TONY HARNELL Falsely Accuses BLABBERMOUTH.NET Of Misquoting Him Over SKID ROW Comments

Tony Harnell has accused BLABBERMOUTH.NET of misquoting him over recent comments he made about his departure from SKID ROW.

On February 2, BLABBERMOUTH.NETposted an article headlined "TONY HARNELL Says That He Regrets Quitting SKID ROW Via Facebook: 'It Was A Really Dumb Thing To Do'" based on an interview Tony gave to Canadian podcaster Mitch Lafon in which the singer admitted he was sorry for announcing his exit from the band via social media, saying that it was a "very unprofessional" move that was triggered in part by the fact that he was drinking heavily at the time.

In a subsequent interview with Totally Driven Radio, Harnell blasted "Blabbermouth and these other news feeds" for not quoting him accurately, claiming — falsely — that the words "on Facebook" were left out of the story's headline to suggest that he regretted leaving SKID ROW.

Asked by host Bay Ragni to clarify the comments he previously made about his SKID ROW departure, Harnell said (hear audio below): "I should be careful even talking about this anymore, because I did a very in-depth, very clear interview with an amazing journalist, Mitch Lafon, and even being crystal clear and apologizing… We must have spoken for… I don't know… maybe close to an hour — I don't remember — but out of that entire interview, we talked about this for maybe five minutes. What I said was, 'I made a big fucking mistake quitting on Facebook.' And what happens is, they put out — Blabbermouth and these other news feeds — I don't know… I guess they got somehow a bug up their ass and they decided to just pick on me for some reason over other people, although I've seen them pick on other people, so I know they're not isolating me. But for whatever reason, they chose to leave two important words off, which is now continuing to circulate, even though a lot of my fans stepped up and defended the whole thing and said, 'That's not what he said.' What they said was he regrets quitting SKID ROW, which is absolutely not what I said. I said I regret quitting on Facebook. And when you add those two words, the headline is very different — very different."

Harnell added that he didn't really have much more to say about his split with SKID ROW, explaining that it happened four years ago. "It was wrapped up in the drinking, and I'm not blaming it on the drinking — I'm blaming it on me. But certainly it didn't help that I was drunk when I did that," he said. "And I'm not proud of it. It was a low point for me, for sure. And regardless of how I felt about being in that situation, that was an unprofessional thing to do — period, end of story. And you know what? If people wanna pick on me for apologizing for something stupid I did, then I guess they have never made a mistake in their life. The difference between me and a lot of other people is — and I'm not even famous — is that a lot of the stuff that happens in my life is out there more than your average person, let's put it that way. And that's the career I chose, so I'm not complaining about it. But at the same time, I think that it's the responsibility of, and I use the world 'journalists' lightly, with quotations around it, it's the responsibility of these guys to at least quote me accurately."

He continued: "I don't really have a lot more to say about it. I had a good time. I had some really fun shows with them. And that was what happened. And they're doing fine, and I'm doing fine."

BLABBERMOUTH.NET's original and unedited Twitter and Facebook posts containing the full headline of the aforementioned February 2 article can be found at the links below:

* Facebook
* Twitter

Harnell joined SKID ROW in April 2015 as the replacement for Johnny Solinger, who was the band's frontman for 15 years. Tony quit the group only eight months later, writing in a Facebook post that "being ignored and disrespected isn't my thing."

Harnell was replaced in SKID ROW by South African-born, British-based singer ZP Theart, who previously fronted DRAGONFORCE, TANK and I AM I.

SKID ROW guitarist Dave "Snake" Sabo told the "Trunk Nation" show that things fell apart so quickly with Harnell because "some things just aren't meant to work… they just don't work together. Knowing him before and then working with him, it was two separate… it really was two different things," he explained. "A lot of conflict, a lot of butting heads, and it just… it never meshed, it was never right. We knew him for a long time, [but we] never worked with him — never worked in a band situation, in a band environment with him. And you know what — for better or for worse, this is our band; it belongs to us. And so if someone is gonna come in and work with us, we have a certain way that we do things, and that may not work for some people. It didn't work for him. Look, [he's] a talented guy; it just wasn't right for us."