LAMB OF GOD Frontman: 'The Most Important Thing To Me Is The Clarity That Comes With Sobriety'

In a recent interview with Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show, LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe was asked how his life experiences have shaped him as a person. He responded (hear audio below): "Well, I haven't had a boring life, that's for sure. I haven't led a safe life. That's just not for me. I like following my passions.

"Overall, the most important thing to me, and it's shaped the way I am, it's come at a pretty high price, is the clarity that comes with sobriety, and that didn't happen overnight. I drank and partied for a long, long time. But it's been a hot minute since I've had any sort of mind-altering substance outside of coffee or e-cigarettes even. I even quit regular cigarettes. And that just has provided a great deal of clarity, to me, about what's important in my life, what's really truly important, and I'm super grateful for that. I'm super grateful that I came to that clarity before all my shenanigans killed me, because every year I lose friends, particularly in this business, in the music industry, I lose friends to drugs and alcohol. It's needless and it's foolish and [there's] nothing romantic about it.

"I hear about people that die young from drug overdoses or alcoholism or whatever and then they enter this sort of romantic mythos, and it's a sad, sad way to die," he continued. "And those people would be a lot better off if they had lived, 'cause who knows what else amazing art they would have created. And that very easily could have been me. It should have been me many, many, many times, but somehow fate decided it was not my time yet.

"So now here I am. I'm just grateful that I'm still alive and able to do a few different things in an artistic way and it puts a roof over my head and provides me a pretty satisfying life. So I'm grateful."

In 2012, Blythe was arrested in the Czech Republic and charged with manslaughter for allegedly pushing a 19-year-old fan offstage at a show two year prior and causing injuries that led to the fan's death. Blythe spent 37 days in a Prague prison before ultimately being found not guilty in 2013. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the experience inspired two songs, "Still Echoes" and "512", on the latest LAMB OF GOD album, "VII: Sturm Und Drang". It also led him to write the memoir "Dark Days", in which he shared his side of the story publicly for the first time.