Metal Anarchy

During a recent appearance on The Big Truth Podcast, ex-Metal Church singer opened up about the band’s decision to continue with a new lineup. According to him, the whole situation was “pretty disgusting.”

Lopes said the following:

“When METAL CHURCH canceled the tour in 2024, there was a lot of things going on behind the scenes that we didn’t make public, obviously,” he continued. “People get mad, people have disagreements, and we kind of just let things lay for where they were in hopes that maybe we could have a conversation, like adults should. If there’s a disagreement, resolve it one way or the other, whether it’s yes or no, or whatever the case may be. But there was no communication for that whole time. And I did a lot of interviews and a lot of people would always ask [about METAL CHURCH’s status], and when I said I didn’t know it was, it was the truth — I did not know.

The last thing that I had heard… I kind of gotta be honest and be 100% honest, there was definitely some half truths to what was going on, and I went along with it only because I didn’t feel… I still felt that there needed to be conversations before anything could be said. So, I had a lot of… I definitely wasn’t a happy person. [Laughs] So, personally, I had to deal with a lot of inner demons when it comes to that stuff, because I worked so hard, and to just not get any kind of respect of an answer for anything, no matter what it was after the amount of work that I put into that band, that didn’t go over too well with me for a long time. So, that was always in the back of my mind. I wish it wouldn’t have overtaken me as much as it did, but my passion for what I do is so intense, that’s the part that bothered me. Financially, that sucked too, but [I knew I would be able to] make it up in other ways. So it really wasn’t that.”

He continued:

“In a nutshell, now we’ve come out to where we are now, it’s basically no integrity. The cowardice of not confronting any of the issues, whether good or bad, it didn’t matter, in my book, that doesn’t work… That doesn’t fly. If there’s an issue, no matter what it is, either you freaking take it out in the school yard, so to say, or you have that discussion and each person goes ‘fuck you’ and that’s the end of it. But when that doesn’t even happen, that’s a tough nail to bite. And then, obviously, the conclusion of it is to find out everything on the Internet. That was the ultimate ‘fuck you’. And that does not bide well with me personally, which will be addressed in another time. [Laughs]

But, yeah, so that was a big, huge thing. And thankfully, I was still able to play and do stuff with ROSS [THE BOSS], which I’m eternally grateful for, and it was awesome. But, yeah, it definitely was a rough year coming off the tail end of that. And then, obviously, towards the end of the year when all that other stuff came out, I definitely wouldn’t say I would wanna be in the same room as me. But we got through it and it’s all cool.”

He also added the following when asked if he would be open to working with the band again:

“Oh, no, dude. They announced a whole new lineup, new single, new album. Oh, yeah. That’s all done. They totally bamboozled us. And, yeah, it’s pretty, pretty disgusting what happened.

It’s kind of funny. Obviously, somebody always likes to tag you on something [on social media] and I saw one comment that made me fucking laugh. They’re, like, ‘Oh, he knew, and he’s just playing victim.’ I’m, like, ‘Listen, motherfucker, you have no fucking idea, ’cause you’re not in it. You’re not involved in it. And I can tell you right now, right fucking right here, I’m not playing victim.’ Fucking victim of what? That whole thing was a shit show from day one, if you wanna know the truth. But to not have conversations and get totally slighted like that, especially in public, and then saying that we quit?! Nobody fucking quit. Nobody was fired. You just threw it under the table. ‘They’re not gonna [notice]. No one’s gonna notice.’ [Laughs] And you know what? Honestly, that’s the only thing that bothered me. You think that you are working with people that are supposed to be comrades, you’re with them on tour day to day, and then they just totally blow you off and disregard, like not even having a conversation to even say, ‘Hey, look, you know what?! We’re gonna go in another direction,’ or, ‘We don’t agree with this or what that was.’ But not to have that?

Let’s just put it this way, it was business, business — that’s all I’m gonna say — it was business that the whole thing started to crumble. And it didn’t have to end like that. But you know what?! Hey, whatever. The thing is this, like I said. And the fans are gonna go. They’re gonna go. If they’re happy, that’s cool. Great. I’m grateful for what I did while I was there. Everybody was awesome. I thank them, and the support was awesome. And I did what I had to do. One and done. The album did great. It got great reviews. The tours were awesome. I have no regret in any of that. [Do] I wish it would’ve went down different? Absolutely. You know what I mean?! But the moral of that story is communication is very important in everything. A lot of those things could have been avoided just by having a simple conversation. But when certain parties don’t wanna even deal with it and they just want to take their ball and go home?! So there it is. What can you do? And that’s the honest truth. I mean, that’s as far as I’m getting into it right now. But that’s where it’s at. Go enjoy the new record. Do what you want. But I’m not there. [Laughs] … I’m being nice. [Laughs] I just hope we’re never on the same show with them. [Laughs]”

[via Blabbermouth]