MACHINE HEAD!
INTERVIEW WITH ROBB FLYNN!
Having seen them 3 times now, interviewing Robb a second time, and actually running into him a few times at other concerts, I’m, in a parental sort of way, very proud of Machine Head and proud of having a connection with their music. Robb and co. were an underdog in the trash scene, even with having 4 other successful albums under their belt, and now having emerged with this album they have become a driving force in the genre, sure to labeled as predecessors or even “the little brother” of the big 4 thrash pioneers – Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth.
"The shows have been insane!" explains Robb a quarter of the way through the tour. "Insanity" is a good way to describe their touring schedule for the last year & a half having traveled the globe, from an opening slot with Heaven & Hell and Megadeth just as the album dropped to places they've never played or even traveled to before such as Dubai.
Robb Flynn: Yeah man, we were in Japan, Australia, Russia, Israel, India, Dubai…it’s been pretty crazy (laughs). A lot of these places we had never been to before and the reception we got was just mind boggling; just the passion our fans have throughout the world its pretty mind blowing. We’ve been touring on this record now for the past 16 months and, from what it looks like right now, we’re at about the halfway point of touring. We’ve got stuff lined up until the end of the year, then we’ve got a whole new line of stuff for the first chunk of next year too.
After the Mayhem tour, Machine Head will take a short vacation, then off to Europe for a string of shows until the end of the year with fellow label mates, Slipknot. After that, it is honestly anyone's guess what is in store for them (frankly, Robb couldn't disclose the '09 tour plans). Even though the U.S. might not see them until next year, we will be seeing a new CD...their first ever special edition available in the States of "The Blackening"; a two CD set including a DVD of various shows from the last year and a half and also the first look at their show celebrating the 10th anniversary of "The Burning Red".
RockMonthly: It's been a while since I've interviewed you...how were the Grammy's?
RF: The Grammy awards were pretty surreal man. We were the first band in history to be nominated for a thrash song not that there haven’t been Thrash bands up for nomination but not specifically for a Thrash song. We went to the pre-party and it was just ridiculous; we got there and they’ve got bars everywhere. Vodka bars, a Patron bar, buffets with crab legs, filet minion and caviar and we’re like “Holy shit!” (laughs) This joint is swan-ky. It was really fucking cool. Then they give you this medallion from Tiffany’s and everyone from the band took photos and ended up on the Grammy website. It was awesome, we did the whole red carpet and did were on the web cast because they have over 100 categories . Even though we didn’t win it was a real honor to be nominated and we got to go to the post-Grammy party, saw Tina Turner perform…it was all incredible and just a rad experience.
RM: After the Grammy’s, I read your blog on MySpace about what Kerry King said and thought that was pretty amazing….
RF: Literally 5 minutes after Slayer won I got a text from Kerry saying, “I’ll take the Grammy, but you guys should have won this”. It was really, really stand up of him; it was incredible and cool of him to have said that.
RM: Any plans on releasing new material soon?
RF: We’re kind of torn, man; The Blackening has been a record that I don’t think anyone anticipated the level of, you know, just the “love” that is was going to get. People tell us all the time that they love the record.
We have been going over the idea of playing the album in it's entirity but are waiting for the right moment to do that. We would have to be on our own headlining tour where we are given the time to do it; when we are opening we only have about 40 minutes to play. We’ve just had so many opportunities thrown at us because of this album, you know we’re just going to keep on taking them; this is the stuff you dream about when you writing a song and writing a record, that your art is going to touch so many people. There are a lot of people we feel that need to hear The Blackening and every day we’re turning kids on to our music. I meet kids all the time that just bought the album a week ago and this is the first time they’re seeing us and they’re just super stoked and saying, “Oh my God! The album is amazing!” You know, we’re still pounding the pavement out here and love to tour. It’s a blast man; totally stoked.