The viral “Banana Man”, a heavy music fan known for attending rock and metal concerts in his signature banana costume, has publicly addressed the hardcore band End It following an incident where the group ordered the crowd to shred his suit during a recent show in Toronto. Appearing as a guest on “The Beardo and Weirdo” podcast with Five Finger Death Punch bassist Chris Kael and comedian Craig Gass, the fan detailed the unexpected and violent altercation.
Attending the concert specifically for the headlining act, the fan was entirely caught off guard when the opening band, End It, singled him out and instructed the audience to destroy his costume in exchange for a concert setlist.
“There was no pretext to it that I understood,” he explained (via Loudwire). “I also didn’t do hours of research on this band before arriving to the show, cause like you said, I was there for the headliner”.
He noted that he initially thought the interaction was going to be friendly. “I think you can see my happiness as he calls me and I reach for a handshake and he goes, ‘No, no, no. You don’t get rewarded’. I was gonna say, ‘Hey, Scott welcome to Toronto,’ but that took a turn pretty quickly”.
The situation rapidly escalated into a physical confrontation, putting the fan in a highly uncomfortable position.
“I don’t know that I really took it in until it started to get a bit more violent,” he recalled. “There was a point where someone pulled on my back and it started to restrict my neck pretty significantly. And at that point, in my head, I’m like this is kind of not going the way it probably should in the scene that I’m a part of. So I started hitting and I’m sure some people are more hurt than I am”.
Standing at 6-foot-4 and weighing 200 pounds, he emphasized the difficulty of defending himself at an all-ages event. “I’m a pretty big person, I’m 200 pounds and 6-4 and this was an all ages show, so I just can’t swing on kids. Now I’m the bad guy. So I kind of had to take it,” he stated.
Despite suffering a few scrapes and the total destruction of his banana suit, he maintained that he would have willingly participated in a planned stunt if the band had simply communicated with him beforehand. “At the same time, had the band approached me before, I’m all for antics. I love antics. I’m all in. But approach me, ask. If they would have said, ‘Now you have to crowd kill him for this next song,’ I would’ve been OK, but I think a few adjectives were misused there.”
Co-hosts Craig Gass and Chris Kael strongly condemned the band’s actions.
“There is nothing about what this guy went through that is OK,” Gass remarked. “What he went through is ridiculous. For someone to be that stupid that you are offended by a guy wearing a costume and to perceive it as someone looking for attention, to be that triggered by a guy in a banana outfit, is so ridiculous.”
Kael, sharing similar sentiments, was furious about the incident and extended an open invitation for the fan to attend the next Five Finger Death Punch show in his area. “I love hardcore music, I love metal. I love the community and to see something like that happen to someone in our community, I was outraged,” the bassist said.
Wrapping up the interview, the fan offered a direct piece of advice to End It: practice your stage show before you deliver it. However, he chose to leave the broader hardcore community with a positive final thought: “Let’s take care of each other out there. Life is too short”.
Following intense online scrutiny over a physical altercation instigated by frontman Akil Godsey, the group’s official Facebook page has mysteriously vanished from the platform.
As of yesterday, navigating to the band’s Facebook URL results in a standard “content unavailable” error, indicating the page has been taken offline or deactivated. This digital disappearance comes just one day after End It was quietly scrubbed from a newly announced European tour featuring metal veterans Hatebreed and Life Of Agony. The hardcore group has yet to issue a public statement regarding either their removal from the tour or the controversy itself.
The situation stems from a concert in Toronto, Ontario over the weekend, where End It was serving as a supporting act for hardcore heavyweights Terror. During their performance, Akil Godsey singled out a concertgoer wearing a full-body banana suit and placed a bounty on him, offering the band’s stage setlist to anyone in the crowd who could tear the costume apart.
“We’re just gonna address, it, do you want to this now, or later?… Banana man, what the f**k is you doing my n**ga?” Godsey asked from the stage.
When a section of the crowd began to cheer at the mention of the fan’s outfit, Godsey quickly shut down the positive reaction.
“No, no, no, no, no, you don’t get rewarded for doing that s**t. He wanted the attention, and now he has it,” the vocalist stated.
The band’s bassist then chimed in over the microphone, adding: “And now, everyone here has to kill you.”
Godsey then said: “And now, if you strip the banana, you get this lovely setlist. I’m just saying, he was asking for attention, now you got it.”
The audience quickly complied, mobbing the fan and destroying the suit.
Addressing the situation on social media afterward, the targeted fan explained that he has regularly attended local shows in the fruit costume for a long time and had never experienced that kind of direct hostility from a performer.
“People have been trying to dim my sparkle my entire life. It sucks, but I’m used to it. I’ve surfered hundreds of people in this suit, all genders, all ages, safely. Especially, a lot of first timers that felt safe to approach me for their first surf,” he wrote.
“@enditbaltmore two of your band members crossed the line…and I’m obligated to speak on it.”
“F**k the police? While, policing what people wear? Take off, hoser.”
“The message last night; Conform or get called out, exactly the opposite of what Hardcore is supposed to be.”
“I was an unwilling participant, attacked and clothing removed at the direction of a band I paid to see… What would you do?”
As the story continues to dominate heavy music discussion boards and comment sections, several bands have stepped up to publicly support the “Banana Man.”
On Wednesday, June 10, Escuela Grind playfully acknowledged the viral moment while on tour in Europe. The grindcore act announced that the first five attendees to show up dressed as a banana at their gig at the Pitcher in Dusseldorf, Germany, would receive a free gift from the band.
Taking a much more direct stance, Toronto-based punk rock group The OBGMs voiced their complete solidarity with the local fan. On June 9, the outfit shared archival footage of the fan stage-diving in his signature costume at one of their past concerts, accompanied by a fierce statement advocating for inclusivity at live shows.
The band wrote:
“Apparently, our BANANA MAN friend had a messed up experience at show in our city.
LET’S GET SOMETHING CLEAR.BLACK, BROWN, WHITE, PURPLE, BEIGE, BLUE, GREEN, RAINBOW.
MAN, WOMAN, NON-CONFORMING.
GAY, STRAIGHT, QUEER, QUESTIONING.
RELIGIOUS, NOT RELIGIOUS. OLD. YOUNG. AGELESS.
DRESSED LIKE A BANANA, A ZUCCHINI, A TOMATO.SHOW UP AS YOU ARE.
YOU ARE WELCOME HERE.
WE INVITE YOU IN.
WE LIFT EACH OTHER UP HERE
YOU ARE FAMILY HERE.THE RULE IS SIMPLE.
DON’T BE AN A**HOLE.
DON’T BE A BIGOT.
TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER.
If you can’t get down with that F**K OFFSEE YOU AT THE SHOW.”
