Black Flag pulled a really crappy move when they fired former vocalist, Ron Reyes, mid-set when they were in Australia on tour. But with a new year, they are trying to make 2014 a lot better than 2013 was for them starting with a brand new vocalist.
Thanks to an interview with Rolling Stone, founding member and guitarist, Greg Ginn and the band’s manager for 2013 and fill-in vocalist for the rest of the tour, Mike Vallely spoke out about how Reyes did not fit the band at the moment and how he eventually became disgruntled during the touring.
“I did not threaten him or physically remove him from the stage,” Vallely said about Reyes claims that he went on stage and ordered him to get off. “I just told him very plainly, very simply, that it was over. And he looked at me and he almost seemed relieved. Then he walked off the stage.”
Reyes had a different take on the dismissal saying that it was a relief when he was let go and how the reunion was just a mess from the get-go. He also revealed that he wouldn’t be surprise if Vallely would become the band’s new vocalist because he felt that there was some planning on Vallely and Ginn’s part to make that the final outcome.
Whether or not that was the plan, Vallely did officially become the band’s new vocalist.
“Greg just felt like, ‘I don’t want the Black Flag name to fizzle out with this or be tainted with this record that’s proven to be subpar compared to what the expectations for it were,'” Vallely explains. “He told me he made a mistake by working with Ron and trying to pander to a sort of old-school thing. He just thought that I was the guy for the job. . . I’m not gonna say no to that.”
That doesn’t at all sound suspicious to us.
But keeping up with the “new year, new band” philosophy, both Ginn and Vallely revealed that the band are in fact in the midst of recording some new material and that an extensive Black Flag tour will be happening as soon as May. Let’s hope that nothing as dramatic as a mid-concert firing comes out of 2014 for them.
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