First Warped Tour and Mayhem Fest founder Kevin Lyman dissed metal with his “gray, bald and fat” line. Then Kerry King called Lyman a douche, and later told Metal Insider in an interview that the current Mayhem Tour, “wasn’t booked correctly,” which upset Jungle Rot’s Dave Matrise, who said that King’s comments, “sabotages the tour.”
Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe has chimed in on Lyman’s comments while on tour, opening for Slipknot, and he’s feeling pretty good about things right about now.
Said Blythe, on his Instagram:
Y’all know I don’t talk about my band much here- it’s not my thing, this account is for my photography & other creative endeavors- but I must take a moment to speak about something that irked me recently, as I felt it was a bit insulting to our fans & the metal scene that supports my band (especially the females). “What happened was metal chased girls away because what happened was metal aged. Metal got gray, bald and fat.”- this generalization was recently made by Mayhem Fest cofounder Kevin Lyman about OUR METAL SCENE- I call BULLSHIT.
I wanted to wait until we were on tour to address this, soooooooo…. looking at the HUGE crowds we have played to on this 4 band bill so far (all singing along to our METAL songs & with PLENTY OF GIRLS in attendance), I gotta laugh- I ain’t the youngest dude in the world, but from my vantage point, the METAL SCENE appears to be doing just fine.
I, a dude from the punk scene of the 80’s (AHEM… punk rock existed long before Warped tour, btw- I know, because I WAS THERE) who somehow became the singer of a METAL BAND, just became a nationally best selling author- I’ve met PLENTY of younger fans who have bought my book, & many were FEMALE. Lamb of god, a METAL BAND, has a new album out- at this very second, we are in a VERY TIGHT race with Jill Scott (an awesome R&B singer I am a fan of who has a HUGE audience) for the VERY TOP slot of the Billboard charts, & if enough folks buy the album before Thursday, we will have our first #1 record- Jill Scott has a much larger fan base than us, but metal fans actually BUY RECORDS- even if we get a #2 or #3 (AGAIN, by the way- not our first top 10 debut), it will still be HUGE.
There’s TONS of YOUNGER METAL BANDS too- the metal scene is ALIVE & HEALTHY, & it will continue to GROW & the younger bands WILL become headliners, if the fans support it- so far, that DOESN’T seem to be a problem. So sorry, metal isn’t watered down pop BULLSHIT for the teeny bopper masses, but it is HEALTHY. So thanks for coming out, buying our records, & singing along, y’all! Thanks for forming new bands & keeping it alive! We appreciate & love you! We ain’t pretty, but we are definitely HERE, & I’m not bald or fat.
Lamb of God’s latest album, VII: Sturm und Drang, came out last week.
