White Wizzard ran into a pretty large spot of bad luck when their singer allegedly got trashed and refused to get up on stage. The band did the sensible thing and got some other people to do the show with them, promptly canned the dude and will finish the tour with another. Right on!
Joseph Michael was the first to strike with a statement stating:
Here is the real story on White Wizzard
Jon has been stealing money from us . From indie gogo fund and out on tour and i called him out on it.
He then fired me last night on the night off…
Then announced that i was refusing to sing… It's all lies…
I was fired and he couldnt find someone to sing so he begged me 5 minutes before they went on…
Jon Leon is a Con man and has not honored one word he has said since i have joined this band… After i sang on White Wizzard – Devil's Cut he threatened to forbid Earache Recordsfrom releasing it with my vocals if i didn't sign a new contract giving no rights and a far worse deal..After the work was done…
If it wasn't for Will Wallner and Jake Dreyer Standing up to this criminal he would have left myself and filmmaker Don Adams stranded in the middle of nowhere…
Jon Leon has paid for nothing on this trip and has acted a child the whole time. Please Do not Let him rip you off if you Purchased From Indie Go Go… Goodnight
The band took to their Facebook for a proper response:
White Wizzard want to release a brief statement on singer Joseph Michael. Last night in Cardiff Wales, Joseph Michael left a crowd of fans sitting in the venue waiting to see White Wizzard, sat in a pub across the street and refused to perform the show for extremely selfish reasons. The band soldiered on with Peter Ellis and Jon Leon handling vocals. It was hugely unprofessional on his part. Due to these actions, we have secured another singer for mainland Europe named Giles Lavery. Sadly, due to this any many other problems over the past several months, it is without question we must move on and immediately make a change. Joseph is making very false and erroneous claims on his Facebook site unfortunately about Jon and the band, but without getting into a war of words we will just simply say he is lying and making a desperate attempt to hurt the band and Jon to cover up his very unprofessional actions. The rest of us are determined to move on, and we all assure you we are united and everything is fine within the rest of the group. We will do our best to move on. See ya out there! Thanks for all the fans support last night and beyond.
I had been following the story as posts were flying, but unfortunately was out and couldn't snag a few of the better ones. Basically it was a war of words for a solid hour where one gy would post something to the band's page, then another guy would respond and delete the other's post, etc. It was interesting. Former frontman Joseph Michael also released another statement to MetalSucks further clarifying his stance.
The bottom line is screwing your fans over because you're wasted is a shitty thing to do and it's way awesome that the rest of the White Wizzard guys not only did the show, but found someone to do the tour so fans wouldn't be disappointed. We commend you, White Wizzard!
