Ex-Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel has gone on record as not being a fan of Machine Head's 2018 album Catharsis, and said the band basically turned into frontman Robb Flynn's project.
In an interview with In The Pitts Of Metal And Motor Chaos, Demmel says he and drummer Dave McClain considered not participating in their farewell tour with the group. Which makes sense considering Demmel formally quit before the tour happened, so it was a little awkward.
"The tour was a little awkward. You don't usually ask for a divorce and then go on a honeymoon. But that's what ended up happening. It was a weird vibe — pretty awkward. But it was good for the fans to get the last shot at seeing this lineup. I couldn't bail. I quit a week before the tour and I was hoping that they'd get somebody to replace me. But Dave didn't wanna do the tour if I wasn't gonna do it, and he was pretty much done too. So we decided to honor the tour. Otherwise, it wouldn't have happened, and we couldn't do that — we couldn't have the band bail on a tour."
Demmel also echoes his previous statements, saying the band was very much Robb Flynn's. Demmel has previously stated he wasn't allowed to do press for Machine Head anymore, and says it basically just turned into a job he hated.
"We weren't a band. That was Robb's trip, and we were basically just being told what was gonna happen… Everything had changed over time. Shit, we were together for 16 years and stuff changes after that. It's been the band that he started. So things shift, and as they weren't what we agreed to or what we wanted to be a part of, we just left. So we do our own thing, and he does his thing."
