During an interview with Alternative Press, Ashley Purdy was asked about his current relationship with his former band Black Veil Brides. Interestingly, the bassist responded by saying that he still owns half of the band.

Purdy said the following:

“I’m still, like, ‘Well, what can I say?’ What can I say without lawyers still contacting me and saying, ‘Hey, we don’t like that you said that’? I mean, I still don’t know, to be honest.

I guess I can say this because it is the truth. On February 26th [at] 1 p.m., I still currently own half of Black Veil Brides right now. The realization is like it’s a corporate buyout. It’s like me and [singer] Andy [Biersack own the] corporation 50% each. And they still have to compensate me for them wanting me to depart. But that hasn’t happened yet. And we’re still in negotiations about what that is. I don’t know how to approach it, because it’s not finalized yet.”

This news comes after he previously said that he exited the band shortly after spending time in a psychiatric hospital for grief counseling. He addressed that further during the interview as well:

“I think going through therapy allowed me to be more honest. And that’s all I want to be anymore. When you go through stuff and you live through stuff and you survived it, you have a different perspective on the world and life itself.

I don’t know if a lot of fans know. Part of why I moved to Nashville was [because I was] raised by my grandparents. My grandmother died while we were in the middle of a Black Veil Brides tour. When I got home [from tour] I needed some change. Other family members had passed and stuff. Every single male in my family has committed suicide. My father, my uncle, my grandfather, it’s like I fall in that lineage, as well as alcoholism.

Then after my grandmother passed, my grandfather was still alive in Missouri, which is close to Nashville. So I thought, “OK, I want to move closer to Missouri, but Nashville is still Music City, so I can still make music.” But when I moved here, it was in December, like a week before Christmas. And I thought, “This is the first Christmas we’re going to spend without my grandmother, who is the woman who raised me.” I traveled to Missouri to spend it with my grandfather.

While I was driving up there on Christmas Eve, I was 30 minutes out of my grandfather’s house. He shot himself. I arrived to the house, and he was dead. And that was the reason I moved to Nashville: to be with him and because we just missed her. That was our first Christmas without her, and they were married for 60 years…

After that all happened, I was like, ‘All my family members are gone. They’re all dead. I’m in Nashville by myself. Why did I do it? Why am I here?’ So I went down that hole of just drinking. And then trying to figure it out and then I just thought I needed some therapy. I tried to go to therapy. It wasn’t working. I tried to kill myself a couple of times. Instead of killing myself, I decided to get intensive therapy…”

During an interview with Sonic Perspectives, Ashley Purdy discussed his departure from Black Veil Brides. The bassist revealed that he exited the band shortly after spending time in a psychiatric hospital for grief counseling and also seemingly implied that it wasn’t entirely his choice to leave.

Purdy said the following:

“What sucks was the timing of it all. They didn’t have anything to do with each other. There are legal aspects of what I can say about the departure.

Fans of the band are continually coming up to me, asking why did I leave the band. Technically, I didn’t leave; I’m just not in the band anymore. I have to talk in those terms right now.

Black Veil Brides is a corporate business, and there are legal rules. It’s like a divorce, and we are working it all out.

People can make their own assessments about things, but when you make a record, don’t tour for two years, only to make another record, don’t tour for two more years, the morale of the band starts to go away. The band is a job, and it’s how you pay your bills and put food on the table. When it doesn’t happen, you have to start looking for other things to do.”

He also added the following about his emotional and physical well-being:

“It just had to take its course, but at least I was strong enough to know I needed to seek help. I was trying to be a tough guy and deal with it on my own until one day I broke. I went to a physician to get some meds after telling him my story, and he was, like, ‘No, you need more treatment.’ I was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for a week to get medicine, therapy, and grief counseling. At the group sessions, I heard other people’s stories and knew I wasn’t alone. The oddest thing was a psychic medium who I didn’t know, reached out to me through a friend of a friend to give me a message from the people who passed into the afterlife. What the medium told me was very believable, as nobody would have known the level of details they shared. Strangely, hearing that they were okay helped me. This whole thing changed my perspective and I’m living a different way. I’m an open book now. There is nothing I won’t say or do or help someone. It’s part of life, and I’m accepting of it.”

This news comes after Purdy was reportedly arrested in Nashville on November 23, 2019 for a DUI, before allegedly urinating in a cop car. He has since gone on to release a solo song titled “Nowhere.”

[via Blabbermouth]