Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe has opened up on his battles with drink, drugs and why he tried to kill himself when he was 24 years old.
His personal demons came to a head when he split with his then girlfriend – and he reports the breakup was the catalyst which triggered his self-destructive thoughts.
He tells The You Rock Foundation: “I had a complete meltdown and I had a rough time in a romantic relationship – but I can’t really blame this sort of meltdown on me breaking up with a girlfriend – it had been building and building.
“I came home from a wedding and I was really drunk and ate two or three boxes of sleeping pills. I lay down on my couch and I’m just like, ‘I’m gonna die, this is awesome, I’m done with this terrible world.’ But what happened was I woke up crazy and drunk.”
Blythe then set fire to the house, prompting the arrival of fire services and police. He was then handcuffed which led to an altercation.
He adds: “I was spitting at them, calling them ‘pigs’ because I was gonna die – I figured I’d do whatever I want.
“The police started on me with a nightstick – they thought I was on crack, they didn’t realise I was having this complete emotional breakdown. I was trying to exit this existence.”
Blythe ended up in a psychiatric ward in Richmond for three days after the incident where he realised he’d been bottling up his problems for years. But that didn’t halt his relationship with drink and drugs, which he continued to abuse for another 22 years.
The singer continues: “I never dealt with the problem, which was me. I never talked to people, I just kept pouring more and more alcohol and drugs on it until finally, one day, I woke up and I just felt completely nothing.
“Some little part of me said, ‘You’ve got to try something different’ and then I accepted some help and slowly my life began to get better – but it was rough.”
He adds: “I didn’t like the way the world was, so I tried to make it go away.”
Blythe released his memoirs entitled Dark Days earlier this year. The band cancelled their European tour earlier this week in light of the Paris terror attacks.
