Wax Idols and King Woman Discuss Leaving Pentagram Tour Over Harassment

Wax Idols and King Woman Discuss Leaving Pentagram Tour Over Harassment

Wax Idols and King Woman recently announced that “due to an overload of bullshit,” they decided to walk away from the final shows of their tour with metal institution Pentagram. After writing that they were initially “honored & excited” to be touring with the band, Wax Idols’ Hether Fortune noted that both bands were “treated really poorly & harassed in gross ways.” In a new interview with Noisey, Fortune and King Woman’s Kristina Esfandiari have discussed the factors that led to them dropping off the tour.

After revealing a lack of communication with Pentagram and their road crew, Fortune said, “Day after day, we were just disregarded, treated like we were silly girls who didn’t know what we were doing.” Pentagram frontman Bobby Liebling—who was absent for the first show of the tour—reportedly began making “inappropriate comments” at members of Wax Idols. Fortune noted there was “touching and stuff.” They were told by fans that one night during Pentagram’s set (which Fortune and Esfandiari weren’t watching), Liebling was making rape jokes on stage. “We were also told that Bobby said the only reason he green-lighted the tour with us and King Woman was so that he could have ‘a lot of options with women,’” Fortune said. After promoters revealed to her that Wax Idols and King Woman weren’t being paid what they were owed, Fortune had a falling out with the band’s tour manager. After she detailed the way they’d been treated on the tour, the manager apparently laughed and said, “Well maybe you’re not cut out for this.” That’s when they walked.

Fortune said of the experience:

I personally never felt unsafe or violated. I just felt grossed out and disrespected. My other bandmates, however, were often basically hiding from Pentagram. They wouldn’t go in the green room, they would hide in the van—they didn’t want to be around at all because they were that uncomfortable.

Esfandiari added:

Basically, we all know people in Pentagram are insane, especially Bobby, but we didn’t expect anybody to invade our space the way that they did, or be so disrespectful to fellow musicians. I don’t care if people are fucking crazy. That’s their fucking prerogative. But I just felt like they were disrespectful and gross. We stayed on the tour as long as we could, but towards the end, the level of disrespect and the way we were being treated and ignored was just like, why are we doing this? We’re not desperate. We don’t have to do this.

Pentagram shared this statement with Noisey:

We’ve been professionally performing and recording music for close to 50 yrs and this is one of the most unfounded and grossly opportunistic situations that we’ve ever encountered. These bands didn’t communicate to Pentagram or the tour manager about wanting to leave the tour. A few nights into the tour, they simply disappeared, posted negatively about us on social media and then headed over to the show that was previously set up for them that very night.  

Our mutual agent had set up a separate deal with the promoters for the opening acts. Pentagram’s contract and all inclusions / exclusions were between Pentagram and the promoter.

Bobby Liebling offended someone from one of the opening bands.  He said something to the effect of, “I approve of you being on the tour because I want options”. Pentagram as a band sincerely apologized for Bobby’s comment. Bobby verbally hit on this girl, that’s as far as it got. It’s no secret that he’s attracted to women and that’s not a crime. He’s a single man. He may have been uncouth but there was no touching. We tried to be nice but these openers gave us no real chance to interact, avoided us at all costs and made us feel uncomfortable on our own tour.

Read the full interview here.

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