Suffocation has been fronted by vocalist Frank Mullen since its inception in 1988 to their breakup in 1998, and then from 2002 onward. Mullen hasn't toured with the group on all their treks ever since 2012, citing a new union job that wouldn't allow him much time off. But he's always been a part of the group and performed on all their albums. Unfortunately, Mullen recently announced he'll be exiting the group completely this year after one more tour, though that tour has not yet been finalized.
Now guitarist Terrance Hobbs has spoken to Metal Underground, saying he's bummed that Mullen is quitting, but he also understands. He says the band is currently trying to plot a tour for Mullen's departure with whatever time Mullen has to spare. Hobbs also says he gets that Mullen and the rest of the dudes in the band aren't getting any younger.
"I believe that Frank is planning on completely stopping. He does wanna do, like, a farewell tour, but it's so hard for him, as well as for us, because there's so much of the world, he can't just take off three months and do South America, do Australia, do Europe, do America, do Japan, go to all these different countries. So right now we're working really hard on — especially between management and Frank — trying to find out what would be the best areas that he'll be able to do in the short amount of time that he has to do a farewell tour. So, eventually it's gonna come, and hopefully it never will. Because we all love Frank — he's one of my best friends in the world, he's always a part of the business of Suffocation as we made this together, and after 30 years… It's not like somebody, oh, he just joined the band and he didn't do a show, so now you kick him out and that's it. No. Frank's been there for 30 years. Now he's my business partner, and it's a more adult relationship.
As I said, as time goes on, there's a lot more responsibility for him, and, I guess, all the rest of us who are just musicians, we can go and play in a band all the time and play guitar or go and play in a band and play drums. Frank is screaming his lungs out, and at the end of the day, he's getting his bad headaches and things like that, which, in turn, is making it harder for him to do the kind of touring that a band like us, a death metal band, needs to do in order to get out to the rest of the world and have people take a listen."
Watch the entire interview below.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV2SeS9TUX0][/youtube]
