Hatebreed, Jasta, etc. vocalist Jamey Jasta has newly shared his thoughts on As I Lay Dying‘s Tim Lambesis and the controversy that surrounds the latter. In 2013, Lambesis attempted to hire a hitman to murder his then wife at the time. His plot was foiled however, as authorities caught wind of his plan beforehand, setting up an undercover sting to catch him.
As a result, Lambesis served several years in prison, after pleading guilty to solicitation of another to commit murder. At the time of the incident, he and his wife shared 3 adopted children together. While Lambesis was initially sentenced to six years, he was paroled roughly two years later.
Upon his exit, he set out to reunite As I Lay Dying, reconciling with his estranged bandmates through various means, including employing therapists to help the group work through their issues.
While As I Lay Dying‘s lineup did reunite in 2018, issues began to once again take root, and by 2022, guitarist/vocalist Nick Hipa, bassist/vocalist Josh Gilbert and drummer Jordan Mancino had all exited the fold, leaving only Lambesis and guitarist/vocalist Phil Sgrosso as the remaining members.
As such, that duo went on to rebuild their lineup, recruiting Ryan Neff (bass/vocals), guitarist Ken Susi and drummer Nick Pierce. However, history soon seemingly repeated itself, as this October, Neff, Susi, Pierce and ultimately Sgrosso all left the band, each issuing statements cryptically voicing their concerns over personal morals and levels of integrity being tested.
Lambesis for his part, issued this statement in early November, offering little clarity, while vowing to once again resurrect the band, going so far as to start booking shows for 2025.
However, just before the end of November, disturbing footage of Lambesis and his latest wife Dany emerged online. That footage captured various private interactions between Tim and Dany. Tim, who had married twice since being released from prison, was seen to be launching into highly agitated states of distress in the videos, repeatedly hitting himself and acting out.
In light of the footage leaking, Lambesis went on to to issue this statement, alleging that he had filed a restraining order against Dany, claiming that she had assaulted and verbally and mentally abused him for over three years. He also explained his agitated reactions in the leaked footage as, “inappropriate (but not illegal) reactions to these anxiety inducing interactions.”
Back in 2018, as Lambesis was gearing up to make his return with As I Lay Dying, Jamey Jasta was among those who publicly expressed their doubts about welcoming him back to the scene. In part, Jasta stated on his ‘The Jasta Show‘ podcast at the time:
“What we do is a gift. What we do is a privilege and it’s gotta be earned. And it’s gotta be earned back if you fuck up and you hire someone to KILL. YOUR. WIFE. OK?
‘Oh, it didn’t happen. Oh, you never wanted to kill your wife? OH, You never wanted to kill somebody?’ No motherfucker I’m not saying that. Don’t fucking put words in my mouth. I’m saying what has been done… ‘Oh he served his time’—no, he served an abbreviated sentence. Look he’s got time to show and prove….”
Around the same time, Jasta also weighed in on social media as well. This past April saw Jasta invite Lambesis onto his ‘The Jasta Show Podcast‘, where an emotional Lambesis discussed various topics of his time in prison and the second dissolution of the band’s classic era lineup.
Now, appearing on the ‘LOS Podcast‘, Jasta was asked about his current thoughts on Lambesis in the wake of the latest controversy that unfolded in October/November onward. He stated:
“Ok, so we did the podcast, and everybody said I was too hard on him, and that the questions were rude and all that stuff. And I was like, ‘the dude survived prison… what’s a couple questions over Zoom?’ The fans get very attached to certain people in certain bands and they want to see them… no matter what they’ve done, it doesn’t matter.
If they’re your favorite band, they’re like ‘oh, separate the art from the artist’. But I was saying… I was asking questions like, ‘Do you still have a restraining order with your kids and your wife?’ And there were things that he couldn’t answer, because that’s what I would want to know. Especially if we’re going to tour together or be on the same stage together.”
He continued:
“If [the hitman] wasn’t a cop, she would be dead… And he had dudes vouching for him, so now those dudes wanna come on the show, or one of the dudes I think I’ll have on the show again, Ken [Susi], who’s a great guy, was like, ‘yeah, I want to take back what I said, vouching for [Lambesis]’.
“But yeah, it’s a shitty situation if you’re a diehard fan of that dude [Lambesis], who I asked, ‘is your ex-wife still in witness protection?’ and he couldn’t answer.”
Following some quips from the various comedian hosts of the show, Jasta continued:
“He [Lambesis] cried on the show and stuff and really sold it, so people were like, ‘Fuck Jasta! He’s so insensitive! I can’t believe this!’…”
After some further discussion from the hosts, Jasta concluded:
“I was one of the only people that publicly went against him [Lambesis] and said it on multiple shows. Not a lot of people… I think I’m still, you could probably Google this, I’m still one of the only people that said, ‘No. Fuck this dude! It’s wack. He’s done. This is someone that should really be canceled’. And I swear, in one day I had maybe like 400 tweets where it was like, ‘Fuck you, Jasta, you never wanted to kill your wife?!?’… I was like, ‘No, I mean…'”
[via Lambgoat]
