Ex-Venom Inc. Guitarist Jeff ‘Mantas’ Dunn Really, Really Doesn’t Like Tony Dolan
Following his exit from Venom Inc., it seems like Jeff ‘Mantas’ Dunn has no love lost for his former bandmate, bassist and vocalist Tony Dolan. At 63 years old and having suffered a second heart attack only a few months prior to his departure from the band, it seemed like there was plenty of reason for him to hang it up and live the rest of his life with his wife in Portugal. But as it turns out, there was an apparent lack of care that pissed Dunn off.
Details about his now non-existent relationship with Dolan came out during an appearance on The Tampa Morgue podcast (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
“Well, I can tell you now that the last fucking conversation that I had with [Tony] Dolan [Venom Inc. bassist/vocalist] was March the 26th. That was nearly a month before I had the [second] heart attack. I did not receive one single phone call after that. I got the occasional text saying, ‘How are you doing?’ but he never called me. And you know what it is? I was in a bad way after that heart attack, after the second one. Mentally I was worse than the first one. I didn’t come into [my] studio for months. When I came in, my guitars were, there was rust all over them. I had to repair everything.
“On that March the 26th conversation, we discussed me returning [to Venom Inc.] just for the festivals. And I said, ‘Look, I can do probably do two weeks or something like that,’ but even then that was getting a stretch because [my wife], she had been misdiagnosed with cancer and that went on for fucking months. That destroyed us… Nobody knows what we had went through there. And then, obviously, I had the fucking second heart attack.”
That sounds pretty shitty, having someone you thought was on your side and your friend not really taking the time to check on you after a major health scare. That’s totally reasonable. He said ultimately he needed various medical procedures, including the installation of two stents, and the weeks-long recovery process that follows.
But wait. Dunn said there was even more.
“[Dolan and I] had that conversation on March the 26th, and then there was nothing after that. I didn’t get a phone call. And like I say, I was in a fucking bad way. And maybe, just maybe, all I wanted to do was pour my heart out to my best friend. And I never got that fucking opportunity, as far as I’m concerned.
“All this fucking proclaiming he’s my best friend, he’s my brother, the door’s always open [for me to come back to Venom Inc.]. And then I see a private message between him and a person that I know as well, ‘Oh, Mantas’s just stabbed me in the back.’
“Can you help me understand that, how I stabbed you in the back? What? By having two heart attacks and fucking the plans up for touring? I’m so fucking sorry.
“This really has fucking angered me — really fucking angered me. And if anybody thinks I’m gonna sit back now at my age and just take all that and watch what’s going on — no. Open your mouth once more and the fucking world’s coming down on your shoulders. I’ve just had enough. I’ve had enough.”
Ultimately, Dunn said he made the decision to announce his exit from Venom Inc. after the band announced that it was booked to headline the Byker Grave festival in Newcastle.
“My idea was gonna be, ‘Okay then. I’ll fly to Newcastle. I can see my daughter, I can see my grandkids, I can see a few friends. I’ll play the show, and on that show, at the end of it, I’ll say, ‘Thank you, Newcastle. This is where it started and for me, this is where it ends. I now hand the reins over. And fucking I can’t do anymore, but thank you so much for 40-odd, incredible fucking years.’ Next thing I knew, they’re promoting the show. All right. Okay. So, I decided, ‘That’s it.’ I make the statement. I leave [Venom Inc. in early December]. And then a week later, well, after that, there’s all these fucking interviews [with Dolan that] just go straight up, like, damage limitation — that’s what I call them; [they’re] not fucking interviews. And then I put [my solo song] ‘Losing My Faith’, the first clip of the video up, that night when that video went off, he unfriended and blocked me on fucking everything — and [my wife], and her daughter. And that is the truth. Now please help me understand why. Let me know why.
“As long as I have breath left in me on this planet, I will never speak to him again. Never. Because as much as I loved that guy, and I did, I loved that guy like a fucking brother, I really loved that guy. And then this — okay, you think you’re Venom? Go out there and fucking do it. And I said in a statement the other night, go and play at every arena that you want to, or you can go play every fucking toilet that you want to. I don’t care. Leave me out of it. I’m done. I’m fucking done with it.”
