Lamb Of God shockingly split with founding drummer Chris Adler in 2019 and has since moved on with new drummer Art Cruz. Now in a brand new episode of Loaded Radio, Adler spoke pretty extensively about his firing from Lamb Of God.
According to Adler, the firing was due to a few things (in his opinion) – first and foremost was him being diagnosed with Musician’s dystonia, a form of focal dystonia. Adler also notes that he feels Lamb Of God wasn’t happy that he drummed on Megadeth‘s 2016 record Dystopia, as well as Protest The Hero‘s 2013 effort Volition.
“I haven’t talked about this before, but I had—at the same time, in like 2016 or 2017, right at the end of ’16—I was diagnosed with something called musician’s dystonia,” said Adler as transcribed by Metal Injection. “I didn’t want to talk about it at the time because I felt like it would really hinder my career. But I’ve gone through an incredible amount of work to be able to come back from it.
“What it is—and I’ve heard Alex Webster talk about this before, and I’m buddies with him—and recently I saw the Nickelback documentary. I’m not the biggest Nickelback fan, but it’s a great documentary if you haven’t seen it. Their drummer, Daniel, went through the same thing. It may have been with his arm or his hand, but he was diagnosed with dystonia. For a drummer—or really anybody that plays an instrument—it’s kind of a death sentence.
“Mine was with my right foot. Dystonia is basically a neurological condition where the nerve that controls the movement of any particular body part deteriorates to the point where that motion becomes impossible. People that repeat the same motion for decades at a time—this happens to them. It happens a lot to golfers, quarterbacks, first-chair violinists, people that just practice the hell out of what they’re doing. And this happened to me with my right foot.
“I would be playing a song and my foot, when I intended it to depress the pedal, would shoot off to the side or shoot back. That was at the point where I was coming off stage just so depressed with my performance. I think the band was very frustrated with my performance. I did give them the medical paperwork—here’s what it is, here’s what we can do. There were just a couple of songs that were really aggravating this; the rest I could get through if they were willing to change them.
“At the time, I had also joined Megadeth. Tensions were really high. We were never the most functional group of people traveling around the world, if you know anything about the band. Whoever wasn’t in the room was basically getting picked on. I think the combination of things got to the point where they didn’t want to deal with it, and I wasn’t happy with my performances. So that kind of stopped the train. It was one of those emails: ‘Your services are no longer required’ kind of thing. And that was devastating, because it really was—I felt like it was my baby. It was my project. I put my life into it. It was my identity.
“So I had to take some time. And of course, these other things were going on. I was really just trying to find a purpose, trying to decide what chapter two was going to be about. I knew that I wanted to play. I knew that it would be stupid for me to try to compete with what I had done before, because we really did way more than anybody—including ourselves—thought we could have done.
“I felt like—like we talked about earlier—22 years of traveling the world. And I don’t really count the awards or accolades, but there really wasn’t a whole lot more to achieve, other than just proving that we were still around. So it wasn’t like a total death sentence. I really think I got off the train at a very good time. It was just because of the other circumstances that contributed to it that it was difficult for me to find any relief in that. I was more depressed and kind of searching for who I am and what I’m going to do next.”
Adler later noted that of course he was devastated by being fired from Lamb Of God, but says he’s since worked through the resentment and is fine with the band these days.
“It was devastating to me—it really was. Like I said, I really considered that kind of my life’s work. But, you know, from my side of the street, I understand. I wasn’t capable of playing the songs that we really needed to be playing. These were songs—well, not all of them, but there were two or three songs—that were fairly popular, and I understand that would cause them to pause. Like, why can’t we play that?
“And again, with me taking on the Megadeth record and that doing so well, and me taking on the Protest the Hero record and that doing so well, I think tensions were just high. You know, like the metal sites always say—everybody’s replaceable, right?
“So, I did take it hard. I did take it personally. And it sent me spiraling for a little while. But I’ve worked through those resentments, and I’ve got nothing but love for them.”
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