Blythe’s battle to write book

Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe has admitted he thought writing a book was going to be easy – until he tried.

His memoir, Dark Days, will be published on July 14 by DaCapo Press in the US, and then by Random House in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It details his ordeal in the Czech Republic after being accused and later acquitted of manslaughter, following the death of fan Daniel Nosek at a Lamb Of God show in 2010.

Blythe tells The Metal Hammer Show at Australia’s Soundwave festival: “Writing a book is a sustained exertion. I thought it was going to be easy – I thought, ‘I’m just going to sit down and this stuff is going to flow out.’”

Others had warned him about the pitfalls, but he told himself, “that’s not going to happen to me.” However, he reveals: “In short order I exhibited every writerly behaviour that I thought I’d avoid, and made fun of.

“Endless urges to do housework, wash the dishes – the thing I learned is, the hardest part is not the writing itself. It’s making yourself sit in the chair.”

The work was completed when he finally realised he couldn’t write on the road, or even at home. “I had to leave the city and be by myself,” he says. “I tried to write on tour and that did not work. Some people can write in public.

“My friend Alex Skolnick from Testament wrote a book. He wrote a lot of it on tour, in coffee shops and all that stuff. He can function in that environment as a writer. I can’t.”

Blythe says in the press release for Dark Days: “Most substance-abuse books end with the author getting sober. My book starts there. The tale of my arrest and trial are merely the vehicle I use to convey an important message in today’s fast-paced, high-tech, self-centered world.

“I have something to say, and life has presented me with a tragic way to illustrate my point without being preachy or pedantic.”

Lamb Of God, who are currently writing their eighth album, play this year’s Download festival at Donington on June 12-14. Metal Hammer is reporting from Soundwave all this week. Stay tuned to The Metal Hammer Magazine Show for even more coverage.

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.