Earlier this month former Bad Wolves vocalist Tommy Vext revealed he was on a ‘mission’ to make amends, hoping to repair the various relationships of his that turned sour over recent years.
Vext and his ex-bandmates in the aforementioned platinum-certified outfit of course had an infamously bitter split, following various controversial political opinions and viewpoints being shared by Vext across social media. Vext was also embroiled in a domestic violence lawsuit, and was said to have been involved a physical altercation with Bad Wolves guitarist Doc Coyle prior to his exit from the band.
As the war of words between the former bandmates escalated online, dueling lawsuits between Vext and Bad Wolves manager/label head Allen Kovac were filed, with a 2021 settlement seemingly ending the feud.
In a video shared several weeks ago on social media, Vext outlined what he described as the extension some emotional growth prompted by a spiritual retreat. He stated in part of that:
“You know, I did a spiritual retreat. And I really have been digging deep in my recovery and looking at the past, and doing my step work.
And I’ve been… since that time—since May—I’ve been on basically a nine-step mission where I’m making, you know, basically I’m making amends with a lot of the people that I had beef with or that didn’t, you know, criticize me, or that we had, you know, the various infractions and issues that happened as a result of 2020, and the pandemic, and the election, and politics and, you know, the fighting back and forth.
And I don’t, I don’t want to engage in this anymore and I don’t need you guys to do it on my behalf.”
Vext went on to outline how his relationship with former Bad Wolves guitarist Chris Cain had since been reconciled, along with his relationship with Five Finger Death Punch vocalist Ivan Moody. Vext also discussed a conversation he had with Kovac and more, which he described as being productive in letting go of some of their past beef.
Addressing some of Bad Wolves‘ current lineup in that video, Vext offered:
“I need you guys to know from my heart that like, I’ve forgiven John. Right. John has a right to go make songs and do whatever he wants. I forgave Doc [Coyle, Bad Wolves guitarist.] I’m happy that he’s in Ice Nine Kills, I hope he gets a permanent job there. He’s living his best life.
Those guys don’t cross my mind. I don’t have any resentments against them. And I understand that what we all did together. You know, me and John and Max and Drew and Joseph. We made magic. Those first two records were magic. And it’s never gonna be the same. Whenever you change creative lineups, it’ll never be the same. And so I understand that, but the reality is, is that I’m very happy. I have a very blessed life. I’m creatively…. I can do whatever I want, I can work with whoever I want.”
In a recently released episode of his podcast ‘The Ex-Man‘, Coyle was asked by a fan about his thoughts on Vext‘s aforementioned mission and how it has impacted him. Coyle had the following to say about that [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“He made a video, ‘making amends’. He put it on his social media—never reached out to us. I’ve never gotten a call, a text, an email, saying ‘Sorry, I want to make amends.’ So what does that mean? I don’t know. In a weird way, I’m the type of person where I like to squash things. I don’t want ill will with anyone, really. So, in general that’s something that I’d be very open to. But, what you’ve gotta think about is like what are things for?
…Don’t ever trust someone who only does good things as long as the camera’s on. Like, ‘Here’s me feeding the homeless, but make sure I’m seen feeding the homeless.’ Or ‘here’s me doing this good act’, better make sure… At that point, is that PR to show everyone what a good person you are?
So to me if you do that publicly, but you don’t actually reach out to the people that you’re supposedly making amends with—and there was no apology—but he said he forgives me, which is rich [laughs.] ‘Oh thank you, thank you for forgiving me for the great, terrible thing I did’, which I would like to know what that is. I still would like to know what that is.
So a lot of that stuff is in my opinion very passive aggressive. [He] mentioned all this ‘magic’ that happened with those records, but purposely didn’t mention my name, as if I had nothing to do with those records. So, you know, if you know what to look for, I think you can see where things really lie. And I think that was a piece of PR. Get some good pub.
Listen, I’ll take that over the crazy shit talk, and calling us terrible things and telling everyone how horrible we are, and that we don’t do anything, and we’re… I’m not even gonna repeat the stuff.
I’ll take that, like saying ‘stop harassing Bad Wolves.’ Yes, I’ll take that. But, they also wouldn’t have harassed us if someone didn’t tell them to. It’s something like you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.
So that’s how I feel about it. But I’m not mad. I really don’t think about it. I really don’t. Because I think at this point Bad Wolves will have either sunk or swam of our own accord…”
Comments