Bad Wolves singer Tommy Vext has walked back comments he made in a video earlier this week, in which he promoted conspiracy theories about the origins of Black Lives Matter and downplayed the effects of racism.
On Monday (June 8th), Vext posted a video in which he offered the debunked theory that “Black Lives Matter” was created by people like George Soros, the billionaire Holocaust survivor who is the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories, along with the Clinton Foundation. Vext also asserted that racism in the U.S. is “manufactured.”
On Thursday morning (June 11th), Vext once again took to his Instagram to clarify his earlier post and to slam “certain media outlets” for allegedly “misrepresenting” his “inquiries as opinion.”
He wrote, “On Monday I shared a diagram of a theoretical scenario that was explained to me which has been widely misunderstood as my beliefs and opinion . . . Predictably certain media outlets misquoted and misrepresented my inquiries as opinions and lambasted me to serve their own purposes making the video go viral.”
Meanwhile, Bad Wolves guitarist Doc Coyle said that he “wholeheartedly disagree(s)” with the contents of Vext's video but that there was no trouble brewing within the band.
Several hours after Vext's “clarification” was posted online, Coyle took to his social media to write, “While it should be noted that I advocate for free speech and don't want to censor anyone, I wholeheartedly disagree with the content of this video . . . Thankfully, today Tommy offered a retraction/clarification on his thoughts on the matter and the video has been deleted. That means a lot to me.”
After apologizing “to anyone who was hurt,” Coyle continued, “Some in the media will exploit this as a flashy band-feud, but Tommy and I have spoken. We've heard each other, and that's what this time should be about. Listening to one another . . . I offer solidarity to those addressing historical and systemic racial inequities in this country.”
Bad Wolves is currently sitting at Number Two on the rock radio chart with “Sober,” from the band's second album, N.A.T.I.O.N.
