Randy Blythe Discusses New Book and Band Anniversaries

“I’m about out of things to say about a record we did 20 years ago. I have nothing really new to say and a lot of those memories are hazy.”

Randy Blythe minced no words when he hung out on Loudwire Nights Tuesday (July 16) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Lamb of God’s album, Ashes of the Wake.

“I have very specific [memories] that stand out,” he said about the record, “but I can regurgitate them ad nauseam. Nothing else is going to come back because those were many years — or many beers — ago.”

Blythe admitted to host Chuck Armstrong, though, that he was never hesitant about jumping into the celebrations around Ashes of the Wake, namely the 20th-anniversary reissue of the album as well as the co-headlining tour with Mastodon (who happened to release Leviathan on the same day as Ashes of the Wake in 2004).

“Those are our friends,” Blythe said about Mastodon. “I mean, it does kind of put us in the old man legacy position, I guess … That’s fine with me… I’m stoked. I’m stoked to be old. I’m stoked to be here.”

Ashes of the Wake isn’t the only anniversary celebration on the horizon for Blythe. Next year marks a decade since he released his first book, Dark Days: A Memoir.

“Long after Lamb of God is done, I will still be writing books,” Blythe said.

“When I wrote [Dark Days], I know some people were upset that there wasn’t more stuff about Lamb of God and heavy metal, but you know, I wanted the book to be able to be read by a much wider audience than just metalheads and I wanted it to stand the test of time, to be a sort of universal human story.”

Before the 10-year anniversary of Dark Days arrives, though, Blythe expects to release his next book.

“I’m in the process of final edits on my second book. It took me 10 years. It will be coming out next year — supposedly in February.”

When asked if the follow-up to Dark Days is another memoir of sorts, Blythe wasn’t sure how to describe it.

“It’s more like a collection of essays,” he revealed.

“Individual chapters that are self-contained stories. It was a lot harder to write than my last book. The last book, there’s a narrative arc and I knew exactly what was going to happen. I knew this story, I had already lived it. When I started writing this book, I had ideas about what I wanted to say, but I wasn’t exactly sure what ground I was going to cover.”

For readers who were a little nervous picking up Blythe’s hefty, 500-page Dark Days, he’s confident the second book will be a bit lighter to carry.

“It’s a lot shorter of a book. Thank God.”

What else did Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• What he shared with bandmate Mark Morton about writing a memoir: “He was really digging back into our old past … He did a good job.”
• How he supports new bands that he gets excited about: “I go all in, you know what I mean?”
• What’s on the horizon for Lamb of God: “Touring. We’ll see what happens.”