Yesterday, we called out All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte for calling the singer of Black Veil Bridesa "faggot". We weren't the only ones to do so, and since Phil clearly has nothing better to do, he's taken to his social media accounts to defend himself. The gist of my argument was that the dude is a role model and shouldn't be using such degrading language in pointless situations. In the interest of reporting the whole story, here are his responses with a few of my opinions in between.
I use the word "FAGGOT" in reference to a guy who dresses like @Jeffreestar but w/o the pink and it makes the metal "news" and I'm a homophobe. I say "I back gay rights 100%" and no one makes a peep. Nice job metal media. Also, I've talked to @jeffreestar, he's a cool guy. Or girl. And he doesn't get fucking butthurt by the word "faggot".
Oh, and he's sucked WAY more dicks than the singer of Black Veiled Brides. I don't think Andy is even GAY. #mediacreatedoutrage
Oh, I see. It's ok for you to call somebody who is not gay a faggot because you have gay friends. That makes so much sense to me! I am not butthurt by the word "faggot," I am just shocked at how flagrantly you used to word to describe another musician WHO DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO PROVOKE YOU. There is no validation for what you did.
I ain't mad. Just a lot of peeps been posting this stuff on my wall and I felt like I needed to elaborate. People talk TONS of shit about me EVERYDAY. And have for years. NO. CARE.
America, ya know what sucks? Beheading someone for SORCERY. Rape. Murder. Violence. That hurts. Why doesn't the metal "media" mention any of that? Oh yeah, cause it doesn't generate traffic to their site. And in six months no on will remember this at all. But in six months the guys who got their heads cut off for speaking out against the NarcoCartels in Mexico will still be dead.
This is pretty much the most ridiculous argument ever. WE ARE A METAL SITE, NOT A GLOBAL NEWS WEBSITE! Why the hell would we cover beheadings unless they were vocals in the latest Cannibal Corpse CD? You are just deflecting the issue here.
I think this will be my last remark on the subject. All the blogs that don't like what I said, or what I post, or my politics. YOU ALL MAKE MONEY CAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE ME! As much as you "hate" me, you love me. Cause every once in a while I say something you can hate on. Maybe it's a comment on here, where I am far more honest than ANY other person in the music industry today, OR we put out a disc that you can not listen to but still say how much you hate it. You're welcome. Faggots.
So charming! At least we agree on something. You're right, Phil! Yesterday, we got a lot of hits to the post about your bigotry, so a thank you is very much in order. All I ask is you continue to make assinine remarks like this, so that you can continue to be in the news cycle and we can both continue to profit off your names showing up in headlines on this metal news site, in the place of actual metal news we could be reporting on, because this gets more hits. That's right, it goes both ways. Just as we are making money off you, you are just as much making money off us, indirectly, with your name getting publicity on this metal news site.
Last night, while discussing this humorous story with Axl Rosenberg and Vince Neilstein at the Metal Suckfest pre-show, we decided that we should just start replacing the word faggot in our vernacular with "Labonte." So whenever one of your friends starts acting like a pansy, just go "Dude, you're such a Labonte."
