Pentagram-laulaja Bobby Lieblingin käytös johti lämppäreiden lähtemiseen kesken kiertueen
Legendaarinen doom metal -bändi Pentagram kiersi toukokuun lopussa Yhdysvaltoja Wax Idols– ja King Woman-yhtyeiden kanssa. Yllättäen kumpikin lämppäriyhtyeistä ilmoitti jättäytyvänsä kiertueelta kolme keikkaa ennen kiertueen loppua, jättäen tilanteen hieman tulkitsemisen varaan. Nyt bändien keulahahmot Hether Fortune ja Kristina Esfandiari ovat antaneet Noisey:lle haastattelun, jossa he avaavat tilannetta ja kertovat Lieblingin ja kiertueen järjestäjien epäkunnioittavasta käytöksestä heitä kohtaan. Voit lukea lisää tästä:
Lieblingin käytöksestä:
What sorts of comments were Bobby and others making?
Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeenMainos päättyy
Fortune: Bobby made several absurdly gross, inappropriate comments to all of the women on the tour, but the worst thing was that a fan told us that she left the Pentagram show and was super disgusted because he was making rape jokes onstage. And he was. He did. He makes jokes onstage about how the legal age of consent is only 16, and I don’t know what the rape joke was this time, because I wasn’t even watching them. At that point, I didn’t watch them anymore. But people were writing to us and King Woman expressing their disgust with the shit that he was saying onstage about rape. So I was like, “Alright, I can’t do this. It’s just too much.”
Esfandiari: I didn’t personally hear it, but fans were emailing me, and I was like, “Oh, shit. I didn’t know it was like that.”
Fortune: We were also told that Bobby said the only reason he green-lighted the tour with us and King Woman was so that he could have “a lot of options with women.” And the way we were treated, and the things that Bobby was saying to us, reinforced that. And made it pretty easy to believe that was true, because that was the way he treated us. I personally never felt unsafe or violated. I just felt grossed out and disrespected. My other bandmates, however, were often basically hiding from Pentagram. They wouldn’t go in the green room, they would hide in the van—they didn’t want to be around at all because they were that uncomfortable.
Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeenMainos päättyy
Kiertueen yleisestä ilmapiiristä bändejä kohtaan:
You said that promoters told you that money was being mishandled. Can you elaborate on that a bit?
Fortune: We were told by promoters that money and hospitality were being mishandled, and that we weren’t getting what we were supposed to be getting. So when I tried to speak with the person in charge of the tour, the tour manager for Pentagram [Greg Turley], I was met with dismissal and a weird attitude.
How did the tour manager treat you when you brought that to him?
Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeenFortune: I said, “You don’t know anything about what’s going on in the contracts about how you’re supposed to be distributing buyouts to us.” He said, “I don’t know anything about that.” And I was like, “So, you don’t think in any way that package payouts include our band?” And he said, “Oh, you think you’re owed something, I guess.” I was like, “Man, this is bullshit. We’ve been treated like shit this whole tour and all I’m trying to do is be treated with a basic amount of respect and do my job.” And he was like, “How have you been treated like shit?” And I listed all of the ways, and that included all of the stuff Bobby and other people in their camp were doing. And he just laughed in my face and smirked and said, “Well maybe you’re not cut out for this.” I was like, “Ohh. Fuck. You.”
“Maybe you’re not cut out for this.”
Fortune: I’ve been in touring bands for ten years—in bands with men and women, on tours with all men, and on tours with girls. I’ve worked with men and women. And I have never in my life been treated this badly on a tour by anyone. Never. It was shocking. I know I’m not a famous rock star or something, but I have been doing this long enough to know what I’m doing, and to know how things should be run in a professional, respectful manner, and that is not how this tour was run. It was a joke.
Lieblingin käytös ja elämäntavat, joista kertova ”Last Days Here”-dokumentti julkaistiin muutama vuosi sitten, on ollut tunnetusti hyvin vaiherikasta. Voit lukea asiaan liittyvän haastattelun kokonaan tästä.