"Touring is a lot like primitive living," Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe says, recalling the survival training he's undergone in recent years. "That's because when you're touring, you're living with a bunch of fucking savages."
The savages Lamb of God will be sharing the road with beginning in August, as they continue to promote their seventh record, Resolution, are the members of Dethklok and Gojira. Dethklok are the world-famous melodic death-metal band featured on Adult Swim's Metalocalypse show (cocreated and coproduced by comedian Brendon Small), and their pasty, far-beyond-brutal frontman, Nathan Explosion, is a foreboding figure who loves extoling violence almost as much as he loves speaking French. Meanwhile, the members of Gojira actually are French, and their frontman, vocalist-guitarist Joe Duplantier, spends his time outside of the band trying to save the environment with groups like the marine conservationists Sea Shepherd. On top of that, Gojira recently released their crushingly heavy and inescapably hypnotic fifth album, L'Enfant Sauvage, and have been touring in Europe with none other than Metallica in preparation for this US trek. Blythe will find himself in some fine, and suitably feral, company.
In anticipation of the tour, Revolver organized a meeting between him, Explosion, and Duplantier to give them a chance to talk about the things they have in common and the sorts of stuff they should know about cohabiting with one another on the road. (A word to the wise, don't touch Dethklok's Guinness stash.) Within a few minutes, all three were all on the same page, and Explosion even felt comfortable enough to discuss Dethklok's forthcoming release, The Dethalbum III, which he and his bandmates had just begun work on. "I'm trying to make this album in 3-D," he says. "It's a popular way to watch things, so I'm trying to get the speakers inside the fans' ears for this record. So far, it's proving to be very expensive."
REVOLVER How well do you guys actually know each other?
RANDY BLYTHE Joe and I have been friends for a while. I've stayed at his house. So unless he's got some deep, dark secret—something has changed about him—I expect us to get along very well. As far as this other fine gentleman, he sounds like a lovely guy.
JOE DUPLANTIER We are very excited to be a part of this tour. It's a big deal to play in front of so many people in the States who are super kind. Randy is helping promote us in the States and all over the world all the time. And I'm really looking forward to meeting Nathan and Dethklok.
NATHAN EXPLOSION I haven't met either of you guys before, but I'm a fan of both of your music. We get along with the bands we tour with. Except Mastodon used to take our Guinness. They wouldn't buy their own. They had a $40,000 beer rider, but they wouldn't put that one beer on there. Aside from something like that, I think everything is going to work fine.
Nathan, from watching Metalocalypse, you seem to speak fluent French. Are you excited to speak en français with Joe?
EXPLOSION I'll be mostly asking how your dog is and what time it is. I'm fluent in remedial French. I'll be asking you to scream for me, "Criez pour moi!" And I'll often be asking you where the bibliothèque is, and, "Où est le chien?" ["Where is the dog?"] Get ready to answer those sorts of questions.
DUPLANTIER If you speak French, you're more than welcome to hang out on the bus with all these French dudes. We'll drink some red wine.
EXPLOSION Whenever I hear French spoken, it makes me hungry. Does that happen to you guys?
BLYTHE It just makes me horny. [All laugh]
Randy, you've done survival training exercises with the Cody Lundin, costar of the Discovery Channel's Dual Survivor. What did you learn from him and how will it help you on the road?
BLYTHE What he's taught me in a touring situation is how to try to keep my head in a situation that is entirely unacceptable. In the wilderness, that would be no shelter, no food, no fire. On tour, it's dealing with a bunch of drunken morons all the time. So basically, it's a mindset.
DUPLANTIER I haven't done survival training, but I once built a cabin in a forest, and I lived in it for two years. I tried to recreate a sort of comfort in this cabin, but we were not using electricity or running water. I learned a lot from that.
EXPLOSION I know what these guys are talking about: I lived on only Taco Bell for one year. It was a primal lifestyle. Sometimes I caved and ate Cool Ranch Doritos.
Joe, have you ever used any of the skills you learned from living in a cabin on the road?
