The simplest question I am ever asked about the Morning Show is: Who decides who you get to interview on your program? The answer is: I do. It’s one of the best things about working at a small place like WGTD and working for a general director who trusts me not to limit the program to my own favorite topics: opera, tennis, U.S. Presidents, Star Trek, and DC Comics heroes. Yes, I must admit that I grab every opportunity that comes along to probe those areas, but I’m also smart enough to know how foolish it would be to limit the program to the stuff I happen to find fascinating. It would be a pretty pointless program- with zero listeners- if I made it all about me. And truth be told, the best thing about doing the program is how it teaches me so much about so many things of which I would otherwise be woefully ignorant or widens my perspective on something I thought I already understood. (I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve uttered these words on the air: “I had never stopped to think about that!”) And once in awhile, I find myself many miles outside of my own cozy comfort zone – always an exciting if scary place to be!
Most often what compels me to step outside of my comfort zone is when an intriguing-looking book shows up on my doorstep, unrequested. Such a book arrived from Da Capo Press a little over a month ago- “Dark Days,” a memoir by D. Randall Blythe, lead singer for the heavy metal band ‘lamb of god.’ I had never heard of Mr. Blythe or his band, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me. Aside from being fairly certain that Taylor Swift is a woman and that Eminem is not a piece of candy-coated chocolate, I know next to nothing about pop, rock, rap or anything else of that ilk. About all I know about heavy metal music is that it’s ear-splittingly loud and all sounds the same to my amateur ear …. which is probably what the average heavy metal fan says about opera. Seriously, heavy metal holds not the slightest appeal to me and I was about as interested in reading a book by some heavy metal singer as the average metal fan would be in reading a biography of Zinka Milanov. But then I looked a little closer at the singer’s photo on the cover- and unlike similar books I’ve been sent where the guy on the cover was riddled with piercings and appears to be screaming his head off like a mad man, this guy looked thoughtful, peaceful, and intelligent. That alone caused me to give the book a closer look – and I am SO glad I did. It turns out that Blythe has a powerful and inspiring story AND as I began paging through the book, I could tell that he told it beautifully. And just like that, I was hooked!
In a nutshell: ‘lamb of god’ is a highly regarded, Grammy-nominated heavy metal band that’s been in existence since 1994 and have sold millions of records worldwide. R. Randall Blythe has been their lead vocalist for most of the band’s existence. In 2012, the band flew to Prague to perform a concert there. As soon as they had left their plane, Blythe was taken into custody, interrogated, and eventually charged with manslaughter. The reason? Two years earlier, during the band’s first performance in Prague, a young fan repeatedly climbed up on to the stage (as often happens in heavy metal concerts.) Every time he was forced off of the stage he would climb back up again- until finally he was flung off of the stage with such force that he struck his head and was seriously injured; he eventually died from the injuries he sustained in the fall. Czech authorities believed that it was Blythe who actually flung the young man off the stage that final time – which is why they pounced on him the first time he returned to Prague. The memoir is mostly about Blythe’s ordeal of being incarcerated in Pankrac, widely regarded as the worst prison in the Czech Republic, and of enduring the vagaries of the Czech criminal justice system (while not knowing the language of Czech at all.) It sounds like it might be an unrelentingly dark story about despair – but in fact it’s an incredible and uplifting story about how resourceful Blythe was in safeguarding his own physical, mental and emotional well-being – as well as maintaining his own sense of humanity in a place that can be so dehumanizing. (He was eventually acquitted of all charges, but the question of whether or not Blythe played some role in this young concert-goer’s death remains unclear to this day, even to Blythe himself.)
It’s easy to get caught up in Blythe’s vivid description of the appalling conditions in which he and his fellow prisoners lived- or of the maddeningly unfathomable legal system in which he found himself. They are an essential element to his story. But I was glad that against such a grim backdrop, there was life-giving light as well. For instance, two weeks into his captivity Blythe finally was permitted a visit from his wife, Cindy, who brought with her a treasure trove of items for her husband, including books: War and Peace. The Hobbit. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. Blythe writes:
Books! The mere presence in our cell of those most holy of civilization’s achievements instantaneously gave me a surge of relief and hope. I had requested the Tolkien for escape, the Tolstoy for sheer girth, and the Hemingway for both pleasure and study. Amongst the letters from my family, my father had also included some books, one being “Letters and Papers from Prison, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I read the back cover of the book with a skeptical eye. . . But my father is a very smart man, much smarter than I, and he had picked a volume that would provide me great comfort, not mere escapism, in the weeks to come. . .
