ADAM “NERGAL” DARSKI

When he’s not leading Polish extreme metallers Behemoth and agitating religious conservatives across the globe, he’s spinning eerie tales in his dark blues side project, Me and That Man. But what GW readers really want to know is... Interview by

- Brad Angle

Q: HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO LEARN TO PLAY GUITAR AND SING AT THE SAME TIME? ALSO, WAS IT SCARY TRANSITIONING TO ME AND THAT MAN’S CLEAN VOCAL STYLE? — NICHOLAS ANGELO

You know what’s the scariest? The worst is having no guitar, and just doing vocals. [Laughs] That’s the worst. Every guitar player that sings will tell you that. I’ve always had a guitar and been a songwriter. I couldn’t even play well for years, and I would keep making songs, writing lyrics and singing along. I had this vision and it took me at least a decade or longer to become an okay instrumentalist. It’s still tricky. Yesterday we did a tour preproduction and I found out it’s not going to be super easy to perform “Rom 5:8” off the latest record. Because when we did the record, I never rehearsed singing the songs. I leave the singing for the vocal tracking. Then I have to relearn the whole thing [for the tour]. Honestly one of the reasons there’s backing vocals in Behemoth live is that sometimes I cannot pull it off. Sometimes it’s too much vocal traffic, and I’m going to kill my voice. And then it’s also attractive for the spectators to see the band performing and the interaction between the vocals. It’s always cool, plus it makes it easier for me to pull it all off.

Q I love that you use White Falcons in Me and That Man. How’d you get hooked up with Gretsch? — Halelly

Ah, yeah. It’s a funny story, and tragic too. I had my Gretsch guitar, a White Falcon, that I got years ago… I had it in Poland. When I was in the U.S. to shoot the first Me and That Man video for “Cross My Heart” [from 2017’s