Former I Prevail vocalist Brian Burkheiser recently took to his Instagram stories to discuss his relationship with the platinum-certified melodic metalcore band following his departure last month. Burkheiser and the group announced their split this past May, with the band at the time describing it as a ‘mutual’ decision.
Burkheiser had previously found himself sidelined from the group in 2024 amid his struggles with Eagle’s Syndrome. Across a series of posts made to Instagram over the past few days, Burkheiser revealed that his departure wasn’t entirely mutual, offering at one point, “I do think I didn’t deserve how things went down.”
However, while Burkheiser seemingly went on to indicate a fractured relationship with the band, he did mention that he bodes no ill will, going on to say, “There is no beef. I love every single one of those guys, whether they know it or not.” Burkheiser‘s series of posts read as follows:
“I know all of you probably think I’m crazy and this is a lot for everybody to take in. I cannot do this anymore. This is my life. I’ve tried to do things the right way. I have to do this for my family. I have to do this for my fans. I have to do this for my friends. But most importantly I have to do this for myself. I need you all to know I’m, GOOD!!!!!!!!!
I will change the music industry forever.
There are no rules to this shit
You can be whatever the fuck you want to be
But if you don’t live your truth, don’t go blaming anyone else. Someone taught me that this week, and I have run with that mindset ever since.
I had to do this for my family. I couldn’t take this anymore. I am meant to be here.
I’m just going to keep posting music till I go to bed.
But tomorrow everyone’s going to wake the fuck up and treat each other kindly. Every single member of I Prevail is a good person.
We were all just kids. None of us knew what the fuck we were doing. It all happened so fast.
There is no beef. I love every single one of those guys, whether they know it or not.
But yeah, shit did get tough along the way, and I do think I didn’t deserve how things went down. But it doesn’t mean they are bad people. We’re all just going through shit. Everyone is trying to feed their family. The only thing I will say is that I did try to communicate more, and I wish that they would’ve talked to me more. But if it took it coming down to this to teach the world this lesson, then I’m okay with that because I want to rekindle my friendships with those guys one day.
Whether you know it or not, I am proud of you, Eric. You went through a lot of things the world doesn’t know about. I want to see you. I miss you.
Maybe I fucked up tonight. Honestly, I have really no idea what I’ve done.. but I’m trying to be as vulnerable as I can be. I’m trying to prove to the world that any relationship can be mended. I guess I’m trying to have my name is Earl moment. I had no idea all of the stuff was going to happen two days ago. I had no idea I was going to post Instagram stories. But I mentally broke. The truth is this shit has had me so mentally unwell for so long.
If anyone goes and talks shit to I Prevail at their show today, I will be so upset. You better give them the best fucking show of their lives.
Also, I love every single member of the I Prevail crew. Those guys work their fucking asses off. Today I want you guys to give them a big ass round of applause for everything they did over the ten years in this band.
I’ll be honest, I had a falling out with the dudes. A lot of things happened over ten years, and I’m sure they have different perspectives on certain things.
But this shit does happen in life. Divorces happen. But divorces normally happen due to lack of communication. I think we both could’ve improved on that over the course of time as we got bigger and bigger.
I just want all of us to go on and live our lives. I want all of our families to be happy. I love all of their significant others and children.
Let’s just do the shit, guys. Let’s change the music industry and show everybody that we can get past it. Maybe it took our band to show the world that relationships are fucking hard and the music industry is even harder.”
He then went on to address I Prevail‘s current ‘Summer Of Loud‘ co-headlining tour with Beartooth, stating:
“Please go sell this tour out. There are so many fucking amazing bands on this. The truth is it’s not selling great because it’s an amphitheaters. But these bands deserve to be treated like fucking pop stars. If I had one last wish before I turned into scatterbrain, it would be that you guys sell this out for me and make sure every single one of those bands goes and blows up. Dave Shapiro was I prevails manager. Dom Mackie is a good person. He co-managed with Dave. Dom was one of my best friends and I haven’t talked to him in a long time. I know it would take a hell of a lot of burden off of him if you guys sold this tour out.”
