Robb Flynn 'quit' Machine Head over Adam Duce row

Robb Flynn has given more details on Machine Head's acrimonious split with sacked bassist Adam Duce.

The frontman recalls he, drummer Dave McClain and manager Joey Huston all said they were going to quit the band – before realising they had to fire Duce to keep the show on the road.

Just weeks after Machine Head released their new album Bloodstone & Diamonds, Flynn says in a new blog post: “Two years ago I never thought this feeling of releasing a new album would ever happen again. On December 14 we played the last show on Dethklok tour at the Roseland Ballroom (RIP) in New York City.

“It was a disastrous day and a disastrous ending to disastrous tour. At that point in time the tension in the band was so thick you could’ve tried to cut it with a knife, but the fucking thing probably would’ve broke your hand. Dave McClain walked off stage and said to me, ‘That’s the last show I ever play with Adam Duce.’

“I was talking with Dave and our manager Joey, and at one point Dave threw out that he was serious about New York, he wasn’t playing with our bassist ever again, or he was quitting the band. Joey laughed and said, ‘Oh no you’re not, cause I’m fucking quitting the band.’ I laughed and said ‘Fuck you guys, because I’m quitting the band.’

“We all laughed for a minute, laughed that all three of us had just quit the band. And then we stopped, because really, there wasn’t anything funny about it. The three of us had all decided independently of each other that we were quitting the band because we couldn’t take the situation we were in anymore. The three of us were going to walk away from this, because of someone who didn’t even want to be there.”

Duce was eventually replaced by Jared MacEachern and Machine Head settled out of court with Duce, who had launched a $1.8million lawsuit claiming loss of earnings.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.