Machine Head frontman/guitarist Robb Flynn had a lengthy and engaging chat with Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta on the latest episode of ‘The Jasta Show‘. The two-hour or so discussion covers a wide variety of topics, including Flynn‘s past selling speed at Slayer shows and metal being neglected by the Grammy‘s and music industry at large. There’s also talk of their initial Roadrunner deal, his past beef with Slayer‘s Kerry King, struggles with Bulimia and a lot more. One topic that came up was the band’s past controversial nu metal era, he offered:
“You can look at our victories, you can look at our mistakes and you know I’ve looked at our victories and I’ve looked at our mistakes. And you know, I feel the most part… My trip is always that a lot of people always rag on “The Burning Red“, a lot of people rag on “Supercharger“—everybody goes ‘oh my god, the nu metal era, ahhhh!’
“…Everybody loves “The Burning Red” now, we play “From This Day” now, people fucking lose their shit. We play “Crashing Around You“, everybody’s singing it. It’s so funny… The space of time and the context of when something comes out.”
Flynn later conceded that it was his “look” (see below) around the time of the album’s that made it more controversial. He also revealed that he has turned down past cameos, including one on a Behemoth album. He later spoke of a new song Machine Head plan to digitally release this month, he confirmed it is titled “Is Anybody Out There” and was in part influenced by the November terrorist attack at Le Bataclan in Paris, France. That incident continues to impact not only the world, but the band’s future plans, as they have just announced the cancellation of their Paris, France date:
“French Head Cases, we are very disappointed to break this news to you, but unfortunately, a new venue / date was not able to be sorted in time for a Paris show (originally scheduled for Feb 16th, 2016).
As we announced previous, it was expected for almost a month that Le Bataclan would re-open in time for our show, but in December we got news that it would (understandably) remain closed for continued investigations after the terror attacks.
At that point, we looked into every possible option, adding a date at the beginning, a date in the first week, tagging on to the end of tour after Glasgow… everything… no luck. The sad fact is, we were a month behind most every other re-routing happening.
4 months worth of tour dates having to get re-routed in light of Le Bataclan closing, has meant a staggering overflow for the very few venues that host rock music, and many Paris dates have been cancelled. Le Bataclan was also one of the few venues suited for the expected attendance of 2,000 people, and that allowed us our substantial production needs.
All other Machine Head dates in the French provinces including Nimes, Bordeaux, Clermont Ferrand, Reims and Lille are still happening.
We are hoping to get back to Paris as soon as possible, but for now it will not be on this upcoming tour.
“Fluctuat nec mergitur”
– Machine Head“
