Heavy metal veterans Machine Head recently performed a surprise set at Bloodstock Open Air festival in the U.K. Singer Robb Flynn has revealed why his band doesn’t perform for festival crowds more often in an interview with Bloodstock TV. What it basically boils down to is that it’s not as much fun for certain musicians to perform for mixed crowds.
“To me, music is so much about a connection — it’s about making a connection with people,” Flynn said. “That’s always the goal with what we’re doing. We stopped playing festivals for eight years. That was my first festival in the U.K. in 10 years. And I stopped doing festivals ’cause I didn’t feel that connection with the audience anymore and I just needed to get my break from it. Obviously if every festival was like yesterday [at Bloodstock], I’d be like, ‘F*ck yes! This is f*cking sick.'”
Flynn went on to say that for bands to play the festival circuit, they have to commit to a series of gigs that include many mixed audiences. “I mean, (Bloodstock) was insane — just insanity levels of f*cking mayhem. It was incredible. But you’ve also gotta do the festival circuit. That’s what people don’t realize. You’ve gotta go to Serbia [and] you’ve gotta go to Budapest.”
“I was just talking to Chuck Billy [Testament] and Gary Holt [Exodus] and they’re like, ‘Dude, we’ve been out here for eight weeks. [We’re] done.'” Flynn said. “They’re just frazzled. And they still have 10 more days [on the circuit]. And they’re just, like, ‘I just wanna go home. I’m f*cking sick of it.’ And I get it — I get it, man. It’s f*cking hard — it’s really hard doing the festival circuit. And so… I don’t know. Never say never. But for now, all that matters is that we did an awesome show yesterday, and that was it.”
Machine Head released a new album earlier this month, “Of Kingdom and Crown,” and the band is set to tour widely in support of the record. Flynn admitted, though, that he doesn’t know if the band will keep up a heavy touring pace for long. “I don’t know if I’m gonna continue touring like this forever,” he told Heavy. “I really did enjoy the time off (during the pandemic). Doing my ‘Happy Hour’ show [on Facebook Live] and then coming home on a Friday night and just drinking with my wife, it was cool. Maybe that’s what the future is — I don’t know. I mean, certainly not the immediate future, but it was the first time in my life that I ever thought, like, ‘Wow, maybe I could do something else [and not stay on the road so much].”
