LAMB OF GOD’s RANDY BLYTHE ‘Would Love To Play In The Czech Republic Again’, Seven Years After Being Acquitted Of Manslaughter

BLABBERMOUTH.NET

LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe says that he "would love" to play in the Czech Republic again. In 2012, Blythe was arrested in the Czech Republic and charged with manslaughter for allegedly pushing a 19-year-old fan offstage at a show two year prior and causing injuries that led to the fan's death. Blythe spent 37 days in a Prague prison before ultimately being found not guilty in 2013. Randy addressed the possibility of performing in the Czech Republic while answering fan questions earlier this week during a Reddit AMA. He said: "I would love to play in the Czech Republic again — I have nothing against the Czech people, and I was not mistreated there. Eventually I think we might play there again, but it will 100 percent have to be with the cooperation of the family of the young man who died, and I would want to give the money from the show to a charity they choose. If we played there, it would be a huge news story, and I do not wish to cause the young man's family anymore pain — they did no wrong, and were not cruel to me at all; in fact they showed me great kindness. But they have suffered enough, so it is out of respect to them we have not returned. I hope the Czech fans understand." Blythe's prison experience inspired two songs on LAMB OF GOD's 2015 album "VII: Sturm Und Drang": "512", one of his three prison cell numbers, and "Still Echoes", written while he was in Pankrac Prison, a dilapidated facility built in the 1880s that had been used for executions by the Nazis during World War II. It also led him to write the memoir "Dark Days", in which he shared his whole side of the story publicly for the first time. "I think artistically, it was a very valid choice to use those two songs because they come from a very real, very dark place," Blythe told the New York Post back in 2015. "I write about things that are impactful for my life that stir up emotion in me, that affect me, that have some sort of impact within my life. Not that going to prison has no impact in my life, but I was out of prison and I felt it would be disingenuous to use it as a creative well to draw from." Blythe is currently promoting LAMB OF GOD's self-titled album, which was released on June 19 via Epic Records in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast Records in Europe. The follow-up to 2015's "VII: Sturm Und Drang" marks the band's first recordings with Art Cruz, who joined LOG last year as the replacement for the group's founding drummer, Chris Adler. "Lamb Of God" was recorded with longtime producer Josh Wilbur (KORN, MEGADETH, GOJIRA, TRIVIUM) and includes special guest appearances by Jamey Jasta (HATEBREED) and Chuck Billy (TESTAMENT).