Lamb Of God Still Tough Guys Who Drink

11/02/09 1:20pm

by Pete Richards (CHARTattack)

From the south came a band called Burn The Priest. They became Lamb Of God and trudged on to become one of the most powerful entities in the world of heavy metal.

When other bands seem to recycle members, change with the trends or decide the money just isn't worth it, Lamb Of God have stayed solid, progressed and fucked the world along the way for 15 years. They're now on tour with Metallica.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Lamb Of God guitarist John Campbell about his career and what it's like sharing the stage with one of the most famous bands in the world.

So you're currently on tour with Metallica, taking turns between playing with them and shows with Gwar. How do you find balancing large arenas with smaller venues?
Honestly, I can't wait to get back to the clubs. The arenas sound really dead onstage. I mean, it's cool shit. There are tons of people to watch out there while playing onstage at arenas with Metallica all the time. But for me, the performer onstage when it's your PA and it's open, it's a lot more fun.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade this for anything. Plus, it's fun playing for an audience that doesn't necessarily know what to expect from you. So we do that for a week and then we get to go back to our fans at our shows and play to a room packed full of people screaming the words back at us.

Obviously some people are there to see Metallica and you, but do you find you go over some people's heads?
Hell yeah, definitely. But I think we're also pulling in new fans also. I think a lot of the old school metalheads who may not have found out who Lamb Of God is yet or even if they've heard of us, hadn't quite heard us, I think we're definitely picking up new fans. And it's just one of the many fringe benefits of going on tour with Metallica.

So it's definitely broadening your horizons even further.
(laughs) Let's hope, man. Let's hope.

Does it get much bigger than this, unless you are Metallica?
(laughs) I think those words came out of my mouth earlier today. But yeah, I don't think so.

I think at this point it's just a matter of longevity and how long we can keep at it. Who's to say where we're going to be in another 10 years because we're hitting 15 now and those guys are at 25 years, something like that. So who knows what our status will be at that time? Whether we'll graduate up to Metallica status, plateau at where we are now, or drop off seriously.

Well, you'll always have your core fans who'll still come to your shows in 20 years time.
Oh yeah, I don't mean to sound apocalyptic or anything. But yeah, it's a question of from here what possibly could be next?

For us, specifically what's next is we're doing some tours in Europe and we're going to hit some new places we haven't hit before. Come springtime I think we're booking some shows in China. We're going to play a show in Israel and then some other Middle Eastern spots, especially the crazy Air Force. This is all coming up in the near future of our career, which may or may not end up like Metallica's.

What have you learned from Metallica, as far as how they conduct themselves on tour?
They're a lot more down to earth than you would think. They're very personable. They've brought us out for dinner and drinks, they hang out in the dressing room sometimes, you know. It's been a pretty amazing run for us to have this opportunity.

And you guys are known for your partying. Has the drinking slowed down much?
Yeah, we're not trying to be tough guys and drink all your beer, but we are tough guys and we'll drink all your beer. I don't know if it's slowed down, but it's developed, I'd say.

Everyone comes and goes with their love of drinking. I don't drink beer anymore, I drink whisky. I mean, we have a little bit of age now so we're not quite as insane as we used to be. But we're Lamb Of God and stupid shit still happens.