Last year, Wayne Static announced that he was reforming Static-X two years after initially putting the band on ice. And after a few tours and lineup changes, Static is once again claiming the band is kaput.
During an interview with The Gauntlet (watch it in its entirety below), Wayne states that Static-X has come to an end due to former bassist Tony Campos. Noting how he previously arranged a deal with his estranged bandmate to use the Static-X moniker, Static claims that Campos was less than sympathetic about his hernia operation and demanded to get paid even though tours had to be canceled. Wayne went into greater detail about the matter, saying:
“The first leg of the tour actually went pretty well … I wanted to try to get the whole Static-X going again, get the name out there, so I made this deal with Tony, my former bass player, who owns 50 percent of Static-X — which him and I haven’t been getting along for years; it was really bad at the end. The last couple of tours, we never talked or anything like that… So I made this deal with Tony where I paid him ‘X’amount of dollars quarterly to use the name Static-X, which I thought was a pretty generous deal; he got a lot of money for doing nothing, for just sitting on his ass doing nothing. I wish someone would give me some money for doing nothing. But I ended up developing this really bad hernia throughout the tour. And it kept getting worse and worse. It was from touring. I’m getting older and I guess I was pushing myself too hard; we were doing six shows in a row and all that kind of thing. I had a hernia belt on and I was shoving crap in there, trying to keep my guts from pushing out on stage. It was just getting worse and worse and worse, and it just got to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore, so I had to cancel the tour.
And then I asked Tony if we could take a break on the deal. Obviously, if I’m not working, how am I supposed to pay him? I don’t shit money; I am not made out of money. So he pretty much told me to fuck off. He’s, like, ‘Boohoohoo, you have a hernia. Sorry. Give me my money.’ … I told him, ‘Dude, give me a few months off to recuperate, and then we’ll start up the deal again.’ Cause I wanted to keep touring. But he wouldn’t do it. Apparently, he was really pissed off because I said in some interviews that Static-X were never, like, all great buddies and friends and all that kind of stuff, and we never hung out. So he told me, like, ‘Since you said we’re not friends, then why should I help you out?’ I’m, like, ‘Who gives a fuck? It’s business, dude.’ And that’s the truth — we weren’t friends; we never hung out. And there’s nothing wrong with that; there’s a lot of bands like that. I wasn’t dissing him or any of the other guys in Static-X. The original lineup, we got on stage, we had a great chemistry, it was awesome, and then when we left the stage, we never talked to each other. There’s a lot of bands that way. Who cares? What’s wrong with it?
So that’s pretty much the end of it. Tony wouldn’t give me the break. I had to go have my surgery and take my time off, and he wouldn’t give me the break, so the deal lapsed, the deal’s done, Static-X is done. The end. No more Static-X.”
Wayne further added that “The last e-mail Tony sent me, he said he hopes we never have to talk again. And I said, ‘Believe me, this is the last you’ll ever hear from me.’ And that’s the way we left. And it sucks. I think it’s sad that things have to end that way. And it happens to a lot of bands.” Wayne did note, though, that he would be open to talk with his former bandmates if they ever reached out and showed interest in the band again (or, as he states, apologizing for being an “asshole” to his wife, Tera Way).
Whether you believe Wayne’s comments about Tony Campos (who had made it clear he had no interest in working with his former bandmate again) being the reason behind Static-X’s second demise is for you to decide. But we wouldn’t be surprised if Static-X pokes it’s long hair back out in another few years. Until then, Wayne has his new project with rapper DMC to keep him busy.
Watch The Gauntlet’s video interview with Wayne below.
[by way of Blabbermouth]
