The Ghost Inside‘s guitarist/vocalist Chris Davis was a recent guest on the BREWtally Speaking Podcast, and among various other topics, he opened up on the fragile state the band was in late last year when they canceled their fall North American tour. At the time of that cancelation, the group announced:
“The last 8 weeks of international touring have taken a much bigger toll on us than we anticipated. Our physical health, mental health, and home lives are telling us that rolling right into another month on the road is more than we can handle right now and we are very sorry to say we’re not going to move forward with the USA tour that is coming up. We hope you understand that making a decision like this stinks and leaves a lot of people disappointed, but for the long term well being of us as individuals and a band this is the right thing to do.”
Reflecting on it now, Davis revealed that the cancelation forced the band to face some uncomfortable truths in regards to their ability to tour as frequently as they did in the past. If you’re not aware, The Ghost Inside were involved in a harrowing bus accident back in 2015. That crash claimed the lives of both drivers of and led to numerous life-changing injuries for much of the band, including the loss of one drummer Andrew Tkaczyk‘s legs. Those health issues and the respective recovery processes prevented them from returning to the stage for several years.
While the group have managed to tour and create new music since, complications from those injuries still present challenges to overcome, especially when compounded with the adversity experienced while touring and also managing life at home. In this new chat, Davis revealed that the situation last fall was dire enough that he feels the band may have called it quits had they tried to undertake that trek. He said of it [transcribed by theprp.com}:
“…I’m proud of us for figuring out how to continue to enjoy, you know, what we do together as a band. Because it’s not always easy living on top of each other, for as long as you have to live on top of each other — especially when you’re fucking crippled and broken and normal everyday activities aren’t as easy as they used to be.
The other side that too is, I’m really proud of us —and this is probably going to piss some people off — but again, I don’t fucking care, we, for the very first time, had to cancel a tour last year.
And to be honest, had we not canceled that tour, we might not be a band right now. But that’s what I’m saying, is like we we had a very tough conversation of like, we bit off more than we could chew. We thought we were ready to get back to touring the way that we used to tour before the accident. And our bodies are telling us right now that you’re not capable of doing that.
And that fucking… A: That’s a blow to the ego, big time, right? Like, that’s a massive ego blow to know that, this is how I used to do it, and I thought that I could handle it that way, but I can’t. And obviously, you know, you’re going to piss a lot of people off when you cancel a tour. You’re going to piss off promoters, you’re going to piss off your agent, you’re going to piss off your manager, and you’re going to piss off fans. Like nobody wants to piss off fans.
But we had to just look at each other and be like, we’re hanging on by a thread physically. A lot of us have a lot of shit going on at home, and we’re all hanging on by a thread emotionally, and mentally, and we just have to admit defeat here, go home and reset. And I feel like, you know, 10 years ago, we may have pushed through that, and maybe we would have survived, and maybe we wouldn’t have.
But I’m proud of us now for looking at that and being like, we thought we could do it the way we used to, we can’t. We have to be more conscious about this moving forward and not biting off more than we can chew, and we have to go home for ourselves right now. Because I can tell you right now, like, I sincerely mean this, I think that the likelihood of the band breaking up by the end of that next tour was pretty significant.
And it’s not that we had an issue with each other, it’s that we were physically fucking worn out, and literally all five of us had fucked up shit going on at home that we were trying to handle, while also physically feeling like shit every day, and knowing that we had another month of that that we were basically gonna go straight into is like, there’s no way we’re gonna make it to the end of this.
And so I’m just, I’m proud of us for being like, ‘gotta pump the brakes.’ And let’s pump the brakes, admit defeat here, go home, reset, put it behind us, and move on into the future. And like I said, I don’t think that 10 years ago, I don’t think that we would have made that decision. I think we would have tried to push through it, and it probably would have ended poorly.
So I’m proud of us for being honest enough with each other to just be like we got to call it on this one.”
