In a recent discussion on the That Sober Guy podcast, Lamb of God's frontman Randy Blythe opened up about the formidable challenges of maintaining sobriety while touring. Having been sober for over 14 years, Blythe reflected on his personal journey and the transformative path his bandmates have undertaken.
"I'm lucky in the fact that in my band, four out of five of us are now no longer drinking. And I was the lone ranger there for a couple of years. And it was kind of hard, 'cause I quit and I'm on this heavy metal bus with these fucking maniacs drinking and doing drugs," Blythe recalled.
"And then my guitar player Willie Adler quit drinking. And he hasn't had a drink, and I've been sober 14 years — I think he hasn't drank in 12. And then for the first eight years of my sobriety — I'm not talking out of class here, 'cause he just published a book, my guitar player Mark Morton, called Desolation. He got really fucking bad on opiates, heroin. I don't know how I never got strung out, because he and I did a fuck-ton together, but alcohol, she's my baby. His was opiates. So then for eight years, I was rolling sober with him and he was just getting worse and worse and worse."
"And it was horrible, 'cause I'm clean, I'm sober and I'm, like, 'This dude's gonna die. I'm gonna find him in his bunk dead,' but I never pushed it on him, man, because I didn't like it when people push shit on me. I never pushed it on him. I just tried to keep my side of the street clean and sort of be a good example, and if he ever wanted to talk, he came and talked to me and asked me for help from time to time."
The emotional toll of witnessing a close friend spiral deeper into addiction was immense. Blythe continued: "It was very hard — very, very fucking hard — 'cause I was looking at him, and he's a smart guy, and I'm, like, 'Don't you know you're fucking killing yourself? Why are you doing this, you fucking idiot? This is horrible.'"
"And I'm looking at him thinking all that, and that's what people were saying about me for 22 years. So I had to remember that. I'm, like, 'Just because you've been sober for three years doesn't make you the fucking king of sobriety, you dumbass," Blythe added.
"So I had to just be there, man. And he would talk to me, 'I don't wanna die.' And I'm, like, 'I know, bro. This is what you've gotta do.' And then he'd go back out. And then finally it worked. And he's been clean and sober for six years now."
"And then our drummer Art Cruz, joined the band. He was still partying. He's been sober for over two years now. So you've got four out of the five dudes in the band that don't do shit. And it's nice. It's fucking great. But for a while, it was me. I was a lone ranger. Somebody's gotta put the foot into the pool first."
