Savannah Promoter Rips Off Eyehategod, Ringworm, and Enabler, Blames Crime on Social Anxiety Disorder

Update, 2:37 p.m.: A rep for Ringworm tells MetalSucks us Lionel sent the band their guarantee “via PayPal a few minutes ago” — nearly two full days after the concert. Prior to that, the rep tells us, Lionel “bolted [the show] without telling anyone, took down most of his social media pages, his phone was off, etc.” So the promoter’s story about suffering from a panic attack now seems even more bullshitty.

Original story follows below:

Stories about promoters ripping off bands are only too common. But that doesn’t lessen the sting when it happens for the umpteenth time, unfortunately.

According to DoSavannah, “The Savannah Metal-Punx Birthday Bash [at  Savannah’s Dollhouse] on Saturday ended poorly for the eight out-of-town bands playing the show” when “promoter Floyd Lionel, who works under the promotional name Black Southern Death Cult, allegedly left with all of the proceeds from the event, including money guaranteed to the traveling bands. ” Bands who got screwed include Eyehategod, Ringworm, and Enabler.

Lionel has since taken to the Savannah Metal-Punx Facebook page to offer this bullshit explanation:

“First apologies all around for Saturday not making excuses but I suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) what you witnessed Saturday night was a person having a full blown mental breakdown due to a lot of undue stress from what was already a very long and stressful day, My departure was not based upon any attempt to avoid responsibilities or as some corners have said ‘run off with band money.’ But to prevent a situation that could have quite easily deteriorated into a far worse harmful situation for myself and others around me. Again apologies to all whom were directly adversely affected by my breakdown.”

Which makes no fucking sense — the show started on 9 p.m. on June 21, but Lionel didn’t post this excuse until around 6 a.m. today, Monday, June 23. Is it really possible that it took more than twenty-four hours for Lionel to figure out that he owed everyone some sort of explanation? Even if his alleged panic attack prevented him from thinking “Hm, I should probably make arrangements for these bands to get paid if I’m gonna take off,” surely he felt calm enough, and had enough awareness to try and correct his fuck-up, within a few hours, no?

For whatever it’s worth, two [Now three. -Ed.] of the eight bands, The Day of the Beast and Holly Hunt [and Ringworm], now say via Facebook that Lionel has paid them their guarantee via Facebook. We don’t know if he’s done the same for any of the other performers, but, presumably, if he has, that information will be made public soon, and if he hasn’t, that information will be made public soon, in which case he’ll need all the money he stole to buy fake mustaches and other disguises, lest he ever get recognized at a metal show.

Thanks: Zach G.