Following the ugly behind-the-scenes story of how Flaming Lips’ long-term drummer Kliph Sculock was supposedly fired from the band, frontman Wayne Coyne has hit back at his dismissed bandmate’s allegations.
Earlier this month, Scurlock opened about how we was kicked out of the Oklahoma psych-rock band he was part of for 12 years after he publicly criticised Christina Fallin – the daughter of Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and lead singer of the band Pink Pony and friend of Coyne’s – for wearing a “cultural-appropriating” Native American headdress in a press shot.
Detailing the dispute in a lengthy open letter, Scurlock also accused Coyne of “endless verbal (with threats of physical) abuse” as well as saying the F’Lips frontman had encouraged other publicity stunts, such as getting his drummer to start a Twitter feud with The Black Keys.
Though he initially responded to the furore with naught but a few snarky tweets, Wayne Coyne has now opened up about Scurlock’s firing in a detailed interview with Rolling Stone in which he labels his former bandmate “hateful” and a “pathological liar,” while further defending his friend Fallin’s Native American fashion faux pas. “Anybody who knows him knows what kind of a hateful person he is.”
Coyne says that the public dispute over Fallin was simply a smokescreen for deeper problems with Scurlock’s role in the band.
“The only thing that we would have to say about Kliph leaving is that he just was not very significant to us,” Coyne says. “And all the things he’s saying about the reason he was fired, it’s all just made-up lies. He knows we struggled with him for years and it didn’t occur to us that it seemed that significant. I don’t even use the word “fired.” He just doesn’t play drums with us anymore – that’s the way I’d put it.”
The frontman adds: “As time went on, he got to be a lazier and more close-minded musician. We didn’t ever really do that much with him. I mean, we would play shows, but he’s not creative. We never wrote songs together.
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“Anybody who knows him knows what kind of a hateful person he is. I mean, anybody that looks at his stuff could see that most of the bands that we would play with, he despised them. To their face, he would say, ‘You guys were great’ and then 20 minutes later he’d get online and say, ‘These people are a bunch of fakes. They suck.’ That would be almost every band we ever played with. The more that time went on, people would pay more attention to him because of his connection to the Flaming Lips. “The Flaming Lips as an entity mostly act through me…. I hired him, so of course I fired him.”
“The reason that it’s connected to the Fallin thing, it’s like, ‘If you’re going to be that hateful, you can’t be associated with the Flaming Lips.’ And that was one of a thousand things that he would go on his Twitter or Instagram or the fake ones that he’s created,” Coyne explains.
As for Scurlock’s allegations of verbal and physical abuse, Coyne chalks it up to more lies.
I think if he doesn’t use the Flaming Lips name and my name, no one will listen to him. I mean, the Flaming Lips as an entity mostly act through me. I was the one that hired him when we were rehearsing with Beck and needed a drummer. I hired him, so of course I fired him. But him saying I’m verbally abusive? It’s a joke. Anybody that knows him knows what a hateful pathological liar he is. I don’t have to defend anything that Kliph says. The only reason he knows anything about Native American issues is he’s trying to join this group that I think their family is Native American. But I don’t even want to speak about the hate, you know. I don’t have any hate for him.
The full interview (which is well worth the read) also see The Flaming Lips frontman touching on previous controversies (eg. his banned Instagram account, bickering with Erykah Badu and Arcade Fire), as well as working with Miley Cyrus and Ke$ha and partially apologised for his initial support of Fallin’s Native American headdress photo; “I would say that I’m very sorry … if I offended anybody of any religion, any race, any belief system. I would say you shouldn’t follow my tweets…”
As for a replacement drummer, Coyne says they’re looking at using “two different guys” for upcoming dates and festival appearances, such as Bonnaroo, but he’s keen to move on from the ‘whole Scurlock drama’.
“I don’t even like talking about our ex-drummer… because it just uses up this space that we could be talking bout this cool shit we’re doing with Sean Lennon and My Morning Jacket and Miley [Cyrus], and I don’t want any of that tainted.”
