After Every Time I Die 's official statement about the band's breakup, Keith Buckley published a lengthy text on his social media accounts telling his side of the story.
According to Every Time I Die, the complete separation was announced because the members were unable to reach an agreement with Keith due to communication problems. In his version of events, Keith denies this motivation and lists a series of communications made between him and the band through legal channels.
According to the vocalist, he overheard the members of Every Time I Die planning to replace him before going on stage on December 3rd, which allegedly prompted his decision to step away to take care of his mental health. He also claims to have tried to contact his colleagues to discuss the problems they seemed to have with him, but received no response until December 20th, when he received a legal notice from the other representatives .
This initial notification reportedly demanded that Keith immediately stop using the Every Time I Die name and logo because he was being separated from the other members and the band itself, and prohibited him from commenting publicly on the matter. On January 5th, however, Keith was contacted again and offered the option to keep the band's name and continue without the other members, on the condition that they receive payment for the Every Time I Die name while Keith was on tour. The vocalist reportedly rejected the offer because he was "not interested" in replacing his colleagues. "I don't see ETID as anything other than these specific members," he commented.
On January 17, Keith Buckley's lawyer reportedly contacted Every Time I Die to announce that a statement regarding Buckley's departure from the band would be released by the vocalist within 24 hours if they did not receive a response regarding a new statement or an interest in planning a joint announcement. “Later that night, I received a message from a friend asking me to check Twitter ,” Buckley recounts. “There I discovered that they had announced on their own that we had split up after the second Christmas show.”
“That’s how I found out that the band I founded at age 19 was publicly over,” he laments. “By posting this without any prior conversation, without any legal consultation, without any sense of personal honor for the band we built, these men took away my chance to say goodbye to 20 years of sacrifice.”
Keith also commented that the band's separation was "inevitable" and that the members' problems with each other "go back decades." "We should have broken up in 2014, to tell you the truth," he wrote. He also reassured fans that he is "fine" and "happy" and thanked them for 23 years of support.
Check out the full statement:
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