LIFE LESSONS
GREG MACKINTOSH
Paradise Lost’s guitarist and resident Dark Lord on mortality, mental health and hair metal insults
WORDS: JONATHAN SELZER • PICTURES: ANNE C SWALLOW
AS A FOUNDER member of Paradise Lost, guitarist Greg Mackintosh has overseen the band’s journey from playing tiny clubs through becoming doom-death pioneers and major label stars-in-waiting to electro-infused renegades, before arriving at their rightful place as a true institution in the metal world.
Not surprisingly, Greg has a lifetime’s worth of hindsight to offer on why you should stick to your guns, and why you sometimes need to change the ammunition.
DON’T TAKE EVERYTHING TOO SERIOUSLY
“If I could tell my younger self something, it would be to enjoy yourself, relax, not be so serious, and just take it as it comes, because when you’re young, you take yourself too seriously. I was the serious one of the band and I just made it all a pain for myself.
Everything was hard work, and it shouldn’t have been. I did have a kid when I was quite young, so I was constantly torturing myself about not being at home. Even my wife at the time was just like, ‘Relax, lighten up!’ And that’s what I wish I had done, because for the last 10 years, it’s just being plain sailing. All I had to do was relax a little bit and not take myself so seriously.”
DON’T TAKE FORTUNE FOR GRANTED