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In-person interview with Phil Demmel of Machine Head

December 5th 2009, Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas NV

Andrew: You are on tour with Metallica, and when you don't play with Metallica you play with Megadeth. Life must be good?
Phil: Yeah! Its been either Metallica, Megadeth, Lamb Of God, Slayer, Slipknot or Heaven And Hell. So you know we've had the best tours and its been really really good.

Andrew: A few months back in Europe James Hetfield joined you guys on stage. Can you tell us how that felt?
Phil: It was one of the highlights of my musical career having him approach us. He originally came into our dressing room and played it on the drums first and then he was like ok may be I'll play this one with you live or something like that. So he came up and did it twice and it was awesome, very amazing and very surreal.

Andrew: What is the reason for not doing a proper headline tour of the US? Is it just because of your schedule and not being able to fit it in with the support treks?
Phil: We wanted to, but then the Megadeth thing came up. How can you deny doing Slayer and Megadeth? And then the Megadeth tour, and then the Metallica shows came up. We headlined so much in the states. So it was better off doing this. We're doing a proper headlining of Europe, which are more deserving in my eyes.

Andrew: We in the states deserve it too, don't we?
Phil: Of course. I didn't say the states didn't deserve it. But I mean if we had to pick one it would be Europe. Europe has been really faithful to us whenever we've been there doing out the whole thing, so more deserving in my eyes.

Andrew: This tour [with Metallica] is your last in the touring cycle for the Blackening album. After this you have a UK tour. Tell us a little bit about that.
Phil: It will be UK, Europe and then its also going to be Japan and Australia. So it's the Black Procession tour with us, Hatebreed, Bleeding Through and All Shall Perish, and then in Europe, and I think we have Emmure opening in Japan and Australia. So we are looking to do a full set, an hour and forty minutes, may be more, stuff that we haven't played and just get out there and play our own set and tour the way that we want to.

Andrew: Your Blackening album was released back in 2007 and you're coming to the end of its touring cycle. So when are you planning to go back in the studio and write some new material?
Phil: We'll write in the spring when we get home from the tour. We'll be home in April, so I would imagine late April we will reconvene in the studio and start writing the follow-up. So I don't know when it will be ready and when we are going to record. We are not setting any time. When its ready then we'll go in.

Andrew: You first album with the band was 'Through The Ashes Of Empires'. It was released in Europe in 2003 but was initially turned down by labels here. Talk us a little bit through that period.
Phil: We were really close to signing with another American independent label. Roadrunner international came in at the eleventh hour and decided to pick up the record. We had four songs recorded and we asked Roadrunner America but they passed on it. So then it comes out in Europe and blows up, does really well and then they said ok now we want to put it out. So that's why there was a six month interval between the releases. It hurt us as far as not having a simultaneous release, but looking back now its all water under the bridge. Its kind of like, it helped build us. It provided us with the Blackening if anything. We had the record out, we saw the disrespect and the lack of respect helped us put out the Blackening. So I would say it helped.

Andrew: You have toured with numerous great bands recently. Is there any band that comes to your mind right now which you haven't toured with, and would love to?
Phil: We did four shows with Slayer and that was called a tour. But I would like to do an extended run with Slayer. They are the reason why I am playing heavy music and I would love to tour with them.

Andrew: Slayer have so many fans so they will bring in the crowd for you.
Phil: I think we can handle ourselves in front of the Slayer fans. We have proven that we can. We love Slayer, but we can hold our own with them.

Andrew: You have a heart condition because of which you tend to black out. How much progress have you made with that and recently have you been confident enough that it won't happen on stage?
Phil: I can never be sure that it won't happen because three out of the four times I was pretty surprised that it did. Healthwise its been better. Its more a head space thing than anything else you know, so it has a lot to do with depression and has a lot to do with stress. Ever since my father died two years ago, tomorrow is the anniversary, its been tough man. So its hard to gather all those emotions and keep things in check. So I can't be sure. But I feel better these days for sure.

Andrew: How were the gigs that you did in places like India, Israel and Dubai last year?
Phil: That whole run was amazing. We'd played Dubai before. So we played there first and that was the last time I've been really sick. That was almost two years ago. I was deathly ill, I had pink eye and my equilibrium was really fucked up. So I couldn't go and see all the cool things that everybody was doing, but the show in Dubai was amazing. Awesome festival, and then from there we went into Israel and crazy kids just aching for metal and it was so good. Then we went to India to play this festival with Megadeth. We were staying in this plantation like hotel with amazing amenities and it was really cool. Then 40,000 kids show up screaming and having a great time. So really exotic places and each one of them was really cool. In India, we remember walking in on this red carpet and they had this procession of people dancing and drums and everything. When we stopped, they stopped. They were kinda following us and gave us a coconut. It was so cool.

Andrew: Whats been your favorite moment or memory of 2009, now that we're coming to the end of the year?
Phil: So many cool things have happened to this band. There's been so many benchmarks made and achieved, bigger things and bigger venues. It would have to be playing the festival weekend. We headlined Wacken and there were like 85,000 people there. It was one of the best shows in Machine Head's history, if not the best show, and then hurried off to a private plane that was booked for us to fly to Sonisphere UK to play with Metallica, then to wake up and have this really cool hotel. That whole weekend was the highlight of 2009 for me. Then the Kerrang awards on the next night and something like that. It was a really cool weekend.