DRUMMER MIKE KAABE SPLITS WITH EMMURE ON 100% COMPLETELY AMICABLE TERMS
No, I’m totally kidding, he was apparently fired from the band and he’s rrrrrreeeeaaalllllyyyy unhappy about it and now the whole thing has turned into a total shit show.
The soap opera began when Kaabe released a statement to Lambgoat earlier today, in which he explains his version of why the band gave him the pink slip. That statement follows after the jump:
“Well if you guys would like to know the truth I can explain to you their immature and completely hypocritical approach to [what] were quite resolvable issues. It started when I was posting videos of myself on the Emmure FB. I went to go post a video of a lesson and saw that I was removed as an administrator from the website. I called our manager to re-add me but was already in an argument with him a few nights prior about his lack of professionalism, and the facts that I don’t trust him, and that he might be stealing from us; nothing new there. So because of this he doesn’t pick up his phone, even though he should because we pay his bills. I call the company he works with [Sumerian Entertainment] and have them re-add me to post the video, so then of course I get the call from our manager. He tells me that ‘people’ in the band aren’t happy with what I’ve been posting, though a few months prior he told me to do exactly what I was doing so that the fans realize we are nice guys with our own personalities and that whacko Frankie [Palmeri] shouldn’t monopolize the page. I ask our manager Shawn Keith what ‘people’ and he won’t say, which is obviously unprofessional on his part. So I have to go interrogate my band about who could be so passive aggressive about a simple issue that could be resolved without calling our manager who doesn’t like me. I find out it was Frankie who didn’t like it, and his argument was ‘if it doesn’t directly promote the band that it shouldn’t be on there.’ My thought is that I’m the drummer of the band so anything I put on the page directly promoted the band, and unless it’s in a negative way, what’s the problem? I don’t tell Frank that he’s promoting pokemon, or Mario bros, more than the band when he takes these ridiculous pics that’s have nothing to do with the band. Again just a bunch of hypocrisy.
“So after that argument things seemed fine until I posted a remix of a Drake song I did for fun. That really upset him because even though I stated that it was only by me and not the band, it received a little negative criticism and that just scared them. That’s when Frank decided I need to leave the band even though I’ve known him for nearly 15 years. So he sent me a text kicking me out of the band which was disgusting considering he lives a half a mile from me. I then spoke to Jesse [Ketive, guitar] whom I’ve known for 22 years and is my step brother. He said the band was scared that I might miss a gig or not show up because I like to hang out with friends on the road and travel on my own. None of these things ever happened with the exception of one day on Warped where I was stuck at the exit a mile from the venue for 3 hours due to traffic, and could hear are set being played, and luckily Jesse knew the drums. Other than that I never missed a show, and was penalized for the show I missed. They also claimed I party and drug too much for them when I barely did drugs at any point in the band. I got free cocaine that I shared with everybody the two days we were in Vegas, quick Mark [Davis] our bassist did with me, and did Molly 2 or 3 times with other people on the tour, but other than that nothing. So they call me a drug addict, yet Jesse eats 90 somas which are highly addictive in 20 days, or drinks and smokes every night that he’s onstage, or Frank eats ecstasy and trips on mushrooms for 2 weeks at a time while onstage, yet I’m the drug addict? I don’t even drink. They just didn’t seem to like that I was happy and living my life as best I knew how and wanted to stop me. They claimed I was disrespectful to them because I smoked cigarettes on the bus yet so did all of them. Did I smoke more cigarettes and if so how many more constitutes me deserving to be kicked out of the band? Again they had no real argument other than that Frank is a passive aggressive pissy baby along with the rest of them who have a do as I say not as I do attitude.
“The best is they threw away their friendship with me that again has gone on with Frank and Jesse more than half our lives over this nonsense.”
Now, it’s no secret that I’m not an Emmure fan, and that I find Palmeri’s ramblings on video games and pop culture to be pretty dumb… and Metal Insider points out that, yes, as Kaabe asserts in his statement, Palmeri has certainly posted photos on Facebook that do not “directly promote the band,” like this one, and this one, and this one. It’s possible that the vocalist has a bad case of Lead Singer’s Disease and want sEmmure to ostensibly be The Frankie Palmeri Show.
That being said, disliking a band’s music/world views does not mean that said band is necessarily evil or anything, so we can’t exactly just jump up and go, “Wow, all this terrible stuff Kaabe says about the band and their management is true.” Because these are some pretty harsh accusations (and let’s be real, pretty much everyone in metal who isn’t straight edge probably meets the DSM-IV’s definition of being an addict), and by his own admission, Kaabe was just fired, and had a falling out with two friends he’s known for a very long time, and he’s clearly upset. So it’s entirely possible that he’s just trying to drag his former bandmates’/manager’s names through the mud as an act of vengeance.
Holy crap, I just defended Emmure. What’s the old expression? “If you live long enough you will end up seeing everything” or something like that? Oy.
ANYWAY, everyone is waiting for Emmure to issue a response, but if they want people to just forget about it and move on, the smartest thing they could do is ignore it. Statistically speaking, a metal band loses a member once every three-and-a-half minutes, and no one will be talking about this in a week, and Emmure will continue to be successful, and Kaabe will continue to be not in the band, and the sun will rise in the morning and set in the evening and all that shit.
-AR
