MIKE SPREITZER Clarifies His Issues With DEZ FAFARA & The Decision To Leave DEVILDRIVER

Guitarist Mike Spreitzer quit DevilDriver after 20 years earlier last week.

Spreitzer cited DevilDriver not feeling like a full time job for the past 10 years as the main reason, later noting that he never intended his side project Verona On Venus to become his main gig. On his side project, Spreitzer said “the mere creation of my side project was met with a heavy amount of negativity from a specific individual that made things extremely uncomfortable for me.”

Now in an interview with Scott Penfold of Loaded Radio, Spreitzer revealed the “specific individual” was DevilDriver vocalist Dez Fafara. Spreitzer also mentioned that he was cool with Fafara reforming Coal Chamber twice while he was in the band, and isn’t sure why a side project would be a big deal.

“Unfortunately, yes. I really hoped it wouldn’t be a problem, and I have a lot of friends that get a lot of support from the bands that they’re in, who they would consider their boss. Like Nita [Strauss] and Alice Cooper; Ozzy has always been cool with Zakk Wylde doing Black Label Society and Zakk Sabbath. Cesar [Soto] from Ministry — I remember when he first released Man The Mute record that he did, I bumped into Al Jourgensen at an art show once and he just couldn’t stop talking about how proud he was of Cesar.

“Monte Pittman, he’s in Ministry, and Madonna seems to be just fine with him doing that. And even Zakk Wylde with his drummer Jeff Fabb; [Jeff] just released a record on his own. And so I really didn’t see it being a problem. I never intended to make Verona a priority over DevilDriver. I had a lot of time during the pandemic, and I just wanted to keep on writing, so I did.”

He continued: “Yeah, unfortunately, it is, because I really gave him my blessing, when Coal Chamber started doing — even when they were at their first reunion. And at their first reunion, quite honestly, I needed the break at the time. Unfortunately, I think that was a big reason which led to John Boecklin and Jeff Kendrick leaving the band [in 2014], because DevilDriver went on hiatus and it was not in their best interest at the time to stick around.”

Spreitzer also said he hasn’t spoken to Fafara about quitting DevilDriver, saying: “Honestly, I haven’t spoken to Dez about it. No, I haven’t. I’ve seen how things have went when other members have left the band, and I honestly felt like this was the best way to do it.

“I don’t really wanna get into it much more than that because of obvious reasons, but all the other guys understood where I was coming from,” Spreitzer continued. “And I wanna work more, and as of now, unless someone comes knocking on my door that wants me to join a band, which, depending on the band, I would definitely take into consideration, but right now I just wanna go full throttle with my new project Verona On Venus.

“I’m excited to do things my own way and mix things up. Obviously, Verona sounds a lot different than DevilDriver — it’s a completely different style of music — and it’s time for something new for me. It’s been 20 years, and it’s been a lot of fun, but sometimes people just feel like moving on, and that’s how I feel right now.”