Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe Reveals One Thing From Headbanger’s Boat He’ll Never Do Again

The inaugural Headbanger's Boat was a memorable time for many reasons, but Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe told Full Metal Jackie for her radio show that there's one experience he has no intention of ever repeating. That would be performing a wedding ceremony, which saw the singer bowing to a request from longtime friend, associate and groom, Ro Kohli. Within the chat, he explains why he's not taking on other requests.

Blythe also digs into Lamb of God's summer touring with Mastodon in which both bands are celebrating the 20th anniversaries of two key albums. That tour also features Kerry King, now solo after his Slayer career, and Blythe says Lamb of God associate Phil Demmel did a great job of keeping his gig in King's band under wraps.

Blythe also offers insight on his recent collaboration with P.O.D. and what he's looking for in potential collaborating partners. He also speaks about his love of photography and names the two subjects he'd still like to capture.

Check out more of the chat below.

It's Full Metal Jackie and with us once again, Randy Blythe from Lamb of God. The "Ashes of the Leviathan" tour with co-headliners Mastodon kicks off later this month. And on top of a killer bill that also features Kerry King and Malevolence. One of the cool things is you'll be saluting the 20th anniversary of Ashes of the Wake. Randy, what were some of your favorite moments of recording and touring in support of that album, and what was rewarding to you about that period of time?

I hated recording that album because I hate recording every album. So there is no great memories of recording any album for me. However, touring for that time was really cool because it came out in 2004 and we did our first Ozzfest. It was us also being one of the headliners of the second stage of Ozzfest.

It was Hatebreed, us and Slipknot, and that was one of the most fun summers of my life, really, touring on that. So super fun. Then we went on a nine week tour of the States in arenas with Slipknot, which was also super fun.

One of the wonderful things about this tour is the charitable element. With both you and Mastodon setting aside money for charitable organizations of your choosing, and for Lamb of God, you've chosen the Living the Dream foundation. And I just wanted to give you a chance to share your interactions with them and why they were the Lamb of God beneficiary.

Well, the Living the Dream foundation, I came to work with them through originally, I believe it was a Make a Wish foundation. They deal with terminally ill children most of the time, or people with severe, life threatening disease.

And Living the Dream foundation is a very music centric deal, and they've worked together. So there was a young lady, and we were playing at the Inkcarceration Festival. and her name was Emma from the Chicago area. She had talked to the Make a Wish foundation. They're like, what do you want to do? Do you want to go to Disneyland? And she said, "No, I want to meet Slipknot." That's exactly what she said. And she wanted to meet us. So they contacted the Living the Dream foundation. They're the ones who handled that.

This poor girl had spent her final years of high school just sick, sick, sick. So they hooked her up and sent her to Inkcarceration, and I got to spend the afternoon with her. I was more excited about that than playing the show, to be honest.

Luckily, Emma made a full recovery. She's still with us, which, of course, isn't always the case, but it's really a happy ending to that story.

I don't know anything we can do. There should be a charitable component, I think, if you're at a certain point in your career where what you do can positively affects other people, and that means you should certainly go ahead and employ it. So I'm very excited about that.

We've been talking about the "Ashes of Leviathan" tour - Lamb of God, Mastodon. Randy, this trek is also notable for one of your support acts. I know you have a longstanding friendship and working relationship with Phil Demmel, who recently talked about having to keep his Kerry King work a secret for several years. Were you aware of what Phil was doing? And have you heard any of the Kerry music? And also, how excited are you to have Kerry and his band with you on this run?

Phil did a really good job of keeping his mouth shut. We're on the bus and we talk, but we inferred after a while, what was going on. He did not say, I'm doing Kerry King's band, so I'm not going to throw Phil under the bus, you know what I mean? Because he did a good job.

Yes, of course I've heard the music. I've heard about half the album. They were sent to us before we even had the offer. Management came to me and said, oh, Kerry's recording some stuff. He wants you to hear it.

We have a long term friendship with Kerry and the Slayer guys. Of course, now it's him and Bostaph and we're friends with everyone in his band. And it's pretty cool, I think, that he's gonna be coming out. I believe this is gonna be the first tour he's gonna be doing.

I know he's doing some festivals, maybe before that, I think. But this is going to be the first tour to my knowledge. So we're pretty stoked on that. We've played all over the world with Kerry when he was in Slayer. So, for us, it's pretty special to have him out on the road with us on his first run, you know. And of course, all the other dudes in the band, we know everyone

The Malevolence guys are great as well. And then of course, we've been friends with Mastodon for well over 20 years, so it's a great time.

Randy from Lamb of God on the show with us this week. Randy, in addition to the "Ashes of Leviathan" tour, 2024 will bring about the second edition of the Headbanger's Boat. With the inaugural run under your belt, what have you learned about putting on such an event and what are you looking forward to in year two?

What have I learned? I've learned that I need to not commit myself to doing things like marrying people. It was great. I got a request the other day to be a Cameo. Hey, will you officiate my marriage? And I was like, I had to reply, absolutely not.

I married our friend Ro. He was a long term street team guy. He asked me. Did it the first day on the boat and I don't regret it. We had a great time. It was a lovely thing.

But that day, I also had a gallery show. I had other appearances to do. And I was just like, no, I'm not going into the wedding business. I learned that only the ship's captain can truly marry someone. So that was like a celebration for friends sort of wedding.

It wasn't legal. They're married on their own legally. But even a normal minister can't marry someone on a boat, to my knowledge, by maritime law. It has to be the ship's captain. So I learned that I'm not going to be marrying anyone else, so don't ask.

Oh, I was just going to ask you. No, I'm just kidding.

No, well, people have already asked me. I want you to. I mean, I dressed up as Elvis. It was a good day because it was Halloween, but that will not be happening again.

Randy Blythe with us on the show this week. And Randy, you recently turned up as a guest on the new P.O.D. song "Drop." You've no doubt made many connections through the years. What are you looking for when it comes to collaborating with other artists? And how did the P.O.D. guest turn come about?

Well I really have to like the people. I met the P.O.D. guys on ShipRocked and I never really listened to them before that. When Lamb of God did it, I just wound up hanging out with them and they are such lovely people.

I wound up going back and listening to their record Satellite, which is really a cool sonically varied record, and was just kind of like, "Whoa, these guys are really good." I don't know how I slept on them. I do know because there's a million bands to listen to, but we just wound up hanging out and really getting along.

They are such cool guys. And then as I learned more about the way they do things, and Sonny, their singer in particular, he does a lot of charitable work. He went to Honduras right after that and was digging wells with a foundation that does stuff like that.

I respect boots on the ground stuff, you know what I mean? I do some of that stuff myself. It's one thing to donate money, which is great, and to raise funds, which is also great, but it's important to get down on the ground, boots on the ground and help people if it's something you believe in. So I saw him doing that andI have a lot of respect for those dudes. So, for me, if I have a lot of respect for an artist as a person, I'm much more likely to work with them.

I don't care how good you are musically, if I don't want to work with you, I don't want to work with you. These guys are just super great guys, so I was stoked to work with them.

P.O.D. Featuring Randy Blythe, "Drop"

READ MORE: Art Cruz Reveals the Hardest Part About Joining Lamb of God

It's Full Metal Jackie. Randy Blythe from Lamb of God with us this week. And Randy, one of your passions is photography. Do you have a subject that's still on your to shoot list? That would be your dream. And do you find your time often being the subject of photographers has informed you how to shoot?

I learned some tips on photography, certainly when I was beginning from music photographers. Like you said, I'm a musician. I'm around photographers a lot. They're constantly taking my picture. So when I first started learning how to shoot, I was always picking a lot of photographers brains, a lot of music photographers on technical matters, and they really shared a lot of knowledge with me and I was really lucky with that. Always be grateful for them for that.

But once you kind of have the basics, the way you learn to be a photographer is you go out and shoot photographs. The way you learn to be a writer is you write. The way you learn to play music is you play music.  That's the only thing that will really give you any proficiency of things is actually doing it. So the music photographers certainly helped me in the beginning in technical matters, but for the most part, it's only just you just go out and shoot.

As far as, like anything I'm dreaming of shooting, not really. I just take whatever comes m and it comes to me, you know. There's a few people I do want to shoot for portraits, certainly, because I have a long term project called "Frontman" where I shoot different front men, women, whatever, who are singers and bands. And that'll be released eventually when I get everybody. But I'm missing a few people. I need to shoot a portrait of iggy pop. I need to shoot a portrait of Nick Cave. Those are two big ones.

We've been talking with Randy Blythe. Lamb of God and Mastodon on the "Ashes of Leviathan" tour. Really looking forward to this one. Randy, always great to catch up. Thanks so much for the time.

Thanks to Lamb of God's Randy Blythe for the interview. Be sure to catch them on the "Ashes of Leviathan" tour, and stay up to date on all of the band's activities through their website, Facebook, Instagram, X and Spotify accounts. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio show here.