Just yesterday we reported on a recent interview that Kerry King guitarist and ex-Vio-lence and ex-Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel had with San Francisco radio station 107.7 The Bone (as transcribed by Blabbermouth) in which he explained why he left Machine Head back in 2018. Well, it turns out that the same interview also shed some light as to why he quit Vio-lence earlier this year.
According to Demmel, the feeling that he needed to step away from the band came about when a number of changes happened with its lineup. As he explained, things stopped feeling familiar.
“The Vio-lence thing just became… [Drummer] Perry [Strickland] left, or Perry’s no longer in the band, and it just became — and I love Christian [Olde Wolbers, former Fear Factory and current Vio-Lence bassist] — it just became something not familiar anymore. And it hit me when we played the Whisky [A Go Go in February 2023 in West Hollywood, California] and it was Adrian [Aguilar], the drummer’s first show. And we were having this kid Miles Dimitri Baker, who plays in Ice Nine Kills right now, come down, and he was gonna be my fill-in [for some dates]. And so he was gonna play on a song or two. And I show up to the show and I walk backstage and, man, there was 50 people backstage and I knew maybe [the guys in] the band and a couple of other people. It was just, like, ‘Man, this isn’t my home anymore. This doesn’t feel like home.’”
Citing the fact that Category 7 and Kerry King were both gearing up to their next stages, Demmel said he ultimately made the decision to walk away.
“[Former Overkill guitarist] Bobby [Gustafson was in the band for a couple of years] and Miles and this kid Jesse’s playing now. Ira, Adrian, [drummer] Nick Souza has played, [former Cannibal Corpse and current Exhorder guitarist] Pat O’Brien’s been in. And this is all within the past couple years. So it just wasn’t the thing that I started in high school, and the songs meaning the same.”
It’s a shame how things eventually turned out, but good on Demmel for reading the room and acting appropriately. You only got one life and it’s too short to stick around in a band you’re no longer totally on board with anymore. At least he’s shredding with bands he’s enjoying right now.