Imprisoned frontman of As I Lay Dying admits to pretending to be religious to sell records

The frontman of the Christian metal band was sentenced to six years in jail this May for paying a 'hitman' to kill his wife

Frontman of Christian metal band As I Lay Dying Tim Lambesis has admitted to lying about his faith in order to sell records.

Lambesis was sentenced to six years in prison for plotting to kill his wife earlier this year. He was sentenced in a San Diego court on May 16 after pleading guilty to paying a police officer posing as a hitman $1,000 (£630) to kill his wife Meggan Lambesis.

In an interview with Alternative Press, via The Independent, Lambesis said that he is an atheist and has been for years, saying he dropped his religious beliefs at college. “In the process of trying to defend my faith, I started thinking the other point of view was the stronger one,” he said. He explained that he still pretended to be religious when it came to the band. “When kids would want to pray with us after shows, I’d be like, ‘Um, go ahead and pray!'” he said.

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He also claimed that other supposed Christian bands are lying about their faith. “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. 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. “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.”

As I Lay Dying formed in San Diego in 2000 and released six albums, including 2007’s ‘An Ocean Between Us’, which reached Number Eight on Billboard’s charts. A single from the album, ‘Nothing Left’, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance.

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