UPDATE #2, 3:00 PM 6/29: Response from Lamb Of God’s publicist below.
UPDATE: An eyewitness account of the incident has been found. See below.
Well this is upsetting. Metal blogs are blowing up with the news that Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe was arrested for manslaughter today in Prague, Czech Republic in connection with the 2010 death of a fan who rushed the stage during a Lamb Of God performance in the city.
UPDATE #2, 3:00 PM 6/29: Response from Lamb Of God’s publicist below.
UPDATE: An eyewitness account of the incident has been found. See below.
Well this is upsetting. Metal blogs are blowing up with the news that Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe was arrested for manslaughter today in Prague, Czech Republic in connection with the 2010 death of a fan who rushed the stage during a Lamb Of God performance in the city. The information comes from an article published on the Czech news site novinky.cz, which, according to metalsucks.net, reports that “Blythe’s arrest apparently stems from a concert that took place on May 24, 2010. Allegedly, a fan leapt on stage during the show, resulting in a physical altercation with the frontman. The fan eventually succumbed to his injuries and died, leading to the charges Blythe now faces.” A spokesperson for Lamb Of God has stated that Blythe is “wrongly accused,” that the band’s “lawyers are dealing with it,” and that “we expect him to be fully exonerated.” A terrible situation all around. We’ll let you know what develops in this story as we hear more information.
We’ve been alerted by thegauntlet.com of an eyewitness account of the incident, posted on the Czech metal blog Sicmaggot. As translated from Czech by The Gauntlet, the post reads in part: “Randy behaved exactly as I expected him to, a son of a bitch who pisses off everyone. He’s confirmed by firing up several fans. [Randy] was very irritated when someone decided to join him on stage. At first Randy hit him a lot, then Randy jumped on him to hold him down while he continued singing? When the fan got up, Randy took him by the hair and threw down quite quickly. It was a good thing the fan was so dazed that he probably felt nothing. It took him a little while to realize what happened and as he struggled to get his breath back. Randy does behave quite pretentious, but the performance was important to him.” Some comments on the blog post include: “Everything OK with that guy who fell down after a stage-push? We saw ambulance late after concert”, “He came down with a thud, when he fell down. The kid died after 14 days in a coma for bleeding in the brain!”, and “OMG impossible! The vocalist should be sued then… He pulled him really heavily.”
The New York Times reports that Lamb Of God publicist Maria Ferrero disputes the accounts that have been circulating thus far of the incident that occurred. “The publicist, Maria Ferrero, said in a statement that Mr. Blythe had been accused of pushing the fan off the stage after he got past security guards,” states the NY Times article. But according to Ferrero: “This incident deals with a fan that three times during the concert jumped the barricade and rushed Randy during the performance. It is alleged that the third time, security was not able to reach him and that Randy pushed him back into the audience where supposedly he fell and hit his head.”
An official statement from the band is expected Monday. We’ll bring you that statement as soon as it’s made available.
