Imprisoned As I Lay Dying singer claims Christian rock bands fake faith

Tim Lambesis, the As I Lay Dying frontman who was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiring to kill his estranged wife in May, has claimed that his band faked their faith in order to continue to appeal to Christian fans.

Speaking to Alternative Press in the days ahead of his sentencing, Lambesis described his obsession with the gym and steroids, as well as his views on philosophy and relationship with religion. Although often touring with a circle of Christian bands, the singer said that he and his bandmates gradually lost their faith, but did not express their atheism for fear of upsetting fans. “I actually wasn’t the first guy in As I Lay Dying to stop being a Christian. In fact, I think I was the third,” he said.

The two who remained kind of stopped talking about it, and then I’m pretty sure they dropped it, too. We talked about whether to keep taking money from the “Christian market”. We had this bizarrely “noble” thing, like, “Well, we’re not passing along any bad ideas. We’re just singing about real life stuff. Those kids need to hear about real life, because they live in a bubble.

He also stated that he and his bandmates were not alone in their “cowardly” posturing, claiming that they toured with ‘Christian bands’ who did not subscribe to the faith at all: “In 12 years of touring with As I Lay Dying, I would say maybe one in 10 Christian bands we toured with were actually Christian bands.”

Lambesis, who gave an undercover detective $1,000, photographs of his wife Meggan Lambesis and the security codes for her house, pleaded guilty to soliciting murder. He told Associated Press that his actions were in part influenced by steroids and a change in spiritual perspective. “I’m not blaming religion. But this was one of the factors that sent me into this massive moral decline,” he said.

As I Lay Dying have released six studio albums. Although originally stating the band were Christians, it has been noted that Lambesis showed growing scepticism in interviews regarding faith in recent years. Before he was sentenced, Lambesis announced a side project, Pyrithion. Many fans believed the lyrics featured on the project’s debut EP were satanic, however he was quick to address the accusations: “I wanted it to represent a point of views that aren’t necessarily my own, a way to get people thinking and to be more philosophical,” Lambesis said in a YouTube video.

Source:  The Guardian