Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe: The 10 songs that changed my life

A life like Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe’s deserves a suitably raucous soundtrack. And even in death, he’s not planning on going out quietly…

“It was probably something from church like Amazing Grace, but as far as more contemporary, recorded songs go, I’m a child of the ’70s and there was a lot of disco back then. I remember hearing Funkytown, which was everywhere at the time. It was when terrestrial radio ruled and you couldn’t download a bazillion songs at once. You were stuck with whatever was on the radio. I grew up in a rural area, so it wasn’t exactly a hotbed of underground music.”

“When I was growing up, the most edgy thing that I liked was this KISS song. The theatrics dragged me in like pretty much every other kid with any sense in the ‘70s, and for a couple of years on every Halloween I painted my face like Gene Simmons. Ironically, many years later Gene Simmons was being played some Lamb Of God music for an article a lot like this one. He said, ‘They sound very talented, but the singer sucks! What is this terrible singing?’ I thought that was pretty freakin’ funny.”

“I got into bands by accident. I liked music, but I had no desire to actually be in a band myself. One time though, I was about 14 and an older dude was driving a bunch of us to go skating in Wilmington, North Carolina and he was playing Corrosion Of Conformity. This song came on and I was singing along with it. He said, ‘Damn, you can really do that. You ought to be in a band, kid.’”

“I was in a horrible car wreck when I was in high school. I wasn’t driving, but the driver was listening to The Cult’s cover of Born To Be Wild and they ran into a ditch. My buddy’s date was up front and her head hit the windshield. She had a lump on her head, but it could have been a lot worse. I wasn’t even supposed to be out, so that got me into a goodly amount of trouble. It was not a good night.”

“It could be any song off Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration really, because my first girlfriend loved that LP. She listened to The Cure’s Head On The Door album a lot too, but I’ve since disassociated that one with the relationship. That Depeche Mode record is still very much linked to her. As an aside, if you want heartache-laced, ex-girlfriend songs, I recommend you try anything by the Descendents.”

“There are so many overplayed records in the world, but the big one is Stairway To Heaven. I absolutely love Led Zeppelin, but I cannot listen to Stairway ever again. It’s fucking brutal how played-to-death it is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an epic song with a great solo, but I don’t want to nor do I need to hear it anymore.”

“It’s a tall order to pick one song – that’s ridiculously specific. I saw a lot of punk bands at an early age and I was definitely slam-dancing and flipping off stages to all of them. It was probably during Bad Brains in the ’80s, because I remember destroying stuff to them. They’re still my favourite band. But dude, I’m nearly 50 and it’s all a bit of a blur (laughs).”

“This is kind of self-explanatory: ‘Don’t care what they may say, we got that attitude / Don’t care what they may do, we got that attitude / Hey, we got the PMA.’ They were all about that positive mental attitude and an absolute refusal to let the world grind them down. I’ve actually had a rough couple of days, so I’m going to go listen to that now.”

“The song is about waking up and living life on life’s own terms. I recorded that not long after I got sober, and it was a pivotal, transitional time in my life. So it means a lot to me.”

“I have my funeral planned. It’s going to be a weeklong affair and really offensive. I hope people will remember me as a fucking asshole (laughs), so I’m trying to figure out how to offend everyone I know once I’m dead, but this festival of awfulness won’t be happening any time soon.”