Machine Head’s Robb Flynn: “Music Isn’t Important Anymore”

Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn has let loose on the music industry and seemingly everything else in an epic rant posted to the California metal outfit’s official Facebook page. In the post, Flynn expresses frustration with, among other things, what he perceives as an apathy towards music.

“The music business has sucked the life out of creativity. No one is encouraged to take risks, no one is encouraged to push the envelope, because it’s all about first-week sales! It’s about pointless radio play and how good your last tour went. How venues and promoters are squeezing the last drop of spontaneity out of your soul by not ‘allowing’ you to playing past curfew,” the frontman writes.

Flynn’s lament was inspired by the stories of an acquaintance he’d recently met at a friend’s birthday celebrations. “He was telling me some pretty awesome stories about growing up in the ’70s,” writes Flynn, who then details a musical environment before curfews and unit-shifting.

“Music isn’t important anymore,” he continues. “Say it is all you want, but the fact is, the 2 biggest rock records of last year only sold 400,000 copies, neither even went gold… And you know what, I miss music being important! I miss live shows being important. I miss feeling a part of something.”

The singer then aims his crosshairs at social media, writing, “All this technology we have now that’s supposed to make us ‘connected?’ It’s making me feel more fucking disconnected than ever. I mean watching all the things that other people are doing that I’m not invited to or even a apart of?”

He continues with a long laundry list of grievances, including, “I don’t get the political correctness of music anymore. I don’t get the narrow-mindedness of the world anymore… I don’t get religious nutjobs who think that when they die they’re going to 72 virgins when they get to heaven.”

He concludes by asking “if this feeling is a result of the business itself, or is the business a result of our own apathy towards music,” before pleading for “something…to come along and wake us up out of the slumber.” Machine Head are currently working on their eighth full-length studio album.

See where Machine Head fit in our list of bands rumoured for Soundwave 2015!

Must Read