Former Static-X guitarist Tripp Eisen has once again spoken out against his former bandmates in the aforementioned platinum-selling ‘evil disco’ outfit. Eisen was terminated from the band back in 2005 after being arrested for having conducted sexual relationships with two separate minors at the time, one being the age of fourteen-years-old.
Eisen (real name Tod Rex Salvador) was 39 at the time. He would go on to accept a plea bargain, in which, according to the Orange County Superior Court, he admitted to’ having oral sex with a person younger than fourteen-years-old and more than ten years younger than him.’ Per that plea bargain, he admitted guilt to two felony counts of engaging in unlawful sex with a minor, for which he served time in prison. He later wound up incarcerated once again for a parole violation in 2008.
Per police reports of the initial pair of incidents in 2005, Eisen was found to be posing as a lookalike of himself on a gothic music website at the time to meet up with the girls in question. Eisen has disputed this assertion, stating he just didn’t properly identify himself.
His profile on that site was said to have also expressed an interest in meeting people of various education levels, including ‘elementary’ school level. Eisen has since claimed he was unaware of the girl’s ages, with his lawyer at the time of his case claiming that one of the accusers had routinely lied about her age, and had met him at an 18-and-older club. His lawyer further claimed that Eisen, “had a reasonable, good-faith belief that she was an adult.”
Given the nature of his crimes, many of Eisen‘s former bandmates in Static-X, Murderdolls and Dope have openly condemned him. Edsel Dope of Dope, publicly feuded with Eisen on social media back in 2020, at one point proclaiming, “You will always be known as that 40 year old creepy guy with “LEE PRESS ON” dreads, who targeted underage fan girls for sex.”
Edsel has also since taken up the mantle of Xer0, a living tribute of sorts to the late Static-X vocalist/guitarist Wayne Static in the current incarnation of that band. Eisen for his part has in the past tried to publicly mend fences with Static-X. They however have understandably not been welcoming to his gestures.
In a new press release, Eisen has apparently changed his tune, this time slamming the band for continuing on with ‘Xer0‘, while also criticizing the front persona’s recently unveiled new mask.
Eisen said in that press release:
“I have talked before about Static-X and my involvement with the reunion and the Project Regeneration album, but I’ve never officially weighed in on the controversial masked singer of Static-X, Xer0.
I was very close to Wayne Static for over 5 years that I was in the band. And the current members of Static-X, my former friends, are trying to cancel and silence me while minimizing my involvement and contributions to current and past Static-X.
Why shouldn’t I speak out about what they’re doing as they are out on The Rise Of The Machine tour. I thought it might be worth it to review this theatrical element to their show – the mask.
The dead-skin mask that Xer0 first wore in 2019 was a macabre representation of Wayne’s image. But Wayne was NOT a mascot like they try to portray – that dehumanizes the very person they claim to tribute and memorialize.
Portraying the image of Wayne in a zombie style is hurtful to anyone who loved the man. The show is surrounded by heavy metal mayhem and there are always skulls and evil images involved in this genre, but everyone knows there was something wrong from the start with the Xer0 mask.
You only have to watch the “Hollow” video showing Wayne being portrayed as an armless skeleton to see my point!
The photo shoot that the band did with this Wayne skeleton was so passive aggressive – it is the band saying: “we couldn’t deal with real-life Wayne, but his skeleton is much more agreeable”.
What Static-X has said, “shut up, this is a beautiful Memorial!” But you certainly can have a Memorial without portraying the deceased in this way. Wayne deserves better.
And now they’ve ‘jumped the shark’ and taken it too far.
Xer0 portraying robot-Wayne is so ridiculous and it is so obviously out of place in the original vibe of Static-X. Wayne’s stage presence and charisma is sorely missed.
Tony, Ken and Koichi standing next to a expressionless masked front man is awkward and seems embarrassing.
Wayne would be proud of all of this? No one is buying that statement.
Paying tribute to Wayne is one thing, but representing his image this way, zombie/skeleton/robot, is inappropriate and many people feel as I do.
The Rise of The Machines tour is successful not only due to having Fear Factory on the tour and a strong lineup of bands, but mainly due to the songs that Wayne Static wrote and sang.
Xer0 is the one riding the coat-tails of Wayne Static. And now he’s in a Halloween getup, doing a Wayne pantomime while struggling onstage to see through the light-up eyes and looking down to see what fret his big gloved-fingers are on!
The performance has a lot of flashing lights and screens, but is lack-luster and they are playing to way too many backing tracks. Does anyone see the giant karaoke teleprompters?
Here is the cold hard truth: Static-X would not sell one less ticket, they would not sell one dollar less in merchandise had we chosen a short-haired unmasked singer. Static-X could have done what Fear Factory just accomplished – finding a great new singer that wasn’t trying to ‘replace’ the previous singer – and no mask needed. Wayne’s legacy was the songs, not his hair. He was not a mascot! He was my friend.
For the record: I was the one who came to Tony Campos with the idea of a reunion in 2016. I was also the one who brought Xer0/Edsel Dope into the project in 2016. It wasn’t Tony, it was me. I’ll take the credit or the blame.
I brought in most of the songs that made the Project Regeneration Vol. 1 album a success: “Hollow”, “Bring You Down” and “My Destruction/Road To Hell” and more. Yes, I am hurt by their betrayal, but I think my former friends in the band can still make amends. Tony Campos and Ken Jay are good people that don’t like to lie.
People ask me what happened between me and Static-X –at the root it’s a creative dispute and they chose deception instead of integrity and honesty. It’s sad, really. Much of this will be chronicled on my upcoming show: ‘the dope on Static-X Podcast’ set to debut the first week of April.
I have documentation and photographic evidence to backup what I’ll be explaining and what I’ve been saying these past few years. Plus it’s going to be fun talking about memories of Wayne with some of the people who knew him best.
This story is not over.”
In the press release, Eisen provided a picture of himself sat at a restaurant alongside Edsel Dope and Static-X bassist/vocalist Tony Campos which he claims was dated 2016 to discuss the current Static-X reunion.
Update: March 19th, 2023 11:32 AM:
This piece has been updated to reflect disputed claims by Eisen‘s camp in regards to the nature of Eisen‘s crimes.
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