Drummer Chris Adler Opens Up on What Led to Firing from Lamb of God
Chris Adler is considered one of the premier drummers of modern metal, so his firing from Lamb of God in 2019 came as a surprise to longtime fans. Six years later, Adler has finally opened up about what led to his ousting from the band that he co-founded in 1994.
In the year leading up to his ouster, Adler had been sitting out shows after a motorcycle accident that shattered his collarbone and right shoulder. Art Cruz was called in to fill in on Lamb of God's tour dates, and eventually was named Lamb of God's permanent drummer upon Adler's firing from the band in July 2019.
As it turns out, Adler was suffering from a condition musician's dystonia, which hampered his ability to play drums, even before the motorcycle accident. Around that same time, he had also joined Megadeth for their Grammy-winning 2016 album Dystopia, a few years after he had contributed to Protest the Hero's 2013 LP 'Volition.'
The drummer feels that his limited physical ability and the collaborations with other bands led to tension between him and his bandmates, noting in the new interview with Loaded Radio that he was unceremoniously fired by e-mail.
'Dystonia is basically a neurological condition where the nerve that controls the movement of any particular body part basically deteriorates to the point where that motion becomes impossible,' explained Adler (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). 'So people that repeat the same repetitive motion for decades at a time, this happens to them. It happens a lot to golfers, quarterbacks, first-chair violinists, people that just practice the hell out of what they're doing. And this happened to me with my right foot. So I would be playing a song, and my foot, when I intended it to depress the pedal, would shoot off to the side or shoot back. And that was at the point where I was coming off stage just so depressed with my performance.'
He continued, 'I think the band was very frustrated with my performance. I did give them the medical paperwork: 'Here's what it is. Here's what we can do. There's just a couple songs that are really aggravating this. The rest I can get through, if you're willing to change 'em.' I think at the time I had also joined Megadeth, so tensions were really high. And we were never like the most functional group of people traveling around the world, if you know anything about the band. So, whoever was not in the room was basically getting picked on.'
Adler further noted, 'I think the combination of things got to the point where they didn't wanna deal with it and I wasn't happy with my performances, so that kind of stopped the train. It was one of those e-mails, 'service is no longer required' kind of thing, and that was devastating, 'cause I felt like it was my baby, it was my project and I put my life into it.'
After a couple years of intense physical therapy, Adler was back playing the drums again, and he has since formed the band Firstborne with guitarist Myrone and vocalist Girish. The band will release its debut album, Lucky, on July 18th (pre-order here).
See Chris Adler's full interview with Loaded Radio and watch the video for Firstborne's recent single 'Wake Up' below.
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