Tommy Vext Out of Bad Wolves
Update, January 9, 4:18 p.m.: The band has confirmed their split with Vext. Read their statement here.
Bad Wolves vocalist Tommy Vext has left the band.
The singer announced his departure from the group on his personal Instagram account just minutes ago in a video message using the service’s “Live” functionality. The post is no longer available. It is not presently clear whether Vext quit, was fired, or the split was mutual.
Reliable sources who saw the live broadcast tell MetalSucks that Vext claimed his conservative political views caused an irreconcilable schism with his bandmates and their record label, Better Noise (formerly Eleven Seven), and that he felt leaving the band was his only option. He said that Bad Wolves will continue without him, that he will launch a solo career, and claimed to have written all or most of the band’s new record himself (whether he was talking about their 2019 album, Nation, or an unreleased future effort isn’t clear).
Earlier this year, Vext shared a six-and-a-half-minute video on social media entitled “WHAT IS BLACK LIVES MATTER?”. In the video, which Vext said he made “After weeks of research & interviews with independent journalist, military personnel, entertainment industry professionals, a virologist & many ex Democrats,” the vocalist asserted that racism in the United States is “manufactured,” saying that despite being an African-American himself, “I have not experienced actual racism.” He shared the disproven thesis that the Black Lives Matter movement was created by entities such as The Clinton Foundation and George Soros, the Holocaust survivor and billionaire at the center of many right wing conspiracy theories (one of which Vext repeated in his video — that Soros “made his money by selling Jews to the Nazi party, by ratting people out,” an old chestnut which has also been debunked). Vext has openly supported Donald Trump in recent months, has shared posts promoting the idea that the election was stolen, and posted messages in support of the riots at the Capitol earlier this week.
Guitarist Doc Coyle, whose political views fall on the left side of the spectrum, issued a statement in response to Vext’s “WHAT IS BLACK LIVES MATTER?” video in which he said that he “wholeheartedly disagree[s] with the content of the video” while stressing the importance of keeping avenues of dialogue open between those on different political sides.
Vext (né Cummings) found himself in some legal trouble of late as well. The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles recently granted personal trainer and fitness model Whitney Johns a two-year domestic violence restraining order against Vext, her ex-boyfriend. Johns alleged that Vext assaulted her numerous times “both during and after [their] relationship,” which lasted for nine months in 2019 and 2020. She claims that the singer hit her in the face with enough force to draw blood, dragged her by the hair, and put her in a chokehold for a sufficient amount of time that she nearly lost consciousness, among other accusations. She goes on to say that Vext “knows where I live and I am terrified for my life,” claiming that he has verbally threatened to kill her more than once. Johns specifically cited four incidents when she says Vext assaulted her.
Vext denied those allegations in a brief statement after MetalSucks broke the news of the ongoing court case on December 8, 2020, and later claimed that Johns was running an “extortion attempt” and that he was being “cancelled” by the media for his political views.
In addition to temporarily filling in for Five Finger Death Punch singer Ivan Moody during a 2017 tour of Europe, Vext has also fronted Snot, the Westfield Massacre, and Divine Heresy. He was fired from the latter band in 2008 after allegedly assaulting its guitarist, Dino Cazares, and Cazares’ then-wife, Jennifer Pagan Cazares.
Bad Wolves guitarist Doc Coyle declined to comment to MetalSucks at this time.
Thanks: Pete Burns
