Back in December 2015, Thy Art Is Murder vocalist CJ McMahon quit the band due to financial reasons. At the time, he said he simply couldn't afford to keep being in the band. McMahon rejoined the band earlier this year, so it wasn't a very long split, and it's not like Thy Art Is Murder was putting out music without McMahon either.
We know why he dropped out of the band, but in a new interview with Hard Noise Podcast, McMahon discussed the day he decided that he was going to quit the band. He also adds that his decision had a lot to do with drug addiction, and how it consumed his money.
“The main thing was money. Not just me, but everyone in the band and other bands out there. We get paid like shit. We do have a cool lifestyle at points but you know, the money is like extremely hard to deal with. Not being able to buy Christmas presents and anniversary presents and help pay my mortgage with my father in law and my wife.
And then knowing I was getting married in a year and a half and then at that point I’m like fuck… I can’t even afford to pay for even half of the wedding. So, the money thing was really hard. I had a pretty bad drug addiction as well. Cocaine and weed consumed me very quickly and that just was not good for my physical and mental health.”
“After recording ‘The Depression Sessions‘, I had like a pretty crazy night after that and day. When I landed in LA, I was sobering up and getting angry and aggressive and overthinking everything. Thinking, I don’t got any fucking money, just finished fucking four months of touring. Gonna go home… I might get paid $2,000 for the last fuckin’ five months.”
It’s two and a half weeks before Christmas. I don’t know how I’m supposed to buy Christmas presents for my wife, my father in law, my mother in law, my brother in law, my brother, my mother, my father, my sister in law, my niece… what the fuck am I supposed to do? I had really no options. I found that I’d been saying it for so long, like for years, ah fuck this… I just wanna have a normal life and have normal money. So then it just hit me, I landed in LA and I was like you know what, that’s it. One e-mail and it’s done.”
[via Metal Insider]
