Danny Worsnop opens up on Asking Alexandria’s infamous tour performance

Vocalist Danny Worsnop of Asking Alexandria has responded to the criticism directed at him for his recent live performances, which included the band’s now-famous June 15th concert at the RFK Stadium Grounds in Washington, DC, as part of the start of this year’s “Vans Warped Tour.” During that festival, Worsnop was charged for giving a mediocre, unenthusiastic performance and mostly depending on backup tracks. The backlash over the set was exacerbated by the livestreaming of the concert online. Sam Bettley, the band’s bassist, made an oblique apology after the controversy ended. Worsnop was asked to discuss what transpired with the show during a recent interview on the “Late For Load In Podcast,” characterizing the incident as the result of a number of circumstances coming together. Numerous technical difficulties during the set and the audio being supplied to the stream not accurately reflecting the performance itself were among the reasons given for the performance, along with a change in personnel for the band’s sound crew. Worsnop gave this response when asked what mental state the band was in at the time.

Honestly, I don’t know how they’re going to feel about this sentence. Lost is too strong, because I feel like it’ll insinuate something negative, and it’s not. But there’s an air of of confusion, but in a positive way, where it’s like we don’t know what’s next. We’ve always had an inkling what’s next. And… you know, with with Ben Bruce retiring, it’s kind of the first time doing it not the way we’ve always done it. So there’s, there’s a figuring it out phase, which there’s an excitement to because it’s that kind of learning and finding the pieces. We’ve got to figure out what the paintings gonna look like. We’ve got all the colors in front of us, and we don’t quite know where they’re going to go yet. So it’s exciting, and it’s going to take a minute, and we’re all aware of that. But yeah, I think it a little, yeah, a little bit confused, but in a positive way, is the best way I can describe where the band’s at right now.

But according to Worsnop, there’s a “very good chance” that Bruce will contribute some songs for the band’s upcoming album. After that, the debate turned to the notorious “Vans Warped Tour” set, and Worsnop provided the following description of what transpired.

I’ll preface, I’m going to do two things, me being self aware. I have this thing where, apparently, sometimes I say things and they they come across and I work things, or maybe it’s just the way my face looks, or my tone of voice, and they sound like I’m being shitty and patronizing. And I promise, if I say anything and I mean it to be shitty, I’ll say it shitty. So anyone listening going, ‘Wow, he’s so fucking pretentious.’ I swear that’s not the intention in my heart when I say this stuff. Also it’s, I’ll start with saying I feel bad about the show that everyone’s upset about was ‘Warped Tour DC. I feel bad about it, but not for the reason they want me to be. I feel bad because people were given a very, very, very poor representation of the show, and a very inaccurate one, and that it was completely out of our control. And I feel very bad that they got that, because in reality, it was a really good show. And I was on stage, jumping, running around. I don’t even I don’t even run anymore, but I was jumping, running around. I did a couple of live screams. I don’t scream anymore, it messes my throat up. In my head, I was having an internal conversation myself, and I literally said to myself, I was like, ‘this is gonna shut people up.’ It didn’t SPOILER ALERT. Another ego death right there. I was like, ‘they’re gonna have nothing to complain about. This is great.’ And then, yeah, clearly people did not share that same sentiment. The events that led up to that show, the band’s front-of-house sound guy and monitor sound guy both quit before that tour — still speak to both of them, wonderful people. It just wasn’t a good fit. They were new to the tour before. It just wasn’t the right the right pairing…. They left right before, and there were pieces of equipment of theirs that they took with them — it was theirs — we didn’t know about.

