MACHINE HEAD Frontman Slams 'Lulu': 'I F**king Can't Stand LOU REED'

In a brand new interview with Niclas Müller-Hansen of Sweden's Metalshrine, MACHINE HEAD guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn was asked if he could ever see his band recording something totally different, like METALLICA did with its collaborative album with Lou Reed, "Lulu". "Well, the 'Lulu' thing sucks. It's fucking horrible." Flynn replied. When asked if he told the METALLICA members — and MACHINE HEAD's frequent touring mates — his opinion of the "Lulu" CD, Flynn replied, "They didn't ask and if they would've asked, I would've told them how I felt. I've said it in public already, so they know, because those dudes know what people are saying about METALLICA."

He continued, "I didn't even get it. If those guys need to do that stuff to get their ya-yas out, that's cool and I respect them, but eeehhh… was Lemmy not available? Was fucking Iggy Pop not available? [laughs] I think there are so many people that might've been a better choice. I don't know the dude [Lou Reed], but maybe he's the most charismatic guy in the world, I don't know.

"I fucking can't stand Lou Reed. I don't like his solo career and I don't like THE VELVET UNDERGROUND, so I don't know much about it other than 'Walk On The Wild Side'.

"Do I see myself [recording something completely different]? Yeah, I mean, we write plenty of songs that aren't necessarily what MACHINE HEAD would be. I love THE CURE, so I write a bunch of mellow stuff that's like super-gothy and … gay. [laughs] But I think it's cool. You jam for a while and you come up with all kinds of shit. The thing that's great about MACHINE HEAD is that it's a pretty wide canvas we get to paint on. We're not afraid to try any idea, at least just to try it and see where it goes, because you never know where it's gonna go, so we're stupidly fearless in the sense that we'll just try an idea and most of the time if that idea isn't working within about a week or two we're pretty good at figuring it out. In the past we may not have figured it out. Lord knows we've got a couple of stinkers in our catalog, but I think overall, if you look at… we're seven albums deep and we have a huge career and we've managed to transcend and maintain a level and just slowly keep on growing. Never really even going down, which is amazing. I'm really proud of the fact that we've been able to kinda get a vision and keep it. We've never had a 'Lulu' and we've never even had like a Blaze Bayley moment [referring to IRON MAIDEN's short-lived collaboration with the British singer], you know what I mean? ([laughs] Where it's like, 'What is going on?' We've always been able to do it and if you look at the breadth of our music overall, it's pretty pioneering and pretty consistent and that's what I'm very proud of. I mean, there's a core MACHINE HEAD sound, but we never want a record to sound like the previous record and I think maybe sometime we almost ran too far away from what we had just done. I think we we're better at it now more than ever and just going, Yeah, let's try this way and see what's over here.' It may be the total wrong way, but we gotta try it. I gotta see what's over here and I gotta go this way just to see if it's right, because you know what, it might be the best way we've ever gone. You never know until you try it.

"To me, writing music is a lot like… and this is gonna be a very bizarre analogy, but I like to run a lot, so often when I wake up super hung-over, it's like, "OK, you got to enjoy yourself, now you gotta fucking sweat it all out to make the balance, right?! So I'll wake up hung-over as shit in some fucking hotel or some fucking club or theater and I don't have any idea of where I am and I'll just go out and start running and it's like you're just lost for a while. You have no idea, everything's new and you have no bearings and eventually you go, 'Alright, am I gonna get back?' and then eventually you go, 'OK, I know the way back. I know where I'm going.' It's like you gotta go and get lost for a second before you figure out where you're going."