Lamb of God's scheduled appearance at Knotfest, the first festival curated by Slipknot, to be held this month, has been in obvious jeopardy given the incarceration of frontman Randy Blythe in Prague.
But Blythe is out on bail as of this week and back home in the States, and the band will in fact appear at Knotfest. To Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor, all that matters is that his friend is free. "Randy’s been a good friend of mine for a really long time, and it was killing me, being a friend and being in this position in the industry and whatnot, there wasn’t a lot we could for him," Taylor tells Rolling Stone. "We were kind of running all over hell and back trying to figure out if there was anything we could do for him, not just because of the Knotfest show, but because he was our bro."
Taylor knows that after Blythe spent weeks in jail, Knotfest is a distant second. "Even if he landed and he said that he didn’t want to do the shows, I would still be so happy that he’s home," Taylor says. "He’s out of that prison, he’s back with his family and I’ll get to see him, hopefully soon. The fact that Lamb of God is going to play Knotfest is icing on the cake for me."
The Slipknot frontman says he has not reached out yet to his friend. "Obviously family takes precedence," he says. "I’m gonna send him a text, let him know I was thinking about him, and then in a couple of days I’m gonna call him up and chat with him, see how he’s doing and tell him if there’s anything else we can do, just let us know."
For Taylor, who holds a position of power in the metal world, not being able to do anything to help his friend was tough to endure. "It sucks feeling powerless like that and really wanting to just do everything you can, but you don’t know what that thing is," he says. He gives a lot of credit to the metal community for helping to free Blythe.
"I’m really proud of the metal fans for giving their support and doing everything they can to get the word out and get as much focus on that situation as possible," he says. "I’m really proud of them for that and sticking with it, and it’s paid off – he’s coming home."
