The question everyone’s been asking since June is this: Is Randy Blythe really guilty? Well, let’s look at the facts:
Fact 1: I wasn’t there, so I don’t know.
Fact 2: You weren’t there, so you don’t know either.
Fact 3: You’re not a lawyer, so shut the fuck up.
I feel really sorry for both Randy and the fan who got killed, because this is unfortunate and no one wanted this to happen. But why are people everywhere throwing verdicts around? How do they know?
Here’s something very basic you need to understand about killing someone: If you start shoving your friend as a joke, and then at one point you push him harder, he falls down, hits his head and dies, you’re fucked. Sure, it’s not as bad as purposely killing a man, but it’s still involuntary manslaughter, and you’re still going to jail.
So you don’t have to be a cold-blooded murderer to be responsible for someone’s death, you just have to be really unlucky. So in Randy’s case, I have no idea what happened and if he’s responsible in any way, but some of his fans are just not being realistic about it.
My honest opinion, and this is coming from someone who is not a Lamb of God fan, Randy never intended to hurt anyone. I don’t know the guy, and again, I wasn’t there, but I am sure he just wanted to keep playing and finish his set. Unfortunately, security didn’t kick the kid out the first time he did that crap, so now look what happened.
Here’s what Phil Anselmo had to say on the matter:
I mean, you get on the stage at a metal show, you, nine times out of ten, are pretty much gonna jump off the front of the stage. He hits his head on the ground… I’m no lawyer, I’m no cop, but there’s this thing called ‘free will,’ and when you do something like that, that, to me, is accidental death.
I disagree with Phil, because security should not allow you to get on stage, period. As long as it’s so easy to hurt yourself or hurt anyone else while jumping into the crowd, as cool as it is, don’t do it. If you allow this type of behavior, then eventually bad luck might make an appearance.
It’s all fun and games until someone dies. I’m sorry it happened to Randy, but it could have happened to Pantera back in the early 90s, and it can happen to anyone who lets fans get on their stage and get crazy. The intensity of metal music is what we all love about it, and to share that intensity with the band and the other fans in the pit is great.
But as a musician you should simply be more careful, and ask your security to keep the fans on the floor. It’s also a good idea if you don’t get involved personally, and let security do their job. Just a thought though, again, I wasn’t there. And neither were most people commenting on this matter.
Image credit: Wikipedia
Phil quote credit: Blabbermouth
I think Randy is innocent and the only reason he’s in jail is because he’s in the middle of fucking nowhere in Eastern Europe. If that happens here, we don’t arrest people willy nilly.
Get Randy out of the Czech Republic and back to the States where he can get a fair trial
Randy was released a while ago. He’s back home in the US. He will go back to the Czech Republic to go on trial though.
Yes I mean get the trial to the US where there is freedom of speech
It happened in the Czech Republic, why would they move his trail to the States? That makes no sense.
LOL @ Ray
Get your facts straight, you blockhead.
There is a video on youtube that says to be of the incident. If that is correct, well, Randy is pretty straight forward guilty. He clearly has his hand on a person while throwing them offstage. There is a security guy who joins in a second later than Randy. The fact that no one else was charged in this makes me think the video is of an unrelated incident. If it is proven to be Randy and the deceased, well, then, yeah….
A huge amount of LoG fans are commenting saying the security guy pushed him harder, or that clearly Randy was mockingly pushing the kid into a stage dive, or that this behavior occurs at other shows so it’s not Randy’s fault. I do not understand how delusional people can be.
I agree with Ben – whatever Blythe’s intent (he does have a history of acting out impulsively and aggressively on stage), the evidence indicates that he did throw Daniel Nosek from the stage himself. If this is true, he is culpable for Nosek’s injuries that led to his death.
Most of us have been to enough shows to be aware of the stupid things that both musicians and hyper fans do – hitting, punching and kicking in the pits, some musicians pushing fans off of the stage, or throwing glass bottles at them. Plenty of idiocy on both sides of the stage. Those who are involved generally don’t mean to cause harm, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be held legally accountable if your actions cause the death of another individual. Many LoG fans need to accept that you can love LoG’s music and generally like Blythe, while acknowledging that he made an irrevocably foolish, impulsive decision that caused the unnecessary death of one of his own fans (the same way you can like Anselmo and appreciate the fact that he’s not Clarence Darrow).