System of a Down’s Serj Tankian Says The Band Has Always Been Able to “Move on Without Me”
During the lengthy press tour for his recently released memoir Down With the System this past May, System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian revealed that he not only tried to leave the band, but he’d offered to help get his replacement ready. It was only his bandmates’ unwillingness to replace him that kept Tankian around. During a recent interview, he reiterated the fact that the band could one day exist without him behind the mic — all they’d have to do is say the word.
This time, Tankian was chatting with Metal Hammer for their latest issue, in which he was asked about comments drummer and Tankian’s brother-in-law John Dolmayan made that the singer “hasn’t wanted to be in the band for a long time.”
“John means the world to me, he’s my brother-in-law, I love him, and I saw him just yesterday, but there are times he’s got mad and said fucking shit. And look, there’s times I’ve gotten mad and said fucking shit, too. The option has always been there for the band to move on without me, and John knows that.
“In the end, to me System Of A Down is beyond the band, it’s our relationship together. And it means more to me than the band itself, or even the music itself. And that is hard for other people, maybe even other people in the band, to understand. But, as I saw from the stage at Sick New World last year, the multi-generational appeal of the music we have made is mind-blowing, bro. Our music is more timeless than we ever imagined, and that is the hugest compliment for any artist.”
As previously mentioned, we’ve since learned that Tankian was very close to actually leaving the band in 2017. In fact, things had progressed so much that Tankian announced to his bandmates that he was leaving in a band meeting. At the time, he said he just didn’t feel like touring anymore because of some lingering health problems and that his heart just wasn’t in it, saying he didn’t want to hold the band back.
We even learned that the band had held tryouts for Tankian’s replacement, but that the person they were going to choose couldn’t scream or growl, so they walked away. Tankian said he would have absolutely taught him how to.
“They promised not to pressure me into touring anymore. Management would merely present show offers as they came up. If I said yes, we’d do them. If I said no, we wouldn’t. End of story.
“It sounded reasonable enough to me. I sort of thought they’d forgotten about the whole idea of hiring a new singer, but a year or so later, John, Shavo, and I were at a fundraiser in Glendale, and this singer I knew got up and sang this beautiful Armenian song. Shavo was sitting next to me at the table. He leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder.
“‘By the way,’ he nodded toward the singer, ‘we tried this guy out as a singer. The only problem was that he couldn’t scream and growl.’ I was taken aback. Not that they had been auditioning replacements, but that they’d kept it a secret.
“‘Why didn’t you guys ever tell me?’ I whispered. Shavo shrugged. ‘I dunno.’ I turned toward Shavo, now looking directly at him. ‘Listen, he’s a good singer,’ I said. ‘I can literally take him in the parking lot right now and teach him how to growl. You should really consider him.’
“In more recent years, I pitched another friend to them as a potential replacement that they ought to seriously consider. But I don’t think they ever did.”
