Ex-Bad Wolves Vocalist Tommy Vext Wants to Fix Things with His Former Bandmates

When we last left the hyper messy split between Bad Wolves and their ex-vocalist Tommy Vext, the legal dust had finally begun to settle. After being accused of assaulting his former girlfriend, his posting of extreme right wing views, and being at odds with his bandmates over said views, he was summarily out of the band. Really, the whole saga was just one big, ugly dispute after the other until Vext and the band reached a settlement back in October 2021.

Fast forward to nearly two years later and it seems like Vext wants to bury the hatchet. After apparently attending a spiritual retreat in Costa Rica back in May, the former Bad Wolves frontman said in a recent video (courtesy of Rock Feed and transcribed by ThePRP) that he realizes now that he “caused a lot of wreckage by just really blasting everybody.”

Rather than pull select quotes from his lengthy statement, here’s the relative parts in full:

“…Long story short is, you know, there’s been a lot of stuff going on. I keep getting tagged in a lot of things that involve that Bad Wolves. I keep getting tagged in their posts. I keep getting tagged in their announcements. I keep getting, you know, I see what’s going on here. And I don’t, I don’t like it.

“So, to let you guys know a little bit about what’s been going on, obviously, you saw that when I turned 14 years sober, I went to Costa Rica. You know, I did a spiritual retreat. And I really have been digging deep in my recovery and looking at the past, and doing my step work.

“And I’ve been… since that time—since May—I’ve been on basically a nine-step mission where I’m making, you know, basically I’m making amends with a lot of the people that I had beef with or that didn’t, you know, criticize me, or that we had, you know, the various infractions and issues that happened as a result of 2020, and the pandemic, and the election, and politics and, you know, the fighting back and forth.

“And I don’t, I don’t want to engage in this anymore and I don’t need you guys to do it on my behalf. You know, me and Chris [Cain] from Bad Wolves made up a while ago. You guys know that me and Ivan [Moody, Five Finger Death Punch singer] squashed the beef, we even did a song together and shot a video.

“And you know I’ve been in touch with those guys. I’ve been hanging out with Zoltan [Bathory, Five Finger Death Punch guitarist] again and seeing Chris and, uh, you know, just having all my friends back in my life has been a blessing. And it’s a lot to do with taking responsibility. Me taking responsibility for my part in these misunderstandings, and also just the drama.

So you know, last week I had a call with Allen Kovac. And I was able to make amends to the owner of Better Noise Music, who was my former manager and former record label.

And we had a really good talk, and I was surprised that he took it as well as he did. And the thing is, Allen, and I got to discussing what exactly happened, and I’ve been made aware of like a lot of the stuff that went on, with spilling the tea, and all this shit, It caused massive problems for a lot of people that I didn’t even see.

And so while me and my former band members and the label guy are busy fighting, and having lawsuits and talking shit, everybody at the record label was stressed out for months. You know, this was a 10-month ordeal of you know, people being you know, having to deal with drama and people having to deal with stress. And you know, Chris, who is who has worked as a manager for us at 10 Street and Constance and Jackie at radio and Crystal… like, all of those people and more, were exceedingly stressed out because we kept having this online battle.

The media would go after me, I would perceive that as an orchestrated hit piece and then I would attack the band or I would attack x, y & z, and as a result of it, we split the fan base completely in half. You know, and the people who follow me, I’m super grateful for you guys. I love you. Everything I have in my life to this point, is because you guys stuck by my side. But I’m going to ask you guys one more favor and that favor is to not… to stop trolling my ex-band members.

So you know, I talked to Eric German, the band’s lawyer—who Eric was my lawyer first. You know a lot of these things were, the guys in the band, all these things, all these relationships that came to them, are a result of my relationship with these people first, via Five Finger Death Punch or via Better Noise Music or via Mitchell Silberberg and my relationship with Eric.

And, you know, there was a lot of… I incurred a lot of mental health issues and stress from being attacked by the media, but my former band members, like especially John [Boecklin, Bad Wolves drummer] and those guys, you know, they are not really… they’re sensitive artists. And the online bullying, it affects them.

And I don’t like bullying. In my self-righteousness, I felt like I was fighting back, but feelings aren’t always facts. And sometimes when, you know you can be sober a long time, and if you’re not working the book, you’re not working the steps and you’re not living by the principles you can turn into a dry drunk. And so I caused a lot of wreckage by just really blasting everybody.

And I need to take responsibility for that because, I can sit here and be like, Oh, it’s all you know, it’s all good and it’s peace. And you know, I’m not apologizing. I think the difference between an apology was when people kind of half measures say they’re sorry. And amends is when you actually take action.

And so you know, what happened between us was very public, and it affected the fan base in the audience. And so I feel like I have a public responsibility to address this stuff with you guys. And ask you to stop, you know, torturing these dudes online. You know, every time they post something, every time I see something, you know, all I see is my name. You know, if you don’t like the band’s music, and you don’t like the new singer, and you don’t like the lyrics or you don’t like the songs, just don’t listen to it, you know? But don’t don’t do that on behalf of me.

I think a lot of the issues that have been going on with, you know, obviously I experienced canceled culture. And I don’t I just don’t think that it’s a productive means of… I don’t think it’s a sustainable culture. And so I need you guys to know from my heart that like, I’ve forgiven John. Right. John has a right to go make songs and do whatever he wants. I forgave Doc [Coyle, Bad Wolves guitarist.] I’m happy that he’s in Ice Nine Kills, I hope he gets a permanent job there. He’s living his best life.

Those guys don’t cross my mind. I don’t have any resentments against them. And I understand that what we all did together. You know, me and John and Max and Drew and Joseph. We made magic. Those first two records were magic. And it’s never gonna be the same. Whenever you change creative lineups, it’ll never be the same. And so I understand that, but the reality is, is that I’m very happy. I have a very blessed life. I’m creatively…. I can do whatever I want, I can work with whoever I want.

And you might not see me, right, like, I don’t have the privilege of being on the record label and being in the machine, right. I don’t have the… I’m not involved in that anymore. I’m an independent person. I’m a small business owner. And so I know you guys have to see that pushed in your face all the time. But that’s the that’s the job. That’s the record labels job. So please don’t fucking, you know, pick on those guys anymore.

If you want to say something bad, every time you want to talk shit, just go on one of my things and say something nice, right? If you follow me on Twitter, you know, I do the glad game about twice a week.

And I want people to express gratitude on my behalf. I don’t want them to express bullying. And like I said, to me personally, the shit that we went through in 2020, the shit that I went through in 2021, It made me spiritually sick.

And so, you know, I did not like I’m taking a reflective moment in a period of my life to kind of elevate myself spiritually. And, you know, it doesn’t matter what other people do to me. It doesn’t matter what other people did to me, and my brother tried to murder me and I forgave him.

You I can forgive anyone by the grace of God and through my spiritual work, and it takes action. So, I appreciate you guys.”

We’re firm believers that anyone can change, but man — talk about nuking a bridge on your way out. While it makes sense that someone would want to fix the problems they made for themselves, the cynical part in me looks at this statement and says “of course he’s saying that now, he’s got a new album coming out.”

So here’s hoping the dude’s being sincere and I’m just an asshole for even thinking that thought.