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Ex-DevilDriver Guitarist Mike Spreitzer Further Details His Exit from the Band

Early last week, it was revealed that long-time DevilDriver guitarist Mike Spreitzer was leaving the band. It likely came as a shock for fans and raised some questions for the future of the band as a whole, as he said he felt he could no longer treat DevilDriver like a full-time gig.

In his initial statement, Spreitzer revealed that in a bid to stay busy, he opted to pursue side projects like Verona On Venus. That decision, however, was “met with a heavy amount of negativity from a specific individual that made things extremely uncomfortable for me.”

Well, in a new interview with Loaded Radio, Spreitzer revealed who that “specific individual” allegedly was — DevilDriver vocalist Dez Fafara.

“Unfortunately, yes. I really hoped it wouldn’t be a problem, and I have a lot of friends that get a lot of support from the bands that they’re in, who they would consider their boss. Like Nita [Strauss] and Alice Cooper; Ozzy has always been cool with Zakk Wylde doing Black Label Society and Zakk Sabbath. Cesar [Soto] from Ministry — I remember when he first released Man The Mute record that he did, I bumped into Al Jourgensen at an art show once and he just couldn’t stop talking about how proud he was of Cesar.

“Monte Pittman, he’s in Ministry, and Madonna seems to be just fine with him doing that. And even Zakk Wylde with his drummer Jeff Fabb; [Jeff] just released a record on his own. And so I really didn’t see it being a problem. I never intended to make Verona a priority over DevilDriver. I had a lot of time during the pandemic, and I just wanted to keep on writing, so I did.

“Yeah, unfortunately, it is, because I really gave him my blessing, when Coal Chamber started doing — even when they were at their first reunion. And at their first reunion, quite honestly, I needed the break at the time. Unfortunately, I think that was a big reason which led to John Boecklin and Jeff Kendrick leaving the band [in 2014], because DevilDriver went on hiatus and it was not in their best interest at the time to stick around.”

Regarding his exit from DevilDriver, Spreitzer said he still hasn’t discussed it with Fafara. That lack of communication, he said, was by design.

“I’ve seen how things have went when other members have left the band, and I honestly felt like this was the best way to do it.

“I don’t really wanna get into it much more than that because of obvious reasons, but all the other guys understood where I was coming from. And I wanna work more, and as of now, unless someone comes knocking on my door that wants me to join a band, which, depending on the band, I would definitely take into consideration, but right now I just wanna go full throttle with my new project Verona On Venus.

“I’m excited to do things my own way and mix things up. Obviously, Verona sounds a lot different than DevilDriver — it’s a completely different style of music — and it’s time for something new for me. It’s been 20 years, and it’s been a lot of fun, but sometimes people just feel like moving on, and that’s how I feel right now.”

Spreitzer joined the band in 2004 and was featured in every release since 2005’s The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand.

About three months ago, the band began teasing that they were working on something with their former drummer John Boecklin. Who knows what that could have been and how it’s affected by Spreitzer’s withdrawal.

The post Ex-DevilDriver Guitarist Mike Spreitzer Further Details His Exit from the Band appeared first on MetalSucks.