Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe opens up about death of friend, fan and inspiration behind new EP

Lamb Of God singer Randy Blythe has written “The Story of ‘The Duke’,” in which he documents Wayne “The Duke” Ford—a huge Lamb Of God fan and terminal Leukemia patient whose story and attitude while dealing with his fate inspired the band. This inspiration has accumulated into a forthcoming EP, fittingly titled The Duke, to release Nov. 18 via Epic Records (pre-order here).

In conjunction with The Duke EP release, Lamb Of God will offer memorabilia (including signed copies of the EP Randy Blythe's Ashes of the Wake gold record plaque, signed signature model guitars, signed copies of handwritten lyrics and more) with all proceeds going to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The charity campaign is being hosted via Propeller.la and will launch next week. For more information, visit www.lamb-of-god.com.

We spoke with Blythe about his introduction to Ford, the relationship that followed and how this all led to Lamb Of God launching a charity campaign to honor his memory.

The EP is named after “The Duke” John Wayne, and the title track on the EP deals with the loss of a friend and fan, Wayne Ford. Who is Wayne Ford, and how did his passing influence this track?
Wayne Ford was a guy I met a little over three years ago. Lamb Of God was playing a show in Phoenix, Arizona, and this dude had snuck backstage and he said, “Hey man, I wanted to give you this.” It was a T-shirt and it said “Fuck Cancer” on it, and it had Wayne’s name on it. He goes, “My buddy Wayne Ford is here tonight, he’s in the audience, he’s got leukemia, he’s been fighting it for the last couple of years. I was wondering if you could give him a shout out to raise his spirits. It’s been a pretty tough fight.” And I’m like, “Yeah man, no problem.” So I sent a song out to him during the set. I said, “This one’s for Wayne Ford. Fuck cancer, dude. You’re gonna beat it. Keep your head up.” I know from talking to his wife that meant a lot to him because he wasn’t expecting it at all, and we were basically his favorite band. After the show I met him and we wound up talking—me and him and his wife—about cancer. And I talked to him about how my wife and I are both on the bone marrow registry because Lamb Of God’s old merch girl was diagnosed with leukemia. Killed her within a week. And, of course, my friend Nergal from Behemoth, that was all over the press, he had gotten diagnosed with leukemia. Luckily, he got a successful transplant and he lived. But it was really touch-and-go for a while. So around that time of Nergal going through that stuff, my wife and I both did the bone marrow registry thing. It’s really easy, you go to bethematch.org. They send you the swab, you swab your mouth, you send it to them and they get a match. And bone marrow matches are much more specific than bloodtypes. So when there’s a disaster, the Red Cross is like, “People, come and donate blood!” [But] blood types are different than the bone marrow registry. Bone marrow types are very specific. So there’s not nearly enough people on the bone marrow registry, so people die every year because they can’t find a match.

So I talked to Wayne and his wife and said, “Me and my wife are on that.” And he was impressed and we talked about his cancer and how long he’d had it. And I said goodbye, and that was it. It was like, “Nice to meet you dude, good luck.” And about three years later I got an email forwarded to me from my publicist from Wayne’s friend. And he said, “Hey man, I don’t know if you remember this but someone gave you a T-shirt for my buddy Wayne Ford. You gave him a shoutout in Phoenix, he had leukemia.” And he said, “Dude, Wayne’s not gonna make it. Treatments aren’t working. He’s sick of living this way. You can’t eat what you want to eat, untold amounts of time in the hospital, and there was talk of a possible alternative treatment that would prolong his life a little bit, but he was like, ‘I’m done. I’m gonna live the rest of my life the way I want to. Not be in a hospital bed—I wanna hang out with my wife and my family and really enjoy the time I have left.’” So he asked, “Could you get the band maybe together to like, give Wayne a call?” And I hit him back and I’m like, “Regrettably, my band is in California tracking, and I’m in Virginia.” They were tracking the last record. But I was like, “I’ll certainly call him.” So I set up a video chat with him, and I was quite a bit nervous before I called him. You know, I’m in a heavy metal band. I’m not a grief counselor. I’m not a minister or something, I’m not a shrink, I’m not trained for this type of stuff. And I was thinking, man, what am I gonna say to this dude? Like, I’ve been through some rough stuff in my life, but I’ve never been told, “Okay, you’re going to die. Probably, it could be any day now.” That’s heavy. That’s real-life heavy. And you have to remember this dude is not an old man—he was in his early 30s. That’s real heaviness. So I was kind of nervous, so I talked to my dad, who’s done some work in hospitals, as a clergy in hospitals. And I talked to my friend who’s a rabbi, and they both have experience with this stuff. They both confirmed what I thought, which was these people, the best thing to do is just listen to them. And that’s what I figured I would do. I’m not gonna be, “You’re gonna be alright, bro.” That’s just a really selfish attempt to make me feel better. So I figured I’d just talk to him about whatever he wanted to talk to me about, whether it be my band, cancer, politics, whatever. His dog—I don’t care.

