Ex-QUIET RIOT Singer On FRANKIE BANALI: 'He Was Cold, He Was Ruthless, He Was Just Absolutely A Nightmare To Work With'

Seann Nicols has once again slammed Frankie Banali, saying that the QUIET RIOT drummer has a "terrible personality" and is impossible to work with.

Nicols was with QUIET RIOT for just a few months, but long enough to record the vocals for an early version of the band's latest album, "Road Rage". QUIET RIOT has since re-recorded the disc with its seventh lead singer, "American Idol" finalist James Durbin, and released it last August via Frontiers Music Srl.

During a recent interview with JROCK Houston of Chaotic Riffs Magazine, Nicols was asked about the circumstances that led to his departure from QUIET RIOT. The vocalist said (hear audio below): "I've read some of the official statements made by Frankie Banali. There were personal and professional differences, and I think that that's probably the most accurate description of why that situation didn't work out.

"There was never an issue of my ability to sing those songs or perform those songs live," Seann continued. "It really came down to a clash of personality and personal and profesional ethics between me and Frankie Banali."

Nicols confirmed that he only played five shows with QUIET RIOT before he was "let go. And I've gotta say that the entire experience of right from the very first rehearsal, dealing with Frankie Banali was an absolute nightmare," he said. "Before we had even stepped one foot in a rehearsal room, he was already going out of his way to give me the cold shoulder and ignore me and treat me like less than a human being. He was cold, he was ruthless, he was just absolutely a nightmare to work with. And I don't think there's anybody on this planet that would have tolerated it for as long as I did. I gave everything that I had and all the good faith that I could muster up, all the good will that I could possibly build up in my spirit to deal with him and his terrible personality. But there was just no way that any professional, self-respecting human being could work with that man."

According to Seann, Banali's attitude has created an environment within QUIET RIOT that brings out the worst in people and drags everyone down.

"Let's just cut right to the chase, okay? QUIET RIOT is a very poorly run, small business organization," Nicols said. "They suffer from poor business ethics. And a company is only as good as its leader. And with Frankie Banali calling the shots, it's got a top-down effect of negativity. There is no way for that band to overcome the challenges they are facing as long as they have an intemperate, intolerant, unethical leader."

Banali first spoke publicly about the split with Nicols during a March 2017 interview with Billboard. He stated at the time: "After doing all of five live shows [with Nicols], it became apparent to everybody that it really wasn't going to work. There were some serious creative and personal differences. I'm not the type of person who will stay in a bad marriage for the kids — the kids in this case being QUIET RIOT. It was unanimous it could not go any further."

More recently, the drummer told The Metal Voice that he was perfectly justified in releasing "Road Rage" without Nicols's vocals. "The only thing is the same is the music because all the music had been written [without Seann's involvement]," he said. "The majority of the music was written by myself and my writing partner, Neil Citron, who's also the engineer on the record. There's one song that Alex [Grossi, guitar] wrote all the music to and there's one song that Chuck Wright [bass] had co-writing credit. But, we got rid of all the lyrics and all the vocal melodies from the first version and had James create all new lyrics and all new melodies. As a matter of fact, James, to this day, has not heard the first version of the record because I wanted to make sure he had a blank canvas and wasn't influenced one way or the other by what had preceded."

Since his exit from QUIET RIOT, Nicols played one show as the new lead singer for Bobby Blotzer's version of RATT. He has also joined the band WESTFIELD MASSACRE, which embarked on a U.S. headlining tour, the "North American Meltdown".

More than a decade ago, Seann fronted Steven Adler's former band ADLER'S APPETITE under the name Sheldon Tarsha.