Randy Blythe doubles down on his criticism of Elon Musk

Randy Blythe, who sings for Lamb Of God, was one of the musicians that criticized Elon Musk back in January for what seemed to be a Nazi salute at Donald Trump’s inauguration. Now, during a recent discussion with NME, he added further, saying he “will not comply with fascism.”

What I see is not the Italian version of fascism or whatever, not that specific political structure, but the sort of hallmarks and the early signs of that kind of thing. I come from the punk rock scene and we’ve been warning about this for a long time. There’s a band called Corrosion Of Conformity who released a record in the ’80s called ‘Technocracy’, and that’s what we’re heading into now. When you have the richest man on earth giving what is a Nazi salute… That was not a fucking mistake. He did it twice. People can say he’s self-diagnosed autistic or he was giving his heart, blah, blah, blah. Go fuck yourself, you know? If we are afraid to say, ‘Hey, that’s not cool’, we’re screwed. I will not swallow that bullshit, and I will not comply with fascism. Fuck you. I don’t know if you can print this shit or not, but I get very upset about this stuff. It’s dangerous and you’re seeing it not just in America, but in other parts of the world as well. Power is consolidating. All you have to do is follow the money. If you look at Trump’s inauguration, how many tech billionaires are there? Someone like Elon Musk, he’s not doing it for money, he has all the money in the world. Some of his contemporaries have said that he’s bored with money, now it’s time for power. It’s just obvious, and anyone that can’t see that is blind.

After being asked if there is a gap between the people who are demanding for change and those who have the power to make a significant difference, he also added the following.

Well there is a big difference between me and Elon Musk. With some elected officials there has got to be a common ground, but I don’t trust politicians. I never have. I come from the punk rock scene. I learned my lessons from Black Flag and the Sex Pistols. I don’t believe that all politicians are evil, machiavellian-type people out to get you, though. I believe a lot of them start with an honest intent to serve the people. The problem, I think, is the system, and there’s such a disconnect between the working person and the people in power. In America, there’s this disconnect where you feel as if your vote doesn’t count – therefore people don’t engage in the political process as much as they could. So I think there is a bit of a disconnect between the common person and people who can affect change. The only way, I think, to change this is to become politically engaged. I believe that apathy and the feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness is what has got us where we are. People want a solution handed to them and, regrettably, that doesn’t work. You have to engage with the world. You have to engage with politics if you’re going to change anything.