Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows Responds to Robb Flynn of Machine Head’s “Covers Album” Wisecrack
On Monday, Machine Head’s Robb Flynn made the entire metal world giggle when he publicly “congratulated” Avenged Sevenfold on the success of their new “covers album,” Hail to the King. Now, in a new interview with Canadia radio station 106.9 The Bear, A7X vocalist M. Shadows has responded to Flynn’s comments. You can listen to that response at the bottom of this post, or just read Blabbermouth‘s helpful transcription right below this paragraph!
“Actually, [Fozzy singer/pro-wrestler] Chris Jericho sent it to me [Tuesday] morning. He’s, like, ‘Dude, look at this B.S.’ [He was] going crazy. And I was, like, ‘Ah, Chris, I love you.’ But I read it, and I read it as a joke. I have met Robb on numerous occasions and he’s always been cool to me. And I just read it as a joke. I really don’t know what to say about it other than I agree with him on the [Metallica] ‘Sad But True’ thing — that was obviously an inspiration for that song. Everything else, I kind of think he… If it is a joke, it was kind of overboard, ’cause it doesn’t make sense in my mind. But at the same time, he was saying it was a joke, so… I have no ill will towards those guys. I’ve met [Machine Head guitarist] Phil [Demmel] a couple of times; he’s cool. Robb is cool. And I think the guy has the right to go make… if it’s really a joke, in his mind… Some people might see it as being as an underhanded… joke. But, to me, if he just wants to go in there and write whatever he wants, I think that’s totally cool. Everyone has an opinion and everyone should be entitled to say whatever they want. So it’s no skin off our backs.”
Shadows continued:
“I think all the bands he said we were very inspired by. I think also [Black] Sabbath, [Led] Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones… I think when you take a record like this and the way metal has become very blast-beat, screamy-oriented, when you kind of take things back and go to a more classic-rock feel, you’re gonna feel the similarities to what we were trying to do; we were trying to make an Avenged Sevenfold album from the early ’90s and late ’80s. It was just something that really intrigued us and interested us. And so, for me, I think all those bands have always been an influence — you can hear that on City of Evil. And Metallica has, obviously, influenced every single band that picked up a guitar and plays metal. So, yeah, all those bands, plus all the old greats.”
The sense I get from these statements is that Flynn’s zingers did definitely sting Shadows, but Shadows isn’t losing too much sleep over it. Which is as it should be! Flynn’s comments aren’t going to hurt Avenged Sevenfold very much in the long-term; it’s not like people are gonna stop buying Hail to the King or stop going to A7X concerts because of what Flynn wrote. Hail to the King is at the top of the charts! There’s really no reason for Shadows to let Flynn’s comments get too far under his skin. I would say he handled this whole conversation in as menschy a manner as possible, wouldn’t you?
