Randy Blythe

David Randall Blythe was born on February 21, 1971, at Fort Meade, Maryland, where his father was serving in the Air Force. His parents divorced when he was young, and while he was in the fourth grade, he moved to Virginia, where he lived on his grandmother’s farm with his father and brothers. Blythe has described himself as a "nerd" during his youth, being an avid reader and playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. He was first introduced to punk rock in the sixth grade while attending a summer camp, where a friend gave him a copy of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols by the Sex Pistols. Blythe graduated from Western Branch High School in Chesapeake, in 1989 and was also enrolled at the Governor’s School for the Arts for a period of time. After dropping of out college Blythe spent that Summer hopping freight trains to travel across country, after two months he returned to Virginia where he tried out for Burn the Priest and became their lead singer.

Blythe has struggled with alcoholism in the past, but has been sober since 2010, he claimed that he stopped drinking after a realization in Australia that alcohol was no longer working for him and that he was on a path to death if he didn't quit. In a 2015 interview with Metal Hammer he stated “I’m just this dude from a little town, I don’t feel like a rock star... I was a rampaging alcoholic that did his best to destroy his life, and now I'm living like a normal human being.” In his free time Blythe is an avid photographer and surfer. In 2019 he teamed up with Dez Fafara to relaunch the SunCult Surfwear Brand.