Bonhoeffer was a man with a steel backbone and superb moral character; an outspoken critic of Hitler and his persecution of the Jews, he died naked at the end of a rope after climbing the steps to the gallows proudly, silently, and completely composed. . .My father would have known that a work by a man such as Bonhoeffer would greatly help me, and it did. I plowed through it rapidly in prison, completely entranced after reading the first passage I randomly thumbed to. In a letter to his parents dated May 15, 1943, Bonhoeffer writes: Of course, people outside find it difficult to imagine what prison life is like. The situation in itself- that is each single moment- is perhaps not so very different here from anywhere else; I read, meditate, write, pace up and down my cell- without rubbing myself sore against the walls like a polar bear. The great thing is to stick to what one still has and can do- there is still plenty left- and not to be dominated by the thought of what one cannot do, and by feelings of resentment and discontent. . . “
If there has ever been a more magnificent and useful piece of advice written on who to maintain one’s emotional sovereignty and a positive mental attitude in prison, I have not read it. In fact, I would whole heartedly recommend the entirety of “Letters and Papers from Prison” to anyone who is incarcerated or suffering under any form of real oppression. . .
To read of Bonhoeffer’s stoic life as a prisoner of the Reich made my current woes seem trivial at best, and I would often turn to his dying work for inspiration and solace in times of despair. That is what a good book can do for you that no insipid television show or inane Internet video will ever come close to achieving; it can reach down through the ages, hurtling past the clutches of death itself, to prop you up when you are alone and at your lowest. If you don’t believe me, try watching re-runs of whatever your favorite television seris was ten years ago the next time you are faced with a potentially life-altering dilemma and see how much wisdom you can glean from that drivel. I’ll take Ernest Hemingway, Rick Bragg, Helen Keller, Pat Conroy, Vaclav Havel, Malcolm X, and Mark Twain. I’ll take Dietrich Bonhoeffer, thank you very much.”
I ended up reading Blythe’s book cover to cover – something that is not always possible for me to do. (Many times all I have time for is what I like to call a “heavy skim.”) But I simply couldn’t put this book down. And on top of the story of his arrest, incarceration and trial – all compelling enough – is also the searing story of his battle with alcoholism. “I never get to be a ‘not-an-alcoholic.’ I will always be an alcoholic. Always. I view everything through its bloodshot eyes. Everything. My alcoholism will be with me until the day I did, and it will go to the grave with me.” Blythe has been sober for a number of years now but he pulls no punches in writing about this really tough reality in his life. He also writes with disarming candor about what it means to be a professional musician, what it takes to succeed, and how so many aspiring musicians operate within an array of foolish misunderstandings and assumptions. “…for the most part, it’s not luck, it’s work. For some odd reason, tons of otherwise intelligent people seem t hold a weird belief that luck is a major factor involved in ‘getting a career’ as a professional musician, especially in this day of idiotic reality TV talent competition shows. The pervasive cultural myth of the ‘lucky break’ has only gotten stronger with the advent of these mawkish clown-shoe battle royales, and young players hang their career hopes on getting accepted into some ridiculous contest, not on skilled hands calloused from playing guitar in empty dive bar after empty dive bar for years on end. You don’t hatch out of some rockstar egg, you work and hone your craft!” Yeah, brother! I could not have said it better myself.
Anyway, I would have never guessed in a million years that I would find myself drawn so completely and fully into a book by a heavy metal singer! Thank goodness that life has these marvelous and unexpected revelations for us, if our eyes are open to seeing them.
*Note: D. Randall Blythe and I ended up speaking for almost an hour and a half! That’s a tribute not only to his generosity and patience, but also to what a fascinating guest he turned out to be. Our interview will air on Monday and Tuesday, August 17 and 18 at 8:10 a.m. on WGTD FM 91.1 (or wgtd.org) – and will be available after that in our Morning Show archive, via our website.