The members of All That Remains have chosen to stay relatively silent about the death of Oli Herbert. Until now.
Herbert passed away at 44 years old in October, by drowning in a lake behind his home that was "inches deep" according to the Currant's viewing of police records. Today, All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte appeared on Rover's Morning Glory radio show, and while he initially resisted discussing the matter, he ended up calling Oli's widow, Elizabeth a.k.a Beth, a "garbage human being."
When the host, Rover, asked about the death, Labonte was quick to respond saying "I think when it comes to the circumstances surrounding Oli's death, the best thing I can say is there is not a lot I could say, because there is an investigation ongoing." The case is still unresolved, with police investigating the death as suspicious. People close to Oli have been searching for answers, with conspiracies being thrown around about possible causes of death. One of the points of contention by friends of Oli that were concerned about his death was the signing of his will a week before his death.
Rover then pressed on asking if Herbert was a heavy drinker. "Our drummer is the big drinker in the band. Our drummer used to be like 'Oli, do shots' and Oli would be like 'shots are for adolescents.' [laughs] He liked mixed drinks, he liked good beers, but he wasn't into the drinking and stuff. He would have some drinks, but I would never recall Oli… in twenty years, I've seen him hung over two times. It wasn't his deal. He loved playing guitar."
When Rover noted that when he first saw the story, he assumed, because of the cliche rockstar lifestyle that drugs were involved, Labonte cut him off saying "Oli Herbert did not do the types of drugs that you would associate with an overdose, period." He continued "Never saw him do the type of drugs that you would associate with, you know, somebody overdoses and dies."
It seemed like everybody was about to move on, but one of the co-hosts started reading now-deleted Facebook post which began "Good morning everyone this is Beth. And indeed it IS a good morning; Toxicology results are back as is the official cause of my husband's death!" At this point, you could see Labonte shaking his head on the video stream and he just blurts out "Absolute garbage human being." referring to Beth.
When asked if he disliked Oli Herbert's wife, Labonte responded "Beth was never to be around… to be on tour. She would come to the local shows because, you know, we couldn't stop her. Everyone else in the band, you know, wives, girlfriends, whatever – they would come out on tour, stay for a few days, stay for a week, everybody got along."
When asked why she was not allowed, Labonte responds "We [the band] made the decision, and she wasn't allowed because she was a garbage human being. [laughs]."
When asked why they didn't get a divorce, Labonte responded "We tried to get him to get a divorce for a long time, I can't tell you exactly why he wouldn't do it or what the circumstances were surrounding his resistance. But I can say that I personally talked to him and said multiple times, look if you need a place to stay, I got plenty of room."
He also noted that Beth was the one who told him Oli died the night it happened and all he would comment on it was "it was a very short conversation."
Before moving on, the hosts asked Phil if he had an opinion on how Oli died and Phil simply responded "I do have an opinion on it, but I am not going to say. There is an ongoing investigation happening by Connecticut police."
The conversation then moved on to discussing Jason Richardson, the new guitarist in the band. Labonte noted that at one point Oli Herbert had said that Richardson was the best guitarist he had ever seen. You can watch and listen to the interview here.
All That Remains will be touring this Spring with Attila and Escape the Fate. Dates here.
