It is the year of birthdays for bands, apparently – and while Machine Head You may have celebrated your 30th birthday last year, they are still remembering how far they arrived.
When talking to Metal Hammer Earlier this week, guitarist and vocalist of Machine Head Robb Flynn I took a trip through memory, telling how it was for the band when they started 30 years ago: “It's still a very rough city. People think like 'Oh, it's California.' I'm like, 'Yes, but it's Oakland.' ”
Machine Head He began playing in the bay area in the early 1990s, when the area was struggling with growing inequalities due to rapid urban growth and economic booms and the lack of housing began to become a more prominent issue in the area – an effect of rapid urban areas were seeing.
Flynn He was born in an area where buildings were now boarded or untouched: “There is a bar called Merchant's Saloon that has existed for over 100 years with 'NOZIS' and 'Fuck Off' stickers in the window, has been here since 1916. It's a legitimate diving bar. There is a latrine that circulates around the bar so that people could pee at the bar and run to the street. This is how it is OG. ”
That kind of story? “This keeps you humble.”
Presenting in backyards in keggers, halls and community centers, Machine Head Eventually, he graduated from a Thrash nightclub before the rest was history, but not before some shows that barely paid in some less than ideal areas. When Flynn had started playing in the 90s, he was also worked for a concert prosecutor as a supplier, a job in which Flynn He even admitted that “I dealt drugs for a while,” on the side as well. It is presumed, just to survive.
And it's a humble story, for a humble band that exploded in one of the greatest heavy metal bands from California.
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