So we went on, and the show started, and no one can hear anything. I in my ears the entire show, and everyone, had click track — that’s how we keep in time. I’m gonna say some things that are going to be so redundant to half the people listening, but other people might not be aware so I’m gonna go into it. Click track, It’s a cowbell. It just keeps us in time. I hear that really loud. I hear the kick drum, and I hear my vocal all blaringly loud, nothing else. So I’m playing guesswork the whole time on whatever else is happening. Everyone else had the exact same thing, and no one could figure out what the problem was. So everyone; I’m going to bounce around a little bit. Everyone’s running around on stage furious. Sam especially, gets very upset with those things. And he has a face where, if he’s having a good show, he looks like he’s mad. So when he is mad about something, it looks like someone just kicked him in the penis. And everyone’s been speculating about what about what they’re mad about, and it’s they couldn’t hear anything. And out front, I guess there was a similar issue. So it wasn’t easy to do the show in the first place. I also had a sinus infection, but I’m not going to make excuses the whole time. And then we weren’t in control of anything that went to the stream. The show went great considering the hand we were dealt. There were, we’ll call it 20,000 people there, and there’s a 15 minute encore of people having a wonderful time wanting us to continue playing songs. I thought it was great. Get off. Fast forward to the next day. The stream that went out was, it had live drums, it had my vocal with no processing. I hate to say it, but there are very few singers on this planet that sound good with no processing, because microphones and just a blank DI aren’t flattering to anyone. It’s very just there, It’s abrasive. Now, a big part of that is I’m very dynamic, I get very loud and very quiet. So at some parts, you just hear me and nothing else. Other parts, you can’t hear me at all. So that’s jarring. And then you hear live drums and nothing else. They couldn’t hear live guitars, because they weren’t on. They don’t hear live bass, because it wasn’t on. They hear backing track guitars, which there are live guitars, but they are backing track guitars because there’s only one guitar player. There are backing vocals, aka vocal tracks, vocal backing tracks, not lip-syncing the vocal backing tracks, because no one in the band can sing. Ben did all of [those parts], and then he’s not there. I only have one mouth. There are harmonies. There are there are lines that overlap the stuff in the backing tracks. I don’t love them, but it’s a necessary evil, and they were way too loud. So I understand people hearing it and going like, ‘well, this is bullshit. It’s all vocal backing tracks.’ Not knowing how that stuff works out, [I would] feel the exact same way. So they were just given a very bad representation of the show, and that combined with what I am speculating, to be a very lazy camera guy who, while I am running around, jumping, being very enthusiastic, he was like, ‘I’m not tracking this,’ and just waiting till I stood still, he’s like, ‘Okay, now I’ll film him.’ So just a combination of things that just really didn’t give the people watching the livestream a positive experience at all. So I feel bad about that, and it’s out of our control, but nonetheless, I’m very sorry that they had that experience. Was it the best show in my life? No. The jumping round and running round — I’m not the most athletic person in the world — It tired me out quick, and then doing some live screams, which fucks my throat up. Yeah, that didn’t help either, and then not being able to hear anything, it was a recipe for disaster, and we did the best we could. But yeah, I think most of most of the hate… and I’ll also, I’ll point out and people aren’t going to be a fan of this, but I out of curiosity went; because I’m not losing any sleep over it. I’m not going to be bullied on the internet by people. I’m a grown adult. There were at one point, we were about a week, week and a half in from this happening, and there were, I counted, assuming that it was people only posted a negative comment one time. So everyone was a unique person. Because I just hide them because my social media isn’t an town village square. There were literally, there were almost 50. There were almost 50 [negative] comments. So there aren’t actually that many. It’s just very loud. And, you know, it’s not cool to read, but I try and look past it. So it’s a small minority, but they are upset and loud. I think a lot of it is people who they’ve wanted me or the band to be one way, and I understand why they love it, and it’s a big part of their lives, and they want to recapture that part of their life back through that music. But the reality is, I’m not that person, and I’m never going to be, and I don’t want to be. And I don’t mean for that to be any kind of offensive. I always hope people don’t take it that way, but I have to be true to myself, and the band has to be true to itself. And we’ve talked extensively about it since, and since about 2013, and before then. We always anytime someone’s like ‘the metal band,’ every single time [we’d] say. ‘we’re just a rock & roll band.’ We might be louder than other ones, but we’re just a rock & roll band. And in like 2013 the band made a conscious effort of like, ‘Hey, we’re going into the rock space.’ And people want to turn back the clock on that. But it’s never been something that hasn’t been happening, and people are upset about that. I think people expected something else from ‘Warped Tour‘. They expected us to go in and play a bunch of old songs and stuff, but it’s not a reality of something that I can reproduce and I’m capable [of.] I’m 34 now, I’m not 17. And I’ve suffered multiple like, big damages to my voice. And there was a period in time where I tried to do that stuff again, and it was just very damaging. And I’m not willing to risk my voice like that. And the guys don’t want me to, so this isn’t like a [situation where] they’re held captive by this. So I understand people’s disappointment, but at the same time, it’s this has kind of been a thing for a while. And ultimately, what it comes down because they, the band, asked me to not talk about any of this at all in any capacity. But I was like, this is bleeding into my personal life and my other businesses, I have to address it. And they did follow-up on me even today. James was like, ‘just know anything and everything you say is going to be taken out of context, and they’re going to twist it to be mad at you even more.’ I was like, ‘probably.’ Time will tell if this is a good idea or not.