DUPLANTIER Yes. For example, finding a place to poop on tour when there's no toilets. That's a skill. Randy once taught me how to start a fire in a dressing room on tour.
BLYTHE The first time we went to France to play with Slayer, I had him bring some wood. We started the fire and there were giant clouds of smoke. It looked like a fucking fog machine was on in there. And the promoter was like, "Jesus Christ, what are these fuckers doing back here? Burning the building down?" We didn't have the right type of wood, though. So when Gojira came to the States, Cody actually came out and we started a fire with Joe behind the club. It was pretty fucking cool.
EXPLOSION I've had experiences with starting fires, but they're usually home-cooking malfunctions. They usually involve a microwave and tin foil, trying to warm up old Taco Bell. We microwaved a cable box one time because it wasn't working. Some people will give you a salad with a cold fork. We like to warm that up occasionally. In the future, it will be thought of as primitive. You won't find me far from a microwave.
Joe, what inspired the title of Gojira's new album, L'Enfant Sauvage?
DUPLANTIER The translation for that is "the wild child." It's about what we are as a band. It's also about the rock community. We're people who refuse a certain kind of cage. I tried to match with people, society, institutions, but deep inside me there is something that is more free and more true than everything that is built by society.
EXPLOSION This is gonna be a long tour.
BLYTHE I can relate to what Joe's saying. Basically, it's the story of my life. We're told what to do from infanthood on.
Joe, you recently became a father. How did that affect how you write metal?
DUPLANTIER It's the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me. It changed everything, so of course, it changed the way I'm writing lyrics, for example, but it's still heavy metal.
Nathan, could you be a dad and play metal?
EXPLOSION I very well might be a dad and play metal. Thank God women have the common courtesy to keep that to themselves. [Blythe laughs]
Nathan, you were dating one of your fans recently, but it didn't end well. Is dating a fan a problem?
BLYTHE I think it's a bad idea. Luckily, I'm married and my wife hates my band. I think she used to throw garbage at us when we played in Richmond. "You guys fucking suck!" So that has been the key to true love to me—finding someone who can't stand what you do and then become involved with them.
EXPLOSION It's a harder sell. I get you.
BLYTHE So certainly, dating some fawning sycophant who is just going to lick your balls on command, it's just not going to work out. Because one day she's gonna go looking for another, more flavorful sweaty ball sack to lick. And you're going to be left there all alone backstage with cheap cigarettes and the last warm Miller Lite that you stole from your bassist because your alcoholism has returned. I'm sorry, Nathan, but you've got to get it together and find someone who really hates you.
EXPLOSION I've got to say, when you put it that way, it all sounds…kind of cool. Before you started talking, I was like, Yeah, fuck it, I've learned my lesson. I'm not gonna date fans. But then you go, "warm Miller Lite," and that's kind of romantic. Balls licked? Yes, I'm listening!
Being a musician, it's hard to meet the regular girl, but it's easy to meet a drunk girl. I'm looking for a drunk girl who's ready to make some terrible decisions that has not heard of me. And I hope that's what I'll find on the road this summer.
Finally, do any of you have any bad habits you need to warn each other about before you go on tour?
BLYTHE I've been known to wake up in one of the other bands' singer's bunks, naked, covered in mayonnaise and weeping. It's a small complex I've had since I was a child. So don't give me your bus code.
EXPLOSION What you should know about me is I'll disappear for good portions of the tour. I like to pull an Axl Rose for a while. Maybe I'll show up, maybe I won't. It's a fun game I play to keep everybody on their toes. Other than that, I will get everyone's bus code and I will shit on your bus. That's just something that's gonna happen. There are no two ways about it.
Apparently you're not supposed to shit on the bus because, I guess, in general the technology's so weak that if you shit on your bus, there's shit on your bus! You're traveling around, transporting it somewhere. That's a lesson to younger bands: Don't shit on the bus. You might as well shit in your own bed.
BLYTHE We just shit our pants.
EXPLOSION Yeah, be a man. Shit your pants. Don't shit on the bus.
