Former Lamb Of God drummer Chris Adler has revealed that he and his brother, Lamb Of God guitarist Willie Adler, have not spoken since Chris was fired from the multi-platinum groove metal band back in July of 2019.
As Chris has since elaborated, his removal came about due to a combination of factors, including the recovery period from a motorcycle accident, his mother passing , a divorce and a dysfunctional relationship with his bandmates.
Perhaps most prominent for Chris though was the diagnosis of musician’s dystonia, a neurological disorder which forced him to revamp his playing style. In a new discussion with Blabbermouth.net, Chris revealed he first started showing symptoms of that condition back around 2003.
Speaking of that and the other volatility festering within Lamb Of God ahead of his ousting, Chris stated:
“Like I said, we were dysfunctional. We weren’t always best friends. It was strained. Whoever was not in the room was getting picked on. I was the guy out of the room. I think one of the things that, from my perspective, and I don’t mean to speak for anybody, I think when I took the Megadeth gig, that really strained things even further. Nobody said, ‘We don’t want you to do it,’ or ‘You’re cheating on us.’ That was still the vibe, then when Megadeth won a Grammy, that pushed it further.
I won a [Juno, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy] with the other band that I joined, Protest The Hero, a couple of years prior. It just snapped, and that was it. I went to them and said, ‘This doesn’t happen all the time. It happens on these particular songs. Can we work around it? We have a pretty large body of work.’ Nobody wanted to do that. There wasn’t anything I could do about it.”
“That was very difficult for me. In many ways, that band was my identity. It’s everything that I worked for. I spiraled. My mom passed, divorce — it was a messy, messy time for me to try to pull myself up and try to feel ‘I’m going to be okay.’ It did take a while, to be honest. Maybe about a year into that, I was just trying to find myself and even define what chapter two would look like; the only way around dystonia is to re-learn how to play.
In that case, your right foot as a drummer is your lead foot. I worked out and talked to the doctors and specialists about changing it. Now, I lead with my left foot, which throws the right foot in a loop mentally. I have to build a different connection for it to work. That connection is now strong. I’m able to do it well, but not some of the things I was doing in Lamb. It’s a relief not having to do those things because I was coming offstage really depressed about the shows we were having.”
Later in the interview, after being asked if he has kept in touch with his brother, Chris replied:
“I guess the best way to put it is that I was sideswiped with the whole thing. I wish him all the best; I’m wishing them all the best, and I think about him all the time, but I would say we are estranged. Since that e-mail that I got, where he was not even willing to talk to me about it, we haven’t spoken. At this point, I’ve got to work through resentments and regrets and all that stuff. I’m happy where I’m at. I hope he’s happy where he is. Everything is cool with me.”
Chris has since been back to playing with the band Firstborne, who will release their debut album “Lucky” on July 18th.
