"I terrified and annoyed countless people for decades." Lamb Of God's Randy Blythe on the karma of being cornered by drunks

Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God performs at Scotiabank Arena on February 26, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario.

(Image credit: Jeremychanphotography/Getty Images)

Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe says dealing with the attention of overzealous drunk people is karma for the decades he spent terrifying and annoying others before he got sober.

The vocalist is celebrating 14 years of sobriety and says he can handle being in the company of others who still drink.

And considering his antics before he gave up the booze, he says he can hardly complain about being the sober one in a room of tipsy or high people.

Blythe tells The Lydian Spin: "Seeing people party and stuff, especially when they 'party party' and get stupid, I don't judge.

"But it makes it more repulsive to me, because I was was pretty bad. Nobody looks cool when they're wasted, so it just doesn't appeal to me.

"Seeing people drink does not bother me at all. The only thing that bothers me is when they're hammered and in my face. But other than that, I don't expect the rest of the world to behave.

"I can't expect the rest of the world to behave in the way I do and not drink because not everybody's an alcoholic like me. Some people are perfectly okay, and that's no problem. God bless. Have a good time.

"But if you're wasted and the 'I love you, man' starts, then I just dip out. It's not a problem."

On whether seeing others enjoying booze makes him want to indulge, Blythe adds: "It doesn't make me wanna do it, if that's what you're asking. It has the opposite effect.

"I have better things to do. I'm trying to do good things with my life. Write books and do photography and shit like that.

"I can't do that when I'm drunk. Plus, man, I drank enough. I did it for 22 years. I'm not gonna discover anything new in drugs and alcohol."

Blythe has been open about his battle to beat his addictions, once telling Metal Hammer: "Unfortunately, I’ve known people who didn’t embrace the choice to try something different and they’re dead now. I don’t know what it is within me – I’m certainly not saying I’m special, or made of stronger moral fibre than anyone else – that I made that conscious decision, but I did and I feel pretty fucking lucky.

"The driving force was, ‘I’m going to quit drinking or I’m going to die.’”

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.