Michael Keene Loves Chris Barnes

Well, I hope none of you were hoping for The Faceless and Six Feet Under to tour together anytime soon.

Referencing Keene’s negative comments regarding the on-stage breakdown of Green Day’s Billie Joe this past autumn, Revolver recently asked the guitarist “if there is any similar ‘childish behavior’ in metal,” The PRP reports. Keene’s response?

“All the time! Chris Barnes recently punched Travis from Cattle Decapitation in the face then tweeted, ‘If you eat tofu, you’ll get your ass kicked in a fight.’ That is completely uncalled for.

“The fact that he has been allowed to act like such an idiot for so long is beyond me. The only relevant thing he ever did was Cannibal Corpse and now he covers Cannibal Corpse songs, which is fucking pathetic.

“I strongly feel everyone in the metal community should fucking put their money where their mouth is. Like, if you act like an asshole in the regular world, you will lose your job.

“I really wish this industry ran like other industries where people are held accountable when they screw up like idiots.”

I get Keene’s point, but I would argue, to some extent, that metal musicians are held accountable when they screw up — they’re just not fired in the traditional sense of that term. Let’s say, for example, that there’s a Small-to-Mid Sized Band, or StMSB, that gets a sweet gig playing support for a Much Bigger Band,  or MBB. And one night early in the tour, the singer for StMSB gets really fucked-up and engages in some rock star-level property destruction, and, consequently, the singer/band leader of MBB has StMSB kicked off the tour. Not only have StMSB now burned that bridge, but they’ve robbed themselves of an opportunity to spread their music to new potential new fans. Not terrific news for StMSB.

I have no idea if there are bands that now won’t tour with Barnes or not. I’m just saying, y’know, there can be consequences for dickish behavior.

And then I found twenty bucks.