Worsnop later stated that he would have chosen not to stream because of the previously mentioned personnel changes and his prior livestreaming experiences, and that he was just made aware that the show was being livestreamed minutes before the performance.

After all this happened, I, because during the show, I was like, ‘this is this is going really well.’ After it all, the first thing I did was find a stream of it and watch the entire thing. And I wrote out critique notes of the entire thing. …There’s a bunch. So I was like, ‘I fucked that up. That could have been better. I didn’t have the power here. I was out of breath here and that wasn’t good.’ So I did the critique of it. But ultimately, I was like, I mean, it sounds like shit. I’m very angry about how it sounded, but this doesn’t feel like something that is newsworthy. There’s also, and two separate points, there’s an inhuman amount of [bands], more than people would like to imagine, that are legitimately just on stage playing with tracks. And I’m not gonna get into my feelings on them doing that, or who it is, or anything. So I think a lot of people looking at like, well, ‘I just saw this band, and they were incredible. It was perfect.’ It’s like, ‘it was perfect. Yes, it was.’ And there also, by the same thing, there are artists out there, and you go see them, and go, that was… There have been people that I have, like, contacted their sound guy. They’re like, ‘Hey, tell me. Tell me, are they doing it?’ And there’s some people who are just that good. And it’s very real. I’m as human as they come. And I have, I have some great days. I have a lot, or sometimes even more, bad days. And it’s, you know, you kind of just got to deal with what you’re dealt. We do our best. And people do use backing tracks. And then people apply when they see a bad show, and it makes that bad show worse. But the other bit with the backing tracks, I’ll be the first. I don’t hide it. The screams in the show are on backing tracks. And then people are like, ‘he’s lip-syncing them, and sometimes he’s not even trying to lip-sync.’ I’m like, I’m never trying to lip-sync it. I have far too much respect for the people I don’t like, and their intelligence level, than to try and trick them into thinking that’s happening. I’m also very aware that if I tried, I’d mess it up. I’d have the microphone not on my mouth when it happens, and it’d be way too obvious. I’m not. I don’t think people are so stupid that they believe I’m not. I’m purposely making it obvious because I’m not trying to deceive people. I can’t do that anymore [screaming.] It’s a small part of those songs, so it’s in there, so that it’s there, right? 90% of the time, I’m doing other stuff with it at the same time, but yeah that was this just a thing I wanted to address, so we’re aware of that was my intention with that. It was supposed to read like a respectful thing, and apparently it didn’t come across that way, but if that was my intention.

He probably should’ve had a different reaction.

I don’t lose sleep over it, like, say, I feel bad they had that experience, and I don’t like disappointing people. I never want to, and it’s never my goal or intention. But, yeah, it just felt a lot like the entire thing was just blown up really big. And maybe it was because it was ignored. Maybe if I had gone on the next day and been like, hey,’ we couldn’t hear anything, the sound was terrible, I agree,’ it would have minimized the whole thing. But at the time it was like, ‘I’m not justifying this with a response.’ So maybe it was or wasn’t the best decision.