Frankie Palmeri Is Asking “True Fans” to Donate $100 to Emmure

What would you do if you followed a well-known metal frontman on social media, and one day he sent you a direct message asking for a hundred bucks on behalf of his band? Even if we assume you’re following this dude because you enjoy his music, the request might give you pause. It’s obviously by no means unusual for bands to solicit money from fans. Nor is it unusual for fans to happily provide that money. But one would likely wonder why this person was reaching out via a DM and not by launching a crowdfunding campaign or a Patreon page or whatever. It’s an abnormal approach to a normal problem.

Of course, of all the words one could use to describe Frankie Palmeri, “normal” is not one of them. I mean, the man feels deep spiritual connections with video game characters, for crying out loud.

So the fact that Palmeri is now indeed hitting up fans on social media and shaking a proverbial coffee cup full of change is at once surprising and not really surprising at all.

According to Lambgoat, the Emmure vocalist has been sending direct messages to fans who follow him on Instagram and Twitter. He asks if they have “got a second,” and assuming they reply affirmatively, he then hits them up with this request:

“Thanks! So I’m reaching out to people (hopefully true fans) asking if they would be able to make a $100 donation to the Emmure cult. But it’s not just a $100 donation via PayPal, it also signs you up to our exclusive email list and gives donation members access to free VIP and guest list spots at future shows plus exclusive merch items both at our shows and online. The current industry climate is pretty rough, so we want to give the fans a chance to be invested in what we do while supporting us. These spots are limited, so let me know if you’re interested and I’ll supply the necessary info.”

Look. I’m not making any judgments about Emmure’s deeply-terrible music, or celebrating because if they’re in financial straits then maybe they’re near breaking up. Nor am I making any assumptions about what kinds of dum-dums enjoy that garbage. This is a rough business, and as I said, bands solicit money all the time.

But this is just such a strange way to go about doing so. Why isn’t this being done via Indiegogo or a similar platform? Why are the messages coming from Palmeri’s personal accounts, and not the accounts associated with the band?

And why $100? If someone wrote back offering, say, $10 instead, would Palmeri decline the offer? Why not just launch a fan club and make membership $100? I mean, that would be a lot of money for a fan club. Slayer’s is only $30, Metallica never charged more than $60, Guns N’ Roses’ upper-most premium memberships are $80, and even Kiss, the rock band most synonymous with greed, only charge $50. But how the fans wanna spend their money is their business. The benefits Frankie is offering in these messages are basically on par with what you’d get for a fan club membership anyway.

So some people are understandably wary of Palmeri’s approach, which seems a little too similar to past scams by dudes like Blake Judd and Jonny Craig. And maybe it is a scam. But we should also remember that Palmeri’s guitar is not the most well-tuned, if you catch my meaning. It wouldn’t be shocking if he was just being stupid about his solution to a common quandary.

If you’ve read this far, you may be interested to know that Emmure just recently released a new song called “Pigs Ear.” Because fuck apostrophes.