DevilDriver Dez takes stock after Lamb Of God fan horror

DevilDriver frontman Dez Fafara says Lamb Of God singer Randy Blythe's fan death horror has changed how he deals with rowdy crowds.

Blythe was charged with manslaughter when 19-year-old Daniel Nosek fell from the stage during a Lamb Of God show in Prague in 2010. Nosek hit his head in the fall and later died. Blythe was acquitted of the charge last year, but not before spending five weeks in police custody.

Fafara says he would only ever lay hands on a fan who manages to get past security and onto the stage if he was being manhandled himself.

He tells Impact: “If somebody comes on stage, I don’t touch them. And my crew does not touch them. The local security comes up and grabs them and takes them off. Nobody shoves anybody off the stage. So there are some more rules. DevilDriver shows can be mayhem, complete mayhem. People jumping on stage and jumping off, it gets very dangerous.

“What happened with Randy was unfortunate, but you have to remember that there was a life lost as well. So I think everybody has changed their game plan a little when it comes to being on stage.

“The only way I would touch somebody or move somebody is if they had their hands on me. Then you might get to the throat, because I don’t know you. I don’t know what your intentions are. You have to watch yourself.”

Last year, Lamb Of God drummer Chris Adler said the band would not change their approach to live shows. He said: This is obviously a terrible tragedy that nobody foresaw or intended to happen. But it’s such a random series of events that I don’t think us changing what we do would stop it from happening again.”

In February of this year, a Letlive fan spent a week in jail after throwing himself from a balcony into the crowd at a gig in Colorado, USA. After his release, 23-year-old Alex McCormick said he didn’t regret it and added: “I can’t believe I spent a week in jail for this bogusness, considering the the ‘victims’ were released from hospital with no injuries.”

In the rest of Fafara’s interview with Impact, he discusses life on the road and some of his favourite musicians.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.