Free Randy Blythe

For those of you who don’t know, Randy Blythe, lead vocalist of Lamb of God, is being held in a Czech prison for an incident at a show that happened more than two years ago that resulted in a death of a 19-year-old fan. First off, why this took over two years to happen is beyond me. For those of you, who are completely puzzled as to what exactly happened, let me inform you. On May 24, 2010 during a Lamb of God concert, a 19-year-old fan decided to get up on stage. He didn’t do this once or twice, but three times. Randy got into an altercation with the fan and that died 14 days later because of his injuries. It was rumored that the fan had been struck with a microphone before the security team forced him from the stage. On Thursday of last week, in the Czech Republic, Randy was arrested and charged with manslaughter and could face up to ten years in prison. For those of you who don’t know, fans aren’t allowed to jump onto the stage. This guy jumped on stage on three separate occasions.  On many different occasions, many bands members have been hurt because of someone deciding to do something stupid like this. On October 22 of last year, a fan did that at an Anthrax concert in Los Angeles. The fan jumped on stage and tackled the singer, Joey Belladonna.  We all know what happened to Dimebag. Though it is quite different since that guy knew what he was doing, the same rule was broken. In that moment, because of things like this happening, band members have the right to defend themselves. I believe that Randy was in the right here in doing what he did. What this kid did was stupid, plain and simple. Was he trying to hurt this kid, probably not. Any band will tell you that going through an experience where you have to protect yourself, can be crazy. You never know what intent that person has. You got to protect yourself and that’s exactly what he was doing. He wasn’t trying to kill him. It was simply an accident. Hopefully, the justice system works out the way it should and he’ll be able to return home safely. Obviously, I wasn’t there, so it would be impossible for me to know that for sure, but with seeing people jump on stage numerous times, bands always act the same way with them going straight into defense mode. A lesson to be learned from this is when you go to a concert, don’t jump on the stage. When you make dumb decisions like that or just in general, bad things happen. The bands are there to try to entertain and if they have to worry about someone jumping up on stage, they won’t be able to do so if they are worry about some idiot. There is a reason why there is a barrier between you and the band. Or, if you are in a club like atmosphere, there is a reason why the stage is much higher than you are. There are even times in the past with I've seen bands or the concert hall have some sort of cage around the band while they are preforming to protect them from such stupidity. Concerts are supposed to be a fun experience and the phrase that one person can ruin it for everyone else, is true in this case.