System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian has revealed that he once offered to leave the group due to his personal dislike of touring, in order to afford the rest of his band members freedom to progress without holding them back.
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In his new memoir, Down With the System: A Memoir (Of Sorts), previewed by Rolling Stone, Tankian admits that at the end of 2017 he arrived at a System Of A Down band meeting with his own item to add to the agenda. "We went through the rigamarole of regular business discussions, and then it came time for my item," he explains. "'So, who’s going to throw me a going-away party?’" Serj says he asked the group. "'Do one of you guys want to be the master of ceremonies?’" Though he was obviously making light of a tense situation, he says in his memoir he made it perfectly clear he was "no longer interested in touring both due to my back and because it’s just no longer something within my vision.'”
"'This is your dream. This is what you’ve worked for your whole life. You deserve to have this,’" Serj says he told the group before adding, "‘I think you guys should find a new singer.'" Fortunately for fans that idea never took hold, and it looked like the rest of the members forgot about it completely. Although Tankian remembers sitting with bassist Shavo Odadjian only a year later at a fundraiser and getting a different story.
"This singer I knew got up and sang this beautiful Armenian song. Shavo was sitting next to me at the table," he says. "He leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder. ‘By the way,’" Serj says he nodded toward the singer, "‘We tried this guy out... the only problem was that he couldn’t scream and growl.’ I was taken aback. Not that they had been auditioning replacements, but that they’d kept it a secret."
Serj says he questioned why he was never told about the possibility, bluntly telling Shavo, "‘Listen, he’s a good singer... ‘I can literally take him in the parking lot right now and teach him how to growl. You should really consider him.'”
This summer, System Of A Down (with Serj whether he likes it or not), Deftones, The Mars Volta, and more will light up San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for an epic, first-ever after-dark concert. Tickets, including GA and VIP packages, are on sale now.
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