Early last week, after reports of throat slashings at their show in El Paso, Broken Hope found themselves without a tour after being kicked off by the headliners, Deicide. Broken Hope decided to air out their grievances in public calling out Glen Benton for a litany of offenses, but it was only one side of the story.
Rather than post his own pointlessly lengthy statement, Glen Benton got a mic thrown in front of him by the dudes behind the MetalSucks podcast for a great interview, where he gave his side of the story.
Here are some highlights from the interview. Please note these are not verbatim and rather me summarizing what Benton said:
Benton said it was ultimately due to "rock star bullshit" that Broken Hope got kicked out, violating the protocols of a support band. Claims of the band trying to take the headliner's parking spot, traveling in busses while every other band was in a van with a trailer and taking all the catering money for themselves were made by Benton. There were protocols that they chose not to follow, disrespecting all the other bands on the tour.
Benton mentioned that initially Vader were supposed to be direct tour support for Deicide, with Broken Hope below Vader. Broken Hope thought they should play on top of Vader and that they were bigger than Vader, which Benton scoffed at. Eventually, Vader took another tour offer.
Benton claimed that Broken Hope tried to hijack the tour as their own, as if they were the headliners. Benton claims that Broken Hope got ahead of the throat-slashing story and own it, saying "three fans got slashed at a Broken Hope show," and Benton was agitated because it was a Deicide show. Benton was irritated that Broken Hope would post "playing another sold out show" as if the crowd was there to see Broken Hope, but Benton made it clear everybody was there for Deicide. Benton claims after a few days of the band not being on tour, no fans have missed Broken Hope.
Benton states he does not do fog machines. Benton revealed he no longer drinks, smokes or does drugs, and Benton thinks the chemicals in those smoke machines irritate his respiratory systems. He said before the tour he made the request to not have any smoke machines on tour, and made repeated requests throughout the beginning of the tour.
Benton said he would arrive at a venue and take his cut of the catering money and then give Broken Hope's tour manager the remainder to distribute to the other bands. Benton claims that Broken Hope took the entire catering to cover their huge staff, which Benton claims was funded by Broken Hope guitarist Jeremy Wagner's girlfriend. Benton claims there is no way that Broken Hope can afford touring with a bus, with the large crew they had on the amount of money they were being paid from the tour.
Benton claimed he would've allowed Broken Hope to rejoin the tour if they posted a retraction to their initial statement but they refused.
Benton had only negative things to say about bassist Shaun Glass. He makes it clear that Glass is the instigator of all the drama, talking shit on the bands, causing drama and the entire reason the band was throne off the tour. Benton coined the term "Broken Glass" for Shaun.
Benton comes off very honest and likable here, so it's easy to see how he came to the conclusions he did. I recommend listening to the entire interview.
