…by now I
am sure you have heard the newest Tangled Grace drama. Now
that I have had some time to think about all of this, I have realized that there
is alot I would like to say, and definitely alot I could say that would not only
hurt the musical point but personal points with certain people, but I will stick
to the topic at hand.
On that note
I’ll take you back to the beginning....
From the
beginning there are two questions that don't need to be answered but pointed
out.
The questions
are:
Who started the band?
Who was in it from day one?
The
answer....
Myself and
none of them. D joined tangled grace in March of 2008, as did Tommy. I
was really starting to feel like we had a promising future ahead of us, but
behind the scene is where all the true dirt lies:
An arrogant asshole is what I've heard I am being portrayed as, but for anyone
who has taken the time to get to know me or for those of you who already do, you
know that I am not this evil, f@%*#
asshole that certain people would like you to believe.
But that is
beside the point. There are three people who seem to feel different about that
topic. But what I do know is that a
band is not run by just one person, it
is run as a whole.
Let’s
begin where the problems first started. There was alot of complaining about
Tommy and his drinking and something as simple as changing his guitar strings
before shows. Plus the fact that we had to cancel our trip to LA because he got
a DWI and couldn’t afford to go. And as D said, Stacey
mentioned she heard our guitar player was a train wreck at the fair, because he
was so drunk. Needless to say, the
little white problem, the drinking problem and the walking pharmacy problem was
always present. This went on for quite a while and not once was it brought to my
attention that there was a problem with me. So when did I become the problem.
Then D
decides to give ultimatums about the present and future of the band. Then comes
the conversation between D and I on the phone where D says and I quote " as
far as I am concerned this band is now mine," He took us to where we were
and where we were going to be and without him there would be no Stacey. Speechless,
I scratched my head, gave a little laugh and thought "really?"
that’s when D asked me if I was in or out. My response was "I’ll let
you know D".
Who does
that? After our conversation we continued rehearsals until a couple of weeks
later where their childish plot started. Tommy, Tony and I showed up to
rehearsal after Tony had picked up Tommy (drunk again). D kicked us out of his
house and had us all pack up our equipment and leave. I proceeded to help them
load up their equipment. I even
offered Tony a place to put his drums since he had lost his house. He
said he would figure something out. For the next few days Tony called me on a
regular basis, saying its me and you, we’ve been together from just about the
beginning and if any of us are out, we are out together. Finally after about a
week, his calls stopped, only for me to find out my pictures had been taken off
the myspace page and the three of them were back practicing with a new singer.
Also finding out the whole "kicking" out ordeal was a cowardly way to
get my equipment out of the house. Not
one of them had the balls to sit me down and discuss any issues they were having
with me. Again, when did I become the problem?
This was all
done behind my back.
I don’t hate what they did, I hate the way they went about it. After all, I'm
the first one to say when it is not fun anymore changes need to be made. In
their attempt of being so professional, not one of them had the balls to answer
my phone calls when I was trying to find out what was going on. By the way
it’s interesting to see that I’m not the only one you’ve been giving
your sneaky, self gaining, royal treatment to.
If Emerald City, especially John, knew of your degrading vicious rumors
you keep alive, I am sure they would have welcomed you on stage the other night
with a whole different approach. Possibly
with a big ole vampire piñata. Huh!
Imagine the f@%*# candy dropping from that one.
My love for playing out is my passion. I also know what happened is the nature
of the business. I have to give a lot of credit to all of the local bands who
keep it together through thick and thin. Longevity is definitely a major factor
to their success. There isn’t a band that doesn’t go through their problems.
But it takes communication within a band to get through these times. The reality
of this is, Tangled Grace has always been a group effort. Not by someone like D
who wants to control everything or like Tony who has no sense of reality, lets
face it Tony is no Tommy Lee and we are no Motley Crue.
Tangled grace
has always been about doing what they want to do, partying with the people, and
sounding the best we can. As far as direction goes, I myself never tried to
change the direction of Tangled Grace, I only tried to broaden it. To bring in
more than one crowd.
Back to being professional the way this was handled, egos got in the way with a
big power trip. After all if they weren’t happy they should have communicated
with me. I hope D you find satisfaction in your power-play and I hope Tommy and
Tony enjoy being your little bitches. At least I can move on and know I was no
ones bitch. I can rest easy knowing I can make my point with truthful facts. I
want to thank all of my friends who have supported me through this change. In
the end what this all means is there will be a new band in Syracuse in the near
future. Can’t wait to see you all out once the new project has been unveiled. The
new bands website and myspace page will be back on this website real soon, be
looking for it. Thanks again for all of the support. Good luck to the newly
reformed, but still broken Tangled
Grace.
Bob Wheeler
