now in a different mindset, it was probably a very good time to walk away.”
Later, Adler addressed there’s been no communication with the band since:
“There hasn’t been any. And again, I’ve worked through those resentments and I think about those guys all the time in a positive way. But since that letter — I believe it was in 2018 — or the e-mail, there’s been absolutely no communication whatsoever from either side.”
Check out the full discussion below:
