Randy Blythe was initially apprehensive about signing with a major label.
In a recent interview with Turned Out A Punk, the Lamb of God frontman discussed the band’s transition from Prosthetic Records to Epic Records. He anticipated the deal would fail, but the outcome was different.
He shared, “I’m, like, ‘This shouldn’t be happening. Our band is very aggressive. We aren’t gonna provide any sort of radio hits or whatever. Why is a major label coming knocking? I know what’s gonna happen. What will happen is, is they’re gonna give us this money. We’re gonna write this record. We’re gonna give it to them and they’re gonna drop us either before it comes out or shortly thereafter it comes out.'”
“And I knew enough about the way the music industry worked to be, like, ‘They’re gonna drop us. They’re going to break contract. So we’re gonna get to keep money.’ So it was, like, ‘Let’s take the money and run. F*ck it. It’s never gonna work out. They’re never gonna keep us around,'” Blythe revealed.
Before signing with Epic, the band played a show at the Knitting Factory in New York. Afterward, Polly Anthony, the president of Epic, praised their performance and invited them to a celebration at an upscale bar.
Blythe explained what he told Anthony, saying, “I’m, like, ‘Wait just one second. Okay, I have something to say real quick. Before we sign this…’ And it was like the needle got picked up from the record, and my whole band just, like, looked at me. I remember it clear as day. I’m, like, ‘Number one, we’re never gonna write a radio song. Number two, you can’t tell us what to write. Number three, you can’t tell us who’s gonna produce this. Number four, you can’t try and change our artistic direction. We’re okay already, so we don’t really need you.'”
He recalled the president’s response, saying, “She looked at me and she goes, ‘Oh, my God. I am so sorry. Did I give you that impression?’ I’m, like, ‘Nope. Just letting it be known.’ And then it worked. And we just fulfilled a seven-album contract with them. It’s crazy. We put out seven records on a major label, sounding like us, without delivering a single hit.”
“I’m still not sure how it worked. But they’ve never told us what to do, they’ve never told us who to produce us, they’ve never tried to direct us anyway, because what we have, it doesn’t need fixing. It works on its own. I guess they’re smart enough to realize that,” the vocalist added.
Blythe is also promoting his new book, ‘Just Beyond The Light: Making Peace With The Wars Inside Our Head,’ which will be released on February 18, 2025, through Grand Central Publishing.
