Ex-AS I LAY DYING Guitarist KEN SUSI Details What Caused The Band’s Collapse Last November

The metalcore band AS I LAY DYING experienced a significant and unsettling second implosion last year. Excluding vocalist Tim Lambesis, the remaining members successively departed, often alluding cryptically to conflicts with their morals or belief systems.

This exodus was followed by online rumors concerning infidelity and spousal abuse, although Lambesis‘ then-wife publicly denied any allegations of domestic violence.

The BREWtally Speaking Podcast recently featured a detailed discussion on the topic with former AS I LAY DYING guitarist Ken Susi.

Addressing the topic and his motivations for speaking publicly about it now, Susi said (as transcribed by ThePRP): “I think it’s unacceptable for Tim to go on podcasts with his friends and make false claims about how the band broke up.

“I guess like, believe what you want, but my version of what happened totally doesn’t align with basically what he’s been out there saying and putting out statements about, right? So I really don’t personally want to get into a back and forth with Tim Lambesis, and I really don’t want to respond per se to what he said in the breakup and all that stuff, it’s just not what I’m here to do.

“But I think the band just found ourselves in a position where we were essentially endorsing and promoting somebody with like a history… past accusations and he went to prison and all that stuff and he did what he did.

“But like after his incarceration, it was almost like I did kind of see this coming. In my opinion, he formulated this like almost reality TV, you know, persona for his fanbase of like him portraying himself as his man of redemption or rehabilitation.

“And it really gave those people that really do believe in that this like sense of, ‘I can get behind this guy and and do the thing that you know, that that he says that he is. And I can overcome my, the things that I’ve endured in my life,’ and like giving people hope. But to be totally honest with you, it’s as I said, it’s almost, like well-crafted and well thought out. You know, I really don’t believe in my opinion, I really don’t believe it’s a real thing in his world. But maybe he can speak to that.”

“But, going back to the band, a lot of troubling issues kind of surfaced within the band in his personal life — well, surfaced in his personal life — but also with the band, leading the band into it,” Susi continued. “And we were just basically supporting somebody dealing with serious problems. And we were unaware of how serious those problems were at the time. And when we figured, when the band actually, you know, it revealed himself and the band figured it out, that’s when, we really realized that… I believe, and we believe, that he, Tim, was, in need of professional help. And it was something that we were not able to provide or equipped to provide to him. ‘Cause we’re not like therapists and we’re not relationship experts. We’re, we’re none of that.

In light of the recent online release of Lambesis‘ leaked videos, he added: “There was so much bad footage that popped up online and I was, I think the whole band was like, ‘holy cr*p, this is what was going on.’ Like we had no idea, but we’re glad we walked away kind of kind of vibe.

“It’s like for those people in the comment section being, ‘Oh, you know, this guy didn’t hit that dog too hard’ or, ‘This guy didn’t freak out that hard’ or ‘He barely touched her.’ And I’m kind of like, how much do you love this band?

“Because the guys in the band don’t love it as much as you do at this point. You know what I’m saying? Like it’s time to stop. And the only way I would, me personally, Ken Susi, would ever support that particular project is if he wasn’t a part of it. Other than that, I’m done.”

This past November, disturbing videos surfaced online showing Lambesis in a highly agitated state. He has since issued a statement claiming that his wife, Dany, had abused him and that his reactions in the videos were a result of her actions. Lambesis also stated that he had filed a restraining order against her.

Following the controversy surrounding his band’s dissolution and his personal life, Tim Lambesis has recently given his first interview to Justin Wenzel, a personal branding expert and fitness coach, on Wenzel‘s podcast.

Lambesis admitted that his personal struggles, including anxiety, had significantly impacted his relationships with his bandmates, creating an insurmountable rift within the band. He said: “I chose to make it that way, but that was my own fault. It doesn’t have to be that way… living with a person in a bus and all that, I’m responsible for making sure that there is health in my own life and personal concern between the people I’m working with and I didn’t prioritize that enough.”

Lambesis further revealed that his marital dissatisfaction with Dany had been evident for at least a year.

“I think it just really comes down to the amount of anxiety I had on a relationship level, that I just carried on a regular basis, of like, not understanding,” Tim said. “I just don’t understand how you could be with a person and not be kind to them, and, like, really mess with my head to the point where I just would wake up with anxiety. I’d go to sleep with anxiety. And to me, being that version of myself, it was inevitable I was going to push everybody else away, right? Because how do you how do you connect with a person that’s drowning in anxiety constantly, but won’t talk to you about it?”