CKY frontman claims Alien Ant Farm violence was self-defence
After CKY were kicked off their co-headline tour with Alien Ant Farm earlier this week, the band’s frontman Chad I Ginsburg has spoken. He claimed that the incident was self-defence.
On Monday, November 9th, only hours before the doors were set to open for CKY and Alien Ant Farm’s opening night of their UK tour in Margate, it was announced that CKY would no longer be part of the tour. The two American bands recently completed a European tour together, but it seems that issues have been bubbling away between the groups throughout these shows.
In an initial statement, Alien Ant Farm’s singer Dryden Mitchell claimed that Ginsburg had been “treating multiple crew members and opening band members like trash through the Europe shows and causing general drama around our camp”. He stated that the CKY singer had then been removed, and the band had been cut from the tour after Ginsburg punched him in the face.
Alien Ant Farm apologised to CKY fans and said they were sad to see the rest of the band go or to punish them on account of Ginsburg’s actions. However, the CKY frontman didn’t take the news well, initially imploring his fans to take action. He wrote online, “UK CKY fans get your money back!”
He added, “I had no choice and good reason for what happened. I will always defend myself. You know me much better than that! More info to come, apologies to the fans.”
Ginsburg has spoken out about the incident, claiming it was self-defence. He wrote on an Instagram story, “Nothing wrong with defending yourself from a bad guy.” He implied that Dryden was a ‘bad guy’ and claimed he was protected himself as he advised his fans, “If you are attacked or feel truly threatened, have no fear and stop the threat however you can.”
He continued: “I had to protect myself. It was a split-second reaction to a very angry guy muttering and then yelling at me from 10 feet away, charging at ME into my personal space! Coming at me.”
To Ginsburg, his violence was simply an attempt to keep himself safe as he said, “He was attacking me! I felt a physical threat, and had I not tried to avoid the attack, I would have been assaulted. For fucks sake.”
Alien Ant Farm haven’t responded to these new comments. Their UK tour is going on as planned, finishing with a major show at London’s Kentish Town Forum, only now without CKY as a joint headliner.
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