During an appearance on B&H event spaceIt is “Leica Stories”, LAMB OF GOD leader D. Randall « Randy » Blythe spoke about his next book, “Just Beyond the Light: Making Peace with the Wars in Our Heads”which must be delivered on February 18, 2025 via Grand Central Editions (GCP). He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “My first book, the main theme was personal responsibility, about some legal issues that I had, that I went through, that some people probably know about. But the second book is about perspective, as far as I know after writing it because I didn't have a very clear plan when I started writing it. It's about seeking outside perspectives from people or experiences I've had in order to correct myself and not make as many of the stupid mistakes I've had. that I have realized over the years.
“For me, the only way I've been able to change my perspective to a more balanced one is by listening to people who have been through things and come out better for it,” he explained. “So that’s what I was trying to do. And there's a lot of introspection in it. I don't know if you would describe the book as a memoir, but maybe it's a collection of essays or something. And I write about my experiences that I have had with other people or just in life. And so I'm questioning myself, and I was questioning myself while writing the book, I knew I wanted to write about a few. things, but everything else was a mystery. So, it's a lot of questioning.
“What I really want the reader to do – I hope this is the main point – is to think about their own perspective on life and to question their own perspective and how they can change it to best. »
Blythe went on to say that learning from past experiences is a fundamental aspect of personal growth and development.
“No one that I know of has ever lived a perfect life, at least no one that I’ve ever met,” he said. “And God knows that’s not the case. But that doesn't mean I have to sit here and beat myself up, scourge myself, and crucify myself forever. I need to learn from these experiences and hope to become a better person. If I sit there and [say things to myself]'Oh, you're horrible,' and fight it, it's really just the other side of the coin of self-centered narcissism, really. Because if I sit there thinking that I'm the worst person in the world because I did something wrong, then I'm still only thinking about one person: myself. And I think as I get older, my life flows more smoothly the less I think about myself. [Laughs] When I try to reach out and think of others, my life tends to flow much more smoothly. If I'm stuck here in my head, it's not good. My head is a bad place. I should never go there without adult supervision. »
“Just beyond the light” was previously described by Blythe as a “tight and concise road map of how I have attempted to maintain what I believe to be an appropriate perspective in life, even in difficult times.”
Last month, Blythe announced more spoken word and Q&A events to promote “Just beyond the light”. The special “evening with” event includes a spoken word performance, a question-and-answer session with the audience, a copy of “Just beyond the light” and an opportunity to get the book signed.
In a recent interview with Radioactive MikeZhost of 96,7 KCAL-FM programme “Wired in the Empire”, Blythe we asked if “Just beyond the light” picks up where his first book, “Dark Days”which focused on his ordeal in a Czech Republic prison and his subsequent acquittal, has stopped or is a completely different book. Excited said: “It’s a completely different book. It's a collection of – I wouldn't call them essays, but different chapters about fundamentally different people and experiences that have [changed] my perspective for the better.
-“As I get older, I try not to make the same stupid mistakes over and over again,” he said. “And surprise, surprise, if you look at people who… you look at them and you think, 'Man, this person has their life together,' or 'They acted in a way that I find admirable,' if you pay attention to them and follow their example, you don't do stupid things yourself. I'm not saying that I still don't do stupid things, but I fully try, in my old age, to learn more from others.
When Radioactive MikeZ noted that it is “interesting” that Excited actually interviewed his then 94-year-old grandmother for the book, Blythe said: “Yes, she died. There is a chapter. Well, I didn't interview her for the book. I interviewed her because she was 94 years old. She lived to be one and a half hundred. And there's a whole chapter about her. She raised me for part of my childhood and she was raised during the period. [Great] Depression. She didn't mess around. She was a very real person who experienced a lot. But I interviewed her when she was 94, simply because she told me so many stories about growing up in a different time. And I thought, 'She's not going to be here forever.' I might as well put all these things aside, just for my own needs and those of my family. She was the last of this generation in my family. So when I started writing this book about perspective and the people I learned things from, she was a natural choice. Luckily, I had this interview to fall back on. So if you have older people in your life – this is what I'm going to tell you – if you have older people in your life, interview them now… I'm going to have to do this with my parents soon. I mean, they're not ancient or anything, but your memory starts to fade as you get older. So it's time to collect these things before they disappear. »
Blythe told RVA Magazine “Just beyond the light”: “It's about trying to maintain a balanced perspective in the world right now, and to do that I have to look to other people that I admire. One of those people I write about is my grandmother, who was 94 years old. I was by her side when she passed away, and I was grateful because it was after COVID. I interviewed her for two days and learned about her life. I asked her what the biggest difference was between her. [her generation] the modern era we live in now – she didn't talk about computers or globalism; she said people aren't as close as they used to be. »
He was asked if he felt like we had lost that sense of interpersonal connection between people,” Excited said: “In many ways, but I don't think it's totally gone. I think it's dormant. I think it's buried under the iCloud bullshit, and it's going to come back and bite us in the ass. One way or another, you're going to need help. People don't know their neighbors; there is no longer the sense of community that there was before. In this hyper-connected world, people are lonelier than ever, especially young people. interfacing with the world through this digital medium, and it gives an illusion of connection, but true connection requires friction. There needs to be a push and pull when you're in person, and that's absent via digital communications when there's a wall. of anonymity. »
In 2012, Blythe was arrested in the Czech Republic and charged with manslaughter for allegedly pushing a 19-year-old fan off stage during a show two years prior and causing injuries that led to the fan's death. Blythe spent 37 days in a Prague prison before finally being found not guilty in 2013.
BlytheThe prison experience inspired two songs on LAMB OF GODl’album 2015 “VII: Storm and Urge”: « 512 »one of his three prison cell numbers, and “More echoes”written while he was in Pankrac Prison, a dilapidated facility built in the 1880s and used for executions by the Nazis during World War II. This also led him to write the above “Dark Days”in which he publicly shared his entire side of the story for the first time.
