Five Finger Death Punch’s Zoltan Bathory Blames Netherlands Show Disaster on a Crew Member

Man, this Five Finger Death Punch bullshit just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

First, the band played an already-famously-fucked-up show in Tilburg, NT, during which Bad Wolves’ frontman Tommy Vext sang the first couple of songs because Ivan Moody was late to the show (or something) and Moody quit the band from the stage; then Moody announced that he’d relapsed and was headed back to rehab, while the band soldiers on with Vext filling in; then guitarist Jason Hook seemed to call Moody a “piece of shit” on social media; and now other guitarist Zoltan Bathory has released this statement on Facebook:

“Thank you ???????? Austria ???? We had Great show ????????????????As you probably know by now – the show 2 days ago in Tilburg was an avalanche of clusterfucks – a crew member rolled the intro without verifying if we were all present – we were half way into the first song when we realized that – Ivan wasn’t even in the building yet – to save the day our friend @tommyvext of @badwolvesofficial ran out on stage and sung until Ivan arrived… but you can imagine Ivan’s shock – the band was on stage without him – so things escalated form there – as his anger got the better of him and in the chaos – more and more crazy shit happened – mistakes such us wrong intros resulted in skipping songs – which resulted in getting handed the wrong instruments for the wrong songs…. the aftermath was even crazier – so the events that happened in the following day left us no choice but to send Ivan back to rehab so he can take care of himself and come back stronger. The show must go on – we owe this to the fans – so Tommy will be singing with us for the rest of the tour. We had a great first show – thank you for the continuous love and support ???? (fans in Tilburg – we will be back – we will make up for the train wreck you unfortunately had to witness) ..:: Five Finger … ????“

So, basically, this whole drama could have been avoided if someone, anyone had bothered to check if Moody was present before starting the show? That raises a whole lot of other questions. Is the FFDP crew just a shit show? Wasn’t Moody’s anger at finding the band performing without him justified? If the crew member had done a roll call before starting the show, would Moody not have had to go back to rehab? Addiction isn’t really an “If/Then” thing — either Moody needs help or he doesn’t. And if he needs help, then this crew member really has nothing to do with anything. Actually, he might deserve a raise for bringing Moody’s relapse to light and helping to ensure Moody gets the treatment he needs.

This whole thing is just really confusing, and it’s hard not to feel like there are major pieces of the story missing. Which is understandable, but, c’mon guys. Time for a band meeting so you can get your explanations straight.

[via The PRP]