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’s Robb Flynn has reflected on touring America less than a week after 9/11. During an in-depth interview with guitarist Chris Garza on the , the frontman discusses the fear and confusion the groove metal band and their fans felt following the September 11 terrorist attacks. Machine Head were set to release their fourth album on October 2, had already had the music video for the single – which featured the band playing amidst crumbling skyscrapers – censored after the attacks, and left for a string of American shows on September 17.
“We’re terrified to even fly,” Flynn remembers. “At this point [people are panicking and thinking], ‘They’re gonna bomb everywhere! They got New York!’ – tour starts in Fargo, North Dakota – ‘they’re gonna get Fargo, North Dakota!’ Why would they get Fargo, North Dakota? They’re not. But, in your mind, you think everybody’s gonna get you.
” He goes on to describe the awkward atmosphere during the first shows of the tour. “They were weird. Everybody in the front row was just like, ‘Why am I here? Tell me it’s gonna be OK.
’ And I’m like, ‘I need to tell me it’s gonna be OK. I don’t know. Don’t look to me, don’t put me up on a pedestal: I’m just as fucked-up and lost and confused about all this shit as you are.
” However, Flynn adds that that tension started to ease one week into the five-week tour. “All these people that were coming were all trying to get through this fucking insane moment,” he says. “We don’t know what’s going on, we don’t know what’s gonna happen – it’s like, ‘Music is what’s gonna pull us all through this.
’ And the shows become this massive release.” Machine Head’s second album following 1999 predecessor disappointed both critically and commercially upon release. In the aftermath, guitarist Ahrue Luster left the band and they were dropped from longtime label Roadrunner, although they were picked back up for the release of 2003’s thrashier .
Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! Talking to Garza, Flynn reveals that Machine Head were turned down by 35 labels during their separation from Roadrunner. “The first five labels was really crushing to me,” he admits. “It fucking crushed me.
I was depressed and like, ‘It’s over!’ Then we’ve got five more labels checking the demo out, same thing: they turned us down. More turned us down. By the time it got to the 15th one I was kind of annoyed.
By the time I got to the 20th, I was like, ‘Wait a minute! Really?!’ “By the time I got to the 30th record company rejection, I was just the angriest, most pissed-off, fuck-you, fuck-them, fuck-everybody, fuck-everybody-who-doubts-me...
I was just a walking timebomb.” Machine Head will release their 11th album, , on April 25 via Imperium Recordings and Nuclear Blast. The singles and are streaming.
Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too.
When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering..
