Former Lamb of God Drummer Chris Adler Says The Band Fired Him by Email

It’s been six years since Lamb of God parted ways with Chris Adler, and the drummer has now revealed that he was actually fired from the band in a pretty unceremonious manner… via email.

In a new interview with Scott Penfold of Loaded Radio, Adler—who has also played with bands like Megadeth and Protest the Hero—opened up about his exit from the band and the circumstances surrounding it all.

“If anybody knows Lamb of God from the beginning, I think they know that I put a lot into that band,” he said, as transcribed by Blabbermouth. “The first practice ever was at my house, I kind of picked the guys out, and I worked really hard for myself and for the guys the entire time. So that became, really, my identity. That was about as personal as it’s ever been.”

Adler says “tensions” were high in Lamb of God before his firing

Adler went on to explain that things between him and his Lamb of God bandmates when he started working with other bands, like Megadeth and Protest the Hero, both of whom won major music awards (a Grammy and a Juno, respectively) for albums on which Adler played drums.

He then shared that he had also been dealing with some serious personal issues around the same time that his side project work was taking time away from Lamb of God. “My mom passed away. I was in the middle of a terrible divorce. I’d had the motorcycle accident,” Adler explained. “And I haven’t talked about this before, but at the same time, in 2016, ’17, right at the end of ’16, I was diagnosed with something called musician’s dystonia.”

The dystonia caused Adler to need to make adjustments to the way some Lamb of God songs were played, which contributed to ongoing high tensions between him and his bandmates, who he says “were never like the most functional group of people traveling around the world.”

Lamb of God informed Adler that his “service is no longer required.”

Finally, the trigger was pulled, so to speak. “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,” Alder recalled before detailing his digital termination letter.

“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,” he said. “It was my identity, so I had to take some time. And, of course, these other things that were going on, and, really, just trying to find a purpose, trying to decide what chapter two was gonna be about.”

Going on to share how he felt in the aftermath of his firing from Lamb of God, Adler said, “It was devastating to me. It really was. Like I said, I really considered that kind of my life’s work. But from my side of the street, I understand. I wasn’t capable of playing the songs that we really needed to be playing. These were the songs that were — not all of them, but there were two or three songs that were fairly popular songs, and I understand that would cause them pause as far as why we can’t play that.”

Adler says there is no bad blood on his end any longer

“And again, with me taking on the Megadeth record and that doing so well, with me taking on the Protest record and that doing so well, I think the tensions were just high,” he continued. “And like the metal sites always say, everybody’s replaceable, right? So, I did take it hard, I did take it personally, and it sent me spiraling for a little while.”

Finally, Adler assured fans that he’s “worked through those resentments,” and these days he has “nothing but love for” his former Lamb of God bandmates “continuing on and for each one of them.”