Is Jason Hook Out of Five Finger Death Punch?

Look, folks: my interest in the membership of Five Finger Death Punch extends only as far as my next headline. But MetalSucks has the best readers in the world (the best, Jerry, the best!), so my hat’s off this morning to reader Kris Kringle, who’s done the dirty work of sleuthing out that it seems as if guitarist Jason Hook’s tenure in Five Finger Death Punch is dunzo.

To start: you may recall that Hook suddenly departed the band’s U.S. tour last December, which isn’t in and of itself out of the ordinary; emergencies befall bands sometimes, and it turned out that Hook required emergency gallbladder surgery. Yikes! Hook then headed out with the band for their European tour with Megadeth in early 2020 but had to drop out midway through, citing additional time needed for his recovery. Well-known shredder / solo artist / YouTuber Andy James was tapped to fill in last minute.

What happened next, however, is “A Little Bit Off,” as the band might say.

Five Finger Death Punch have released a series of YouTube videos recently in which they watch their own music videos and comment on them in the style of Beavis & Butt-Head meets Mystery Science Theater 3000. Singer Ivan Moody, guitarist Zoltan Bathory and bassist Chris Kael, who all live in Las Vegas, gathered together in one location to shoot the series. Guess who also lives in Las Vegas? Jason Hook. And guess who wasn’t in the videos? Also Jason Hook.

Speaking of “A Little Bit Off,” the band released a music video for that track back in June, filmed in quarantine. Again, it’s just Ivan, Zoltan and Chris even though Jason lives in the same town. Where’s Jason? No Jason.

“Maybe Jason is still recovering from gallbladder surgery,” you may be thinking, or “Perhaps he’s simply not in Las Vegas at the moment? Many of us have relocated during this pandemic.” To the former, gallbladder removal is fairly routine — recovery is typically a few weeks — and to the latter, well, it gets even weirder.

Five Finger Death Punch’s Instagram account recently reached 1 million followers, quite a milestone indeed, so the band celebrated with a post patting themselves on the back for the accomplishment. Where’s Jason? No Jason! It’s a photo from the band’s recent European tour with Andy James filling in despite Hook holding down that guitar spot since 2009:

But wait! There’s more!

In a since deleted post on his personal Instagram page, Moody shared a timeline of photos of the band’s history, and once again… where’s Jason? No Jason! Which prompted fans to ask about that very thing, to which Moody responded with a series of non-answers and emojis:

So there you have it: all signs point to Jason Hook and Five Finger Death Punch parting ways. MetalSucks has not reached out to the band or their management to confirm the news because doing so would surely result in them either beating us to the announcement or asking us not to post this piece, and fuck that.

For what it’s worth, Jason’s Instagram and Twitter accounts both still list him as the guitarist of Five Finger Death Punch.

FFDP fans: if true, does this news upset you? Does it not matter?

I’ll tell you at least one guy who’s happy: Andy James! And even though I’m not a fan of the band, I’m stoked to see him succeed. Be well, friend.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there is Corey Taylor news that urgently needs covering.