Longtime Machine Head drummer Dave McClain and guitarist Phil Demmel quit the band in 2018. While Demmel has had quite a lot to say about quitting the band and how he wasn't a fan of his final Machine Head album, drummer Dave McClain hasn't really said much.
Now in an interview with Robb's MetalWorks, McClain discusses everything from knowing it was his time quit the band to really now believing in the new material.
"I remember telling my wife, 'There's no love for this. I don't believe in what we're doing. I don't believe in the songs we're doing. I don't believe in the direction.' And it's hard, because I have my wife, I have our dog, I have them to think about — 'cause it's their life too — so me leaving what I'm doing, financially, it's a hard thing to get to, where you have to make that decision. What's better for you? And I knew the answer to that, and I knew being happy was the answer. It was a hard time getting to that point. It's a lot of things, and things were happening. Like, I was having anxiety, I was having all these things, and it's crazy going through all this stuff.
"We were in Japan — it was the last time we did Japan and Australia — and I was having anxiety about it so bad that, at one point, I felt like I was having a heart attack," he recalled. "I run, like, five, six, seven miles every other day, and I'm walking up these stairs in Shibuya, in Tokyo, and I can't breathe. I had to hold on to the rail. And it was all these emotions going through my body, like, 'I know it's over. I know my time in Machine Head is over, and it's scary. It's scary as fuck.' And everybody goes through [a similar situation], and that's one of the comforting things about going through something like that. A lot of times it seems like it's just you, but it's millions of people going through this thing. And it's hard."
Demmel has since gone on to announce a string of Vio-Lence reunion performances, and McClain has rejoined his old band Sacred Reich.
