Parkway Drive singer Winston McCall has celebrated the wholesomeness of heavy metal’s fanbase during an interview on Australian national TV.
The 42-year-old, who’s fronted the Byron Bay-based metalcore band since 2005, says on current affairs/talk show The Project that the metal community is a “really loveable ball of barbed wire”, contrasting the aggression of its music against the gentleness of the people among its following.
He makes the comment after one of The Project’s hosts calls metalheads “some of the loveliest people”.
“I think the thing with it is, it’s community,” the vocalist responds. “It is a community, to a degree, of outsiders, because there’s a [stigma] that goes with the music and the sound of it.”
He goes on to add: “Everyone’s really nice and really, really kind, but the music itself is as spiky as it gets. You’ve really got to be committed to actually get inside it. So, the fans, everyone that is inside the ball of barbed wire, support each other.
“The shows are crazy – people go absolutely nuts, it’s highly adrenaline-fuelled, highly emotionally charged – but if someone’s falling down, they’re getting picked up. No one’s actually trying to hurt each other. When you’ve got something that intense, it’s quite emotional.”
McCall was on The Project to promote Parkway Drive’s then-upcoming concert at the Sydney Opera House on Monday, June 9. The 19-song show featured the live debut of their song Sacred, which was released as a standalone single last month, as well as the first performances of Home Is For The Heartless since 2016, Dark Days since 2018 and The Colour Of Leaving since 2019.
The band will play the Summer Of Loud tour across North America during the summer. It kicks off on June 21 in West Palm Beach, Florida, and also features Killswitch Engage, Beartooth, I Prevail and others on the lineup.
From September to November, Parkway Drive will host a 20th-anniversary tour across Europe. The run will include their biggest-ever headline UK show, taking place at the 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena in London on October 4.
The tour follows 20th-anniversary festivities that they held across Australia in September 2024.
Parkway Drive’s latest album is 2022’s Darker Still. Despite the recent release of Sacred, the band have announced no plans for a follow-up as of yet.
