Randy Blythe says no one he’s spoken to since his Czech prison ordeal says they’d have done what he did by returning to face a manslaughter trial.
But he hopes that’s only because they’ve never faced the same decision – and that they’d do the right thing if it ever came up.
He was acquitted in 2013 after the death of fan Daniel Nosek following a Lamb Of God concert in 2010. He’d been freed from jail the previous year, but never considered hiding from the legal proceedings.
Blythe, who’s written about the experience in his book Dark Days, tells Kerrang: “I felt ethically obliged to go to court – I did it for me. I had to do it so I could look at myself in the mirror. I didn’t want it hanging over me.
“I don’t think I’ve had one person say to me, ‘Yup, I would have done exactly what you did.’ At first I used to get bummed out because I’d be thinking, ‘Really? It seems that would be the right thing to do.’
“Then I realised that’s kind of judgemental. You don’t know because you haven’t been in that situation. We don’t know what we would do.”
He adds: “I’m not the only one who’s gone through something tough and dealt with it face-to-face. People seem to sell themselves short. I’m hoping so – that’s the optimist in me. Otherwise I’d turn into a cynical, bitter old man.”
His experience inspired the lyrics for two tracks on Lamb Of God’s album VII: Sturm Und Drang, which is launched on July 24. But Blythe has insisted the period when his freedom was at risk, while serious, wasn’t the most defining time in his life. The band launch a North American tour later this month and return to the UK in November.
