Machine Head Nearly Split On Slipknot Tour

Machine Head vocalist Robb Flynn reveals he has been in therapy as he updates the band's website.

Posted Wednesday, 11 February 2009 in

Machine Head vocalist Robb Flynn has posted information on the website about band therapy and the ongoing treatment of guitarist Phil Demmel. Read all about it below:

''The [last] tour ended a little abruptly, as we reported Phil collapsed again, this time in Sheffield. It had been happening a bit on this last tour, most dramatically in Paris where, for no apparent reason at one in the afternoon, he collapsed face first into a wooden table and broke two glass ashtrays on his chest and had to go to the hospital. For the most part none were public or onstage, so they weren't publicized, but we're very concerned, worried, and a little scared about what's going on. It's confusing. And because it's so random, frankly, it seems dangerous. The doctors he's been seeing, in my opinion, haven't been doing enough, and the advice they've given him is ridiculous. But he seems to be feeling good, and it hasn't happened since then, which is a great sign. He's working to change his habits and to be a little healthier (eating, exercise, stretching) but other than the first few days out, his habits haven't really changed much. *ahem! cough!*

"Adam [Duce, bassist] and I have been going to therapy. Yep... going to therapy, to work out our bullshit. And oh how we *needed* to do this... lemme tell ya, after 17 years of being in a band together, touring together for a large majority of that time, we've accumulated a lot of shit between the two of us that's either been put off or swept under the rug, and frankly, it all reached a boiling point on the first night in Paris on the Slipknot tour. To summarize briefly, after a massive two-day-long fight, I quit the band. I was gonna be on a plane the next day and as far as I was concerned, I was never gonna see the dude again for the rest of my life. That next day he came by, and we agreed to try and sort it out... to try therapy before it all fell apart. Because it was falling apart. We agreed that the band meant more to us, that our friendship meant more to us, and that neither was something the two of us (four of us, for that matter) wanted to lose. All in all, it's going okay. We both bring a lot of baggage to the table, as, frankly, we're both pretty fucked up. While it isn't new for me (I did two years of fairly intensive therapy back '98, and more before 'The Blackening'), it is new to him, and we still have a lot of work ahead of us.... but, we're working at it. We don't want to lose this, and after all we've been through, to lose this band, our friendship, now, would seem like the hugest of failures.''