Machine Head Flynn defends A7X butchering

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By ( Metal Hammer ) published

He says comments suggesting Avenged Sevenfold had ripped off bands were made "out of love"

Robb Flynn has revisited his criticisms of Avenged Sevenfold’s big-selling Hail To The King album a year on by insisting he made the scathing comments “out of love.”

Last September as Hail To The King rose to top the album charts, Machine Head mainman Flynn scoffed at the band’s achievements and suggested they were ripping off other acts.

But now Flynn tells Metal Hammer: “Oh man, I just feel that bands should be accountable to each other and if someone’s not pulling their weight, say it. What’s wrong with that? It’s not out of hatred. It’s out of love. Try harder, motherfucker”

Flynn’s lengthy rant on Machine Head’s Facebook page described A7X’s album as “a covers album” adding “who knew that re-recording Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Megadeth songs could be such a worldwide hit?”

A year later Metal Hammer asks Flynn if he is worried about any repercussions from slighted Avenged Sevenfold fans. But he dismisses any fears, adding: “The thing is, I used to be a drug dealer. I had people who had been up for fucking nine days on speed coming to my house and tweaking and carrying guns. I had to deal with gnarly biker dudes buying speed. I ran with a crazy crew.

“The impetus for me starting Machine Head was me getting jumped and my friend stabbed the guys that did it, and I had 12 dudes who wanted to fucking murder me. I didn’t walk a split second outside of my house without a .45 in my belt. I remember those times.

“They wanted me dead and bad, for six or seven months. That was fear. When I write a blog, I’m just calling it how I see it and that’s it. They’re just words. If people can’t take my opinions, don’t read them.‘”

Avenged Sevenfold frontman M Shadows also defused any notion of a feud between the bands telling a Canadian radio station he took the quotes as a joke.

He told The Bear FM: “I have met Robb on numerous occasions and he’s always been cool to me. And I just read it as a joke.

“Some people might see it as being as an underhanded joke. But, to me, if he just wants to go in there and write whatever he wants, I think that’s totally cool. Everyone has an opinion and everyone should be entitled to say whatever they want. So it’s no skin off our backs.”

You can read the whole Robb Flynn interview in the new issue of Metal Hammer – available here.