The dramatic second collapse of As I Lay Dying last year was a troubling affair. One by one, every band member, except for vocalist Tim Lambesis, left, with most hinting that their values or beliefs were being challenged.
Former As I Lay Dying guitarist Ken Susi recently discussed the topic in detail on the BREWtally Speaking Podcast. The full episode is available below.
In the interview, Susi explains why he decided to speak out about the issue now, offering his thoughts (as transcribed by THEPRP):
“I think it’s unacceptable for Tim to go on podcasts with his friends and make false claims about how the band broke up.
“I guess like, believe what you want, but my version of what happened totally doesn’t align with basically what he’s been out there saying and putting out statements about, right? So I really don’t personally want to get into a back and forth with Tim Lambesis, and I really don’t want to respond per se to what he said in the breakup and all that stuff, it’s just not what I’m here to do.
“But I think the band just found ourselves in a position where we were essentially endorsing and promoting somebody with like a history… past accusations and he went to prison and all that stuff and he did what he did.
“But like after his incarceration, it was almost like I did kind of see this coming. In my opinion, he formulated this like almost reality TV, you know, persona for his fanbase of like him portraying himself as his man of redemption or rehabilitation.
“And it really gave those people that really do believe in that this like sense of, ‘I can get behind this guy and and do the thing that you know, that that he says that he is. And I can overcome my, the things that I’ve endured in my life,’ and like giving people hope. But to be totally honest with you, it’s as I said, it’s almost, like well-crafted and well thought out. You know, I really don’t believe in my opinion, I really don’t believe it’s a real thing in his world. But maybe he can speak to that.”
Susi went on to explain: “But, going back to the band, a lot of troubling issues kind of surfaced within the band in his personal life — well, surfaced in his personal life — but also with the band, leading the band into it. And we were just basically supporting somebody dealing with serious problems. And we were unaware of how serious those problems were at the time.”
“And when we figured, when the band actually, you know, it revealed himself and the band figured it out, that’s when, we really realized that… I believe, and we believe, that he, Tim, was, in need of professional help. And it was something that we were not able to provide or equipped to provide to him. ‘Cause we’re not like therapists and we’re not relationship experts. We’re, we’re none of that.
“We’re just band dudes, like looking to play gigs and have a good time. And we were really kind of, a lot of us felt a lot regret when we figured out exactly what was going on, when the band evaporated. It was basically… what I’m trying to say is it had to stop”, he concluded.
Reflecting on recent Tim Lambesis video leaks that came online, he added:
“There was so much bad footage that popped up online and I was, I think the whole band was like, ‘holy cr*p, this is what was going on.’ Like we had no idea, but we’re glad we walked away kind of kind of vibe.
“It’s like for those people in the comment section being, ‘Oh, you know, this guy didn’t hit that dog too hard’ or, ‘This guy didn’t freak out that hard’ or ‘He barely touched her.’ And I’m kind of like, how much do you love this band?
“Because the guys in the band don’t love it as much as you do at this point. You know what I’m saying? Like it’s time to stop. And the only way I would, me personally, Ken Susi, would ever support that particular project is if he wasn’t a part of it. Other than that, I’m done.”
