Founding Asking Alexandria guitarist Ben Bruce left the band in January of this year to focus more on his family.
Now in an interview with El Planeta del Rock, Asking Alexandria bassist Sam Bettley elaborated on Bruce's departure saying there's no bad blood at all. Bettley said it's gonna be weird not seeing Bruce on stage with them anymore, but that carrying on with a live-in fill isn't exactly a new situation for the band either.
"Here's the thing: we're all brothers, and we've been brothers since, it's been 15 years now," said Bettley. "And when we started doing this, obviously we were all young and we were kids, really. And throughout the years, we've all got families. We've all got kids. I've got two boys — four and about to be two — and he's got a family and he's got kids. And if there's one thing that we always said, it was always put family first.
"And if you're feeling there's certain things and reasons that I don't wanna go into — it's not my place to go into — but it's just a no-brainer. He's staying home just to be with his family for a bit, and we still speak to him all the time, and he's still like just as much of a brother to all of us, and it's just not as big of a deal to us, because we've kind of known about his feelings of this for a while.
"We've done a few tours without Ben, actually, recently too, because of these reasons of him needing to be at home with his family. So to us, it's gonna be definitely weird and different to be on stage without Ben, for sure, but I will be definitely speaking to him and seeing him just as much as I ever did. There's no bad blood there. We all have families, so for us to put ourselves in his shoes and he's our brother, we get it. And much love and respect there."
