Randy Blythe recalls the time Gene Simmons dissed his vocals

Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God and Gene Simmons of Kiss — (Image credit: Miikka Skaffari/FilmMagic, Per Ole Hagen/Redferns)

Imagine your childhood hero discovering who you were. Imagine that very same idol, who you used to dress up as for Halloween during your youth, turning around to tell you that actually, they think you kind of suck. This was more or less the reality for the Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe, who once heard one of his all time favourite musicians slate him.

The icon in question was none other than Kiss' Gene Simmons, who said that he actually wasn't a fan of Blythe's vocals, which, isn't always the best thing to hear from the person who used to bring you joy as a child.

Nevertheless, Blythe took the discovery in his stride, and was actually more so enthused to have experienced such an "awesome" and most likely surreal moment in the first place.

In conversation on the Eddie Trunk Podcast last week, while discussing the Metal Tour of the Year, aka LOG's co-headline tour alongside Megadeth, the frontman explained the story, which derived from his comment about really loving the Kiss song I Was Made For Loving You when he was growing up.

"I really liked that song. Every Halloween... I would always get my faced painted like Gene Simmons, 'cuz you know I (thought he was the coolest.) Because he was dark and spit fire and spit blood and he was a demon and all that shit. So I thought that was the raddest.

"And then years later, which I thought was just hilarious, Gene did one of these radio shows where they played (him) a few seconds of a song or a band he hasn't heard and then (the radio DJs) asked his opinion" he continued.

"They played Gene a Lamb of God song and (Gene) was like, 'Well, the music... they are obviously very talented I like the song, but, and I'm not saying I'm a talented singer or anything but... but I cannot understand anything that guy (meaning Blythe) is saying, and it's not my cup of tea, so I think that band would be great if (they) didn't just have that screaming guy...' and I just LOVED it.

"I was like this is hilarious, because I used to dress up as this guy for Halloween when I was 7 years old, and there he is dissing my vocals.

"It gave me much more pleasure (than) if he had said, 'I just love this vocalist,' I just thought it was hilarious that he was dissing me. I just thought it was awesome."

Listen to the full podcast episode below:

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Liz manages Louder's social media channels and works on keeping the sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.