So I wound up talking to him and he was just the most mellow, stoic guy. And I know for a fact he wasn’t putting on a show for me because he was talking to a singer of his favorite band. He had accepted his fate, and he was like, “I’m gonna die, but dammit, I’m gonna enjoy the best of my life.” So, I didn’t beat him over the head with the fact that he was dying, but I didn’t ignore him either. I asked him about his cancer and his treatment. And he explained all that he’d been through, and I listened to him. And I asked him if he wanted to ask me anything. He asked me maybe one or two things about the band, but mostly we just talked, you know, like normal human beings. It was kind of a visceral experience for me. I’m like, whoa, this is intense but also very normal at the same time. And the way Wayne was, he didn’t make it uncomfortable for me or hard for me. He wasn’t weepy or whatever—I was prepared for that. Like, I’m gonna listen to the dude. But he was like, “Naw dude, I’ve had enough. I just want to enjoy what time I have left.” So it was a pretty intense experience. And from there, he and I just started keeping up with each other, mostly via text message. And just basically I would check on him, how’s he doing, and he would be like, “You know, I’m going to Denny’s to eat some fucking pancakes.” And we started busting each other’s balls a little bit, you know, fucking with each other. So I’m joking around, it was just really cool. So then I went to the studio to record our last record and I had this idea. Cause nobody comes to the studio while I’m doing vocals. That’s just not cool. I gotta be in my headspace; I don’t need the distractions. Nobody comes in. Not my band, nobody. But I had this idea and I’m like, “Well, do you wanna hear some of the tunes and watch me tracking vocals?”

So he came in and watched me lay down the vocals. We just bullshit, and it’s not like we talk about nothing but the fact that he’s dying. I’m not going to ignore it either. So really man, what I tried to do there is talk to him and listen to him. And this is in my limited experience, I’m not an expert, most of the time when people are dying, they want to be heard. They don’t want to be told, “You should feel this way.” You know, you don’t know what’s going on in this dude’s head. Only that person knows what’s going on in their head. No matter how many degrees you have, nobody really knows what it’s like to die until you’re feeling it. So I figure I should listen to this dude, and in doing so I learned quite a bit about dignity. We all hope we’re gonna die with dignity, but I watched someone going through it with actual dignity. Very impactful to me. So I had this idea. I text him, I’m like, “Look dude, is there anything you want to say to the world, or anything you want to be remembered by—words? We can record it over the phone, and I’ll layer it into the record, or I can work it into lyrics. That way you could be part of the album. Part of one of your favorite band’s albums. Immortal.” And he was like, “That’s really cool, man, I’ll think about it.” And he never got back to me on that. I’m not sure if he just didn’t feel like it or hadn't thought about it. Shortly thereafter, we texted a few more times. And then I didn’t hear from him, and then I got a message that he had died, basically at home while I was still tracking vocals.

I still wanted to honor him on the record, cause he’s just a really cool guy. And talking to him, for lack of a better word, was very inspiring to me, and how to handle yourself in a very serious situation. He was at the point where there’s not much else that matters but this moment. You always hear “stay in the moment,” but for him, at that point, at any moment he could die. So the only thing that matters is this very moment. Like, what am I gonna do with this moment, these are my last moments. And he enjoyed things that he wanted to do. He ate the way he wanted to, and he enjoyed the moments. So, I wanted to honor the guy. So we had this track that I hadn’t put lyrics to yet. And I wrote those from his perspective, some of the stuff that I’d talked to him about—some of it’s from our conversations, some of it’s just from my own head. From my limited understanding of his perspective, I tried to write of someone who’s facing their own mortality, and from his calm perspective. Not freaking out that I’m gonna die. So that’s what that song is. And we had another song on the last record with clean vocals, so there was debate on whether or not to put “The Duke” on the record or not. And in the end we decided to save it. And I was like, that’s cool cause we’ll place it in a movie or video game, and in that way it’ll be kind of a standalone thing. And probably get more attention that way than just the eighth track on the record or whatever. So now there’s this EP, with some live tracks and another B-side from two records ago. So that’s coming out, and the band is doing a charity auction to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which funds research for blood-related diseases. And it’s a really reputable organization. I talked to Wayne’s family about that when I told them we were gonna be doing this, like, “Do you have a specific charity you like to work with?” And his mother mentioned that one. So I was like, “Cool, we’ll go with that one.” Did they tell you that there’s a charity auction with it?

