MACHINE HEAD Frontman Says RANDY BLYTHE Is 'Innocent'

August 1, 2012

MACHINE HEAD has been added to SLIPKNOT's first-ever Knotfest, an extraordinary two-date metal and hard rock festival set to take place on August 17 in Council Bluffs, Iowa and August 18 in Somerset, Wisconsin.

Commented the festival organizers: "The mighty MACHINE HEAD has been tapped as one of the artists to replace the cancelation of LAMB OF GOD and DETHKLOK. We are very excited that MACHINE HEAD is rushing back from Europe to play Knotfest. They will perform at both the Iowa and Somerset/Minneapolis Knotfest shows."

Said MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn, "We are deeply saddened by the fact that our brother Randy [Blythe] of LAMB OF GOD remains incarcerated — he is innocent — and we continue to put our thoughts out to him so that he may be free soon.

"While we are extremely excited to be a part of the first annual Knotfest (which will be HUGE),we can't help feel it is a bittersweet moment. We will do our best to honor DETHKLOK, Randy, and LAMB OF GOD's absence by playing a blistering set, and should Randy still be in jail, we will have Knotfest singing our songs loud enough for him to hear in Prague.

"FREE RANDY BLYTHE!!!"

In addition to the headliners, both days will include sets from DEFTONES, SERJ TANKIAN and PRONG.

Also playing at the Iowa show will be THE URGE and DIRTFEDD, while the Wisconsin show will also feature CANNIBAL CORPSE, GOJIRA and THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN.

SLIPKNOT mastermind/percussionist M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan told The Pulse Of Radio that the Knotfest idea has been around for a long time. "We wanted to do it from the very, very beginning, but we accepted that there was a lot of things we wanted to accomplish for ourselves," he said. "And we figure, right before we take a little hiatus and get ourselves together for this next record, which is gonna be phenomenal, that we would end it with two shows called Knotfest. So we're very excited, and we're gonna bring rock 'n' roll back to some kind of level of conceptual thinking, and we know everybody's gonna have a blast."

Knotfest is being positioned as a "dark carnival experience," and the event will feature circus tents, pillars of fire, amusement park rides, burlesque performers, fire-breathers, stilt walkers, drum circles made of junkyard cars, graffiti walls and even a SLIPKNOT museum.

The festival will mark the end of a two-year grieving period for the band following the May 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray from an overdose of drugs.

To view all ticket and VIP options for both dates, visit www.knotfest.com.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).