Vocalist Chance Garnette Forced to Leave Skeletonwitch Tour Due to “Serious Personal Matters”
Although I wasn’t fortunate enough to be there myself, Vince and our other friends who were there tell me that Skeletonwitch vocalist Chance Garnette was absent from the band’s Decibel anniversary performance at Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus Bar this past weekend. As evidenced by these fan-filmed videos from the show, the results were, well, a little weird:
Weirder still is that the band apparently didn’t offer any reason for Garnette’s absence, which rightfully caused some concern amongst the group’s admirers. Was Garnette ill? If so, is he okay now? Has he left the band?
Well, now the band HAS offered an explanation… sort of. A statement on their Facebook page reads as follows:
“Lately there have been a lot of rumors, speculation, and assumptions, regarding Skeletonwitch. We want to set the record straight.
“Unfortunately, Chance is unable to finish out the tour as he has some serious personal matters to attend to. We ask you to respect his and our privacy regarding these matters.
“This obviously left us with a very difficult decision to make and we’ve decided to finish out the tour as a 4-piece.
“We made the assumption that Skeletonwitch fans attending the shows would rather see 4 of us ripping through our songs, than a piece of paper on the door announcing our cancellation. If the first 2 shows were any indication, we assumed correctly.
“You have our sincerest apologies for not being able to bring you the full show, and for canceling the stop in Albany.
“We thank everyone for their understanding and their support now and in the future.
“Please come out to the remaining shows for riffs, beers, and hi-fives with us. At the risk of sounding too sentimental, music is equally important, if not more so, during rough times as well as the good.
“Skeletonwitch is not going anywhere. See you soon.”
“Some serious personal matters” could mean any number of things, and I don’t really care to speculate at this point. Suffice it to say, Garnette is one of the best frontmen in metal today, and everyone at MetalSucks hopes the dude is okay and back with the band real soon.
You can get all the remaining, Chance-less Skeletonwitch dates here.
[via Lambgoat]
