Andy Biersak of Black Veil Brides has recalled the “cringe-inducing” time that the band spent opening for Mötley Crüe while on tour.
The frontman opened up about the experience in a new interview with Joshua Toomey while on the Talk Toomey podcast. During the conversation, Biersak looked back at the time that Black Veil Brides supported the iconic ‘80s glam group while on their 2012 tour.
While it was something he and the members were looking forward to, the actual experience saw them greeted with less of a positive crowd response than they expected.
“It’s an interesting thing, because those bands that are these iconic bands, it’s very rare for the opener to have any kind of positive experience, regardless of who it is,” he began (via Blabbermouth).
“We toured with Mötley Crüe in soccer stadiums in Europe, and I thought, ‘This is the greatest thing that’s ever gonna happen to us.’ And I’ll never forget, the first show was in [Germany], and after the first song was done, it wasn’t booing, it was total silence, like strong, arms crossed, angry silence,” he explained. “You’d almost prefer them boo at that point, because if it’s 20,000 people and you can see them all be dead silent, it’s more unnerving than hearing at least some noise. So it would happen after every song.”
Biersak continued, recalling that the cold response from the crowd led to him telling the band’s drummer [Christian Coma] to immediately go from one song to the next to avoid the awkwardness.
“We basically played a medley of our songs because we would never stop between the songs ’cause it was too cringe-inducing to have to deal with the silence,” he said. “We were coming off stage early every night on that tour, which a lot of times the production people for those big tours love it. So at the very least they liked us.”
The discussion on the Talk Toomey podcast isn’t the first time that the vocalist has opened up about the experience touring with Nikki Sixx and co. Back in 2021, he took part in an episode of the Drinks With Johnny podcast and recalled how he felt like the audience “would be upset that were were there” performing.
“I had never experienced such a level of just crushing disinterest,” he said at the time. “And then you’re stuck with that weird thing of, like, ‘All right, well, here’s the next one.’ And you’re just trying to get through the set so that you don’t have that really awkward time in between.”
Biersack and co. are currently serving as opening support for Falling In Reverse on their 2024 US ‘The Popular Moms Tour II World Domination’, and has recently defended his friendship with the band’s controversial frontman Ronnie Radke.
“The one thing that has always been true is that he is somebody that anytime I’ve ever had a conversation with him, he very clearly has good intentions and a good heart,” he explained. “He and I disagree on a great many things, but to me it doesn’t matter. The people that you respect or work with do not have to share the same value system or beliefs as you to know that they are talented or valid or worthy of the position that they have.”
Earlier this year, Black Veil Brides shared a three-track EP titled ‘Bleeders’, which included a cover of ‘My Friends’ from the Sondheim classic, and a cover of U2‘s ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’.
As for Mötley Crüe, back in April the band shared their latest single ‘Dogs Of War’ and spoke to NME about being rockstars in the age of social media.
“For us, the only constant in our career has been that we constantly change and that comes with hills and valleys,” bassist Nikki Sixx explained. “We’ve ridden it out over 43 years and sometimes we’re not cool, sometimes we’re the coolest band, sometimes we can’t even get a phone call back.
“We’re just living in our own little bubble and doing what we want to do. Obviously it feels great when people really love what you’re doing, but I don’t necessarily think we’ve ever thought that we should do something to be liked or for the public reception. We do what we do, we’re passionate about it and we hope that people like it. Also, if they don’t, we get that, we understand it. It’s just part of our creative process.”
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