Yeah, you’re actually leading right into my next question. You guys are doing a charity campaign offering your gold plaque of Ashes Of The Wake, signed copies of your handwritten lyrics, signed signature model guitars and more. I was actually gonna ask, is Wayne Ford the one who inspired you to go ahead and set up this campaign?
Yeah, absolutely, since it’s going to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I thought it was cool, you know, to do the EP and release a song in honor of him, but I think it’s a chance to do some good as well. So 100 percent of the proceeds of anything that the fans get from this will go straight to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which funds research for cures for these blood-related diseases and also provides services and information for patients who are currently suffering. It’s a really good organization, it’s reputable, the administrative costs are low and I’m hoping to raise some money with that. Also, it’ll be awesome: a fan will get the gold record. The gold record will stay in the family, and the money will [help fight an illness] that has killed a merch girl of ours, killed a fan of ours, almost killed a friend of mine in another band. So it’s kinda keeping it in the family circle. A fan will have that record—rather than hang it on my wall—it feels better that it will go to someone who will appreciate it. Not only that, but also the money we raised from it will do some good. With the EP, I wanna raise some awareness, cause I wrote in the liner notes about bethematch.org, which is the bone marrow registry. Cause like I said earlier, the number of donors is woefully insufficient. And people die every year because they can’t find a specific bone marrow match. So that’s free. That doesn’t cost anyone anything. You don’t have to buy the freaking record, just go to bethematch.org and register. You might save someone’s life.

It’s no secret that you’re doing the photography thing, but a photo of yours is going to be featured on the second issue of Unbuilt. And within the magazine itself is going to be a series of images shot by you and rock photographer Rob Fenn as you drove across the country on Route 66. So the photographs are also going to be accompanied by an essay discussing where your ideas come from, and—it touched on the charitable side of things—for every issue that is sold of Unbuilt, the Humane Society and the International Committee of the Red Cross each get 50 cents. So I want to get from your perspective, what is Unbuilt, and how did you get involved with it?
Unbuilt is a biannual magazine started by Alex Skolnick, myself and Tom Bejgrowicz, who is a graphic designer and does art. It was Tom’s brain child. He wanted to get people in the music industry to write about things that they’re passionate about and share their art. The first issue was just me and Tom and Alex. But in this new one we brought in Alissa White-Gluz, who sings for Arch Enemy. She wrote a piece about an empowerment program—it helps homeless people and so forth. It’s a vehicle to express our interests that lie outside of the heavy metal world. Alex and I met because our bands were playing shows together, but when we were talking we weren’t talking about heavy metal, we were talking about what films we liked. So it’s a vehicle to show the world what our interests are outside of heavy metal. And Alex wrote a piece in the last issue about Broadway pit orchestra musicians. They got together to see Book Of Mormon and sit in the orchestra pit—he’s a classically trained musician himself so it’s very interesting to him. We have articles on architecture on this one, there’s a photo essay basically on the nature of where I believe ideas come from. Cause people always ask, “Where do your ideas come from?” You know, I think creative inspiration is available to everyone. For whatever reason, people who make art, or music, or dance, or whatever, all that stuff, just notice it. So it’s a matter of noticing things. And I don’t think people should confuse their creative output with them being—I don’t know. The world provides me inspiration, I didn’t create the world. You gotta keep some perspective on it, cause if you start buying into your own hype—“Oh, I have all these ideas, I’m so creative!”—without the externals that world provides, you don’t have shit. So, it’s sort of an essay accompanied by some photos cause we were out on a location scouting run for a project Rob and I are working on. So it’s just a matter of noticing things. alt