Phil Demmel Says He Didn’t Demand Vio-Lence Break Up, Contradicting Sean Killian’s Assertions
Last week, Vio-Lence frontman Sean Killian took a trip down memory lane and recalled in a recent interview how guitarist Phil Demmel’s departure affected the band. The event had taken place roughly two years ago and only now did Killian feel like it was okay to spill the tea. And the tea, as it were, was that Demmel wanted the band to effectively “shelve the band.”
“[Phil] wanted me to shelve the band. And then we sold out the Whisky [A Go Go in February 2023] in L.A., and he brought it up in the green room after we played. And I was, like, ‘No, I’m not shelving anything.’
“‘Cause we never really toured back in the day, so there’s so many places around the world that haven’t seen Vio-Lence or heard it live. For him, it’s a garage thing that — I don’t know… He’s kind of a selfish guy. And if you’ve seen some of his interviews. he even brings it up himself.”
Demmel left Vio-Lence back in February 2024 after a show at Carioca Club in São Paulo, Brazil. At the time, he claimed that his departure from the band had nothing to do with his involvement in other projects like the Kerry King solo project or Category 7, but rather that he felt his role in the band was “undefined for a while and [the band was] kid of doing things that I felt unfcomfortable [about].”
Well, in a recent social media post from Demmel, the Category 7 and Kerry King solo act guitarist sought to set the record straight as he recalled it. And what he said was that he never once called for the band to go on hiatus.
“I asked Sean to end the band with me, then perform the material as a solo act. When he told me he didn’t want to, I didn’t ask again. It was a request, not a demand.”
Demmel also took issue with Killian’s claim that the guitarist sought to gain more control over the band in his final years with the group. According to Demmel, it was Killian that handled pretty much everything in the band.
“For my last few years of my time in Vio, Sean was doing the scheduling/booking. I wasn’t making any band decisions.”
Demmel also said that most decisions were made as a group and that no one member had sole power over how things went down. Yet as Demmel’s time playing live shows with the band began to wind down, the guitarist said Killian was cool about the situation.
“He’d ask me if I was available to play, and I was able to cherry-pick the gigs I wanted or could do until it was time for me to stop.”
Ultimately, Demmel said he hopes people can move on from the Vio-Lence supposed drama, asking everyone to just let that chapter of his life come to an end.
“Vio-Lence is forging ahead as am I. Can everyone else?”
