H R H - I N T E R V I E W S

Lamb of God (Willie Adler)
Interview August 2006

Interview with Willie Adler Guitarist with the Metal band Lamb of God. Willie took a minute to speak with HRH before he went to sound check for a concert in Montreal, Canada. Willie and Lamb of God are co-headlining the massive Gigantour with Megadeth.

Matthew: Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with your fans at Hardrock Haven.

Willie: No problem. It’s my pleasure.

Matthew: All the G-men that I have interviewed have had different beginnings with the instrument. Where did your journey begin?

Willie: I was eleven years old when I got involved with guitar. My brother Chris was playing and so I wanted to play. I started by picking it up and trying to reproduce some of the things I heard on my early Metallica records.

Matthew: Did you ever take any formal guitar lessons?

Willie: Actually I only took one lesson; it just wasn’t for me. So I learned mostly by ear and then once I became able to do a few things I started writing my own music.

Matthew: What was the first band you were in or played with? Was it Burn the Priest (former name of Lamb of God)?

Willie: Well my brother and I used to screw around with some dudes locally, but yes as far as a real band Burn the Priest was the first. I had been going to college in Baltimore and when I came back to Virginia I heard that they weren’t really jelling with their current guitarist, so I tried out and eventually joined the band.

Matthew: How did you get to this level though? Did you practice for hours and hours and hours?

Willie: Yeah, of course. I have always loved playing and still do play every single day. Hours and hours each day.

Matthew: Who were the guitarists that inspired you the most when you were first starting out?

Willie: Wow, there were a lot of them. I used to pretend to be Kirk Hammett of course. I loved Megadeth’s and Slayer’s guitarists too.

Matthew: That sounds like you are a Bay Area Thrash guy like me.

Willie: Of course. But I also really liked Annihilator and the play of Jeff Waters. His style was my favorite. Coolest thing is tonight Waters is coming to the show here in Montreal.

Matthew: Wow fucking awesome. I reviewed a DVD of their greatest hits and videos six months ago. He is a special player for sure.

Matthew: The only time I had a chance to go and see you play was on the Subliminal Verses Tour with Slipknot headlining. The concert was at George Mason University Patriot Center which was pretty much a home game for you guys being Richmond, Va. boys. I was there to see Shadows Fall really but you guys stole the show. The thing that really amazed me was the stage presence and performance of Randall Blythe. He was absolutely insane, running and jumping around the stage commanding the crowd to do whatever he wanted while never missing a note. Wow, what a dominant front man.

Willie: That event was really cool for us playing so close to home. And yeah Randall is a wild man for sure.

Matthew: The subject of your new album is intricately linked to Randall as he opened his heart and shared a lot of the tough times and demons he has been battling through. This self-actualization helped him to create those serious lyrics on this album. I saw the DVD with you guys fist fighting each other and lots of other problems due to his incessant drinking and crazy behavior. In light of all that, how real in actuality are the changes to Randall?

Willie: He has really started taking life more serious. He seems to have a whole new perspective. And those changes have really made it a whole lot easier on the whole band, trust me.

Matthew: That’s great to hear because from all the people I interview they seemed to have a “killer” Randall drunken crazy tour story, which were coming close to a lot of the stories I read about Motley Crue’s destructive habits in the 1980’s.

Matthew: When I left the concert I immediately bought your album Ashes of the Wake. I became much more drawn to the band because of the instrumental track where you guys brought in Chris Poland and Alex Skolnick. What a smart move -- those guys are legends. What was it like playing with them?

Willie: Those two dudes are masters, I loved those guys growing up so it was awesome to have them involved. Chris Poland wasn’t able to come in so he sent his solo through e-mail files, but Skolnick actually came into the studio with us and played.

Matthew: What was that like, playing with Alex Skolnick?

Willie: Dude, we had 8 guys in a little room, and I’m like “this is amazing this is Alex Skolnick layin' down on top of my riff!”

Matthew: Wow. Glad to hear that. I hung out with Testament after a show last year and he is a fucking cult hero, even 15 years after playing that style of music. I mean kids that weren’t even alive when he was shredding know every single note of his solos. Damn.

What about modern guitarists? You guys have pretty much toured with everyone. Does anyone stand out to you? Do you watch any of the bands play on your current tour?

Willie: Well I like to hear Arch Enemy’s Mike Amott, Alexi Laiho, and the guy that is really underrated but really good is Overkill’s Dave Linsk. I watch Overkill every single show. Linsk is killer.

Matthew: I met him last year at the same even that Testament re-united and played. Linsk was there with fellow Overkill band mate Taylor in their new band Speed Kill Hate. I could not believe how good he was when I saw him either. He could be the most underrated axe slinger out there! Plus he was really cool and talked guitar with me for probably 45 minutes.

Willie: Yeah, those guys are really cool. I have hung out with them several times.

It’s really amazing playing with Megadeth after playing with Slayer on a tour this summer. These guys were my idols growing up.

Matthew: Yeah, you got a chance to play with the axe man responsible for that killer solo on “Peace Sells” then the other guitarist and singer from that song this year.

Willie: I actually got invited out on stage to sing that exact song with them last night! Fucking unreal.

Matthew: Well I know you gotta run to get ready for tonight’s show. Thank so much for your time. It was killer talking guitar with you.

Willie: Thank you, Matthew.