“You suffer from a manufactured sickness and envy by design
Pre-calculated status and patterns of desire
Accumulation and adoration, built to feed your ostentation
Perpetually unsatisfied, but you never question why”
From “Gears” by Lamb of God
Goals. Ambitions. Expectations.
These concepts are often the very foundation of the lives we build for ourselves. More, they are the measures by which we evaluate whether we are living our lives as we want. They can feel comforting – providing a beacon by which we organize our thoughts, behaviors and emotional evaluations of our life. And that approach may work for some people.
But it doesn’t work for everyone. Many of us find the rigid structure of specific goals and expectations oppressive and the measure by which we evaluate our lives as failures when we don’t meet our own arbitrary standards. And Randy Blythe – vocalist and songwriter of the heavy metal band Lamb of God — is here to show us that there is another way to approach our lives. That is one in which we do not become wedded to any particular outcome, and are ready for and can grow with the inevitable changes that emerge in one’s life.
I spoke with Randy Blythe for the Hardcore Humanism Podcast and he described this approach to life as being “protean.”
Blythe goes on to explain how damaging our expectations can be. “I’ve heard expectations described as premeditated resentments… I get in trouble with what we call “future tripping.” I start existing in the future,” Blythe described. “Any sort of small thing I do that I think is not good enough … I can catastrophize. That sets off the butterfly effect – this chain of events that will quickly end with a nuclear Armageddon for the entire planet because I forgot to pay my internet bill on time or whatever. You know, I’ll guilt trip the crap out of myself.”
To be sure, Blythe does not equate being protean to being whimsical and not having structure or plans. But plans don’t have to equal expectations. “Having a plan is a good thing, having a structure of some sort and in your life, even having routine is a good thing in your life,” Blythe said. “Sort of common-sense approach to what I’m going to do for the next week or so, and also just being open to change.”
As an example, Blythe keeps a regular meditation practice that helps ground him in the current moment. “[Meditation] helps me keep stay in the moment and recognize the reality of the situation I’m in,” he described. “Trying to maintain a meditation practice of sorts has helped me realize and recognize the fact that thoughts are just thoughts. We’re comprised of our thoughts, yes … but they’re just thoughts. I am not my thoughts. I am not my emotions … I have to recognize that.”
Focusing on the moment has been especially helpful with Blythe’s struggle with alcoholism, depression and suicidality. “My life was arranged around where alcohol would be … I took that into consideration in almost every activity I pursued and that’s no way to really live your life. It’s been being chained to a substance,” Blythe recalled. “When I got sober, I had to deal with everything moment to moment, day to day … one minute at a time, one day at a time. And I stayed focused, staying in the now … this very moment is all that exists so we have to take care of it.”
Blythe also relied on his protean approach during a life-altering experience in 2012. He was arrested for manslaughter in connection with the death of a fan during a Lamb of God concert in the Czech Republic. Blythe was ultimately acquitted. But he explained how being sober and taking a protean approach helped him cope with prison. “So, when I was locked up, I was like, ‘Okay, I have to stay in my present reality right now I can’t start future tripping, worrying about, I’m going to be in here for five to 10 years, I’m never going to see … some of my friends again, or my grandmother,’” Blythe recounted. I just have to stay in this very moment. And I learned that from getting sober. You know, I learned that through the process of getting sober, not looking too far ahead in the future, thinking about unknowable outcomes over which I had zero control … So, it helped me greatly.”
Blythe also credits this approach to helping him stay grounded as Lamb of God became more established, popular and famous. This is not an inherently easy task. Lamb of God has released ten studio albums (including two under the name Burn the Priest), with the latest being their 2020 album Memento Mori. They are generally considered one of the greatest American heavy metal bands in history. And Rolling Stone ranked their album As The Palaces Burn (2003) as one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time. So, it would be easy to develop expectations about how their career should and will go in the future.
“It’s imperative for me, and I believe it’s imperative for the other dudes in my band, and we’ve talked about that, to not really pay too much attention or believe any hype,” Blythe described. “I will admit, man, when you step on a stage in front of 100,000 people like I’ve done before, and a whole lot of them are singing those words back at you, it’s a huge ego boost.” And yet he grounds himself less in the more static concept of adulation, and more in the process of making music and fostering a connection with the fans. “I try and look at that as an extraordinary thing that I need to remain grateful for,” he explained. “I don’t really think of it as the Lamb of God show — my show. I think of it as our show, because it is a massive exchange of energy between band and audience.”
The ultimate consequence of the protean approach is that it humanizes Blythe to himself, and humanizes others. Rather than having static assumptions and expectations, he acknowledges that people can make mistakes and he is more forgiving of that fact. “I am a human being, you know, and as such I am infinitely fallible…I’m lucky I had really good parents, but they have their flaws just like any other human,” he said. “So as I get older, I’m learning to see their humanity more … and realize that they’re not this sort of thing that I put on this pedestal, who when they do something I don’t like, I become shockingly upset over because they let me down, you know, they’re human beings, and I have to accept that.”
Blythe looks forward to evolving with his protean approach. “For me, everything is a learning process,” he said. “And I try and learn and stay mentally, emotionally and spiritually green. Because if I’m green it means I’m growing.
“You know, once you stop growing, you’re dead.”
Photo credit: Travis Shinn
