Ex-Hatebreed Bassist Chris Beattie Shares Details on His “Completely Unexpected” Firing
Back in February, Hatebreed founding member and bassist Chris Beattie was unceremoniously let go by the band. As fans and people that have followed the band for decades now, it seemingly came out of left field — especially how matter of fact and quickly worded the band’s official statement on the matter had been on social media.
In the immediate aftermath of that decision, Hatebreed opted to recruit Shadows Fall guitarist Matt Bachand to stand in for Beattie “for the foreseeable future.” Beattie, however, came out and said he expected that the news had been released differently and that his departure was “uncalled for and based on misleading and wrongful statements.” It smelled like a lawsuit was coming down the pipe and now in a recent interview with The New York Hardcore Chronicles Live!, Beattie revealed that he’s got lawyers involved and some action may be taken, even if he doesn’t want to hurt the band’s image over all.
“We’re trying to work it out. There’s attorneys involved now. They’re spending a lot of time having to deal with that and all the details of that. And I’ve gone back and forth.
“Obviously, when something like that happens, you’re upset. You go through all these crazy emotions. You pf that guy. I could come out here and I could talk all kinds of shit, but I don’t want [to]… I don’t wanna be that guy. We made good music. We had great times together. Things changed. Dynamics changed.”
Throughout the interview, Beattie sounded like he didn’t want to hurt the band or his former bandmates. However, he wanted to make sure the real story was told. And what he said was that his removal from the band was so unexpected because in his eyes, everything was going right.
“We had just celebrated 30 years. It was awesome. Successful tour. Left on a high note. We did great stuff. And like I said before publicly, it was not my decision to leave the band. Someone saw an opportunity to get me out of the picture, and that’s where I am now…
“Everything went really well that year, but there was stuff going on behind the scenes, and it became a chore to get in touch with anyone. And I was the middle man, basically, for bandmembers and crew members, and that became a chore for me. And I had started asking a lot of questions, and it became problematic. I became a problem within the [organization].”
Given all of the personal and familial milestones he’s missed over the years, Beattie said there’s zero chance of him ever returning to Hatebreed now.
“My time is done with Hatebreed… It’s done. My family comes first. I’ll leave it at that. I can’t go back to that. But there is a legacy. With all the time that I haven’t been in the band now, which, it’s weird to say, but people know me from that band everywhere I go. You can’t shake that kind of shit. The identity is still there. So it’s good. It’s hard to talk about too, but here we are. New doors open.”
