Following his public apology over sending inappropriate messages to an underage fan, guitarist Simon O’Connor has been dropped from Modest Mouse’s upcoming tour dates. According to a post made on the band’s Instagram, he has been replaced by Seth Jabour of Les Savy Fav. Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Modest Mouse for further comment.
Earlier this week, a 17-year-old fan posted a series of screenshots to the r/ModestMouse subreddit, documenting an Instagram DM exchange between themself and O’Connor, who has played guitar in Modest Mouse since 2021. O’Connor’s messages to the fan, who says they were 16 at the time and had their birth date listed in their Instagram bio, included a sexually explicit meme of a naked man.
In his apology, also posted to Reddit, O’Connor said he was originally under the impression the fan was a frequent troll of his, and that he intended the initial message as “almost a ‘gotcha.’” “I’m genuinely sorry to the person who received those messages,” he wrote. “They didn’t deserve to be put in that position, and I’m sorry for the stress and attention this has brought them.”