After Upon a Burning Body singer Danny Leal pulled a disappearing act at the beginning of the month, many had been waiting for the band to make a public apology, or at least address the publicity stunt. When the band started up at the Mayhem Fest later that week, Leal played dumb. Now, with the band’s third full length, The World is My Enemy Now, coming out on August 12th, Leal finally addressed the stunt, and how they’re dealing with it. He did so via his label mate Ice-T’s Final Level podcast. Here’s what he said, with transcription via theprp:

“We did a little bit of a publicity thing… And people thought… We said I was missing and then they turned it into this big thing and it became a pretty serious issue—people calling the cops where we were from, stuff like that—and it became a thing, and you know what then everybody now hates what we did… Whatever, they’re blaming me and it was like you know what? I’ma come out with ropes on my hands put the ropes on and take it even further.”

So yeah, if you see the band on the Mayhem Fest and Leal comes out with ropes around his wrists like he was kidnapped, now you know why. It’s obvious why the band did it – as a publicity stunt to ramp up the album. But when it went wrong, they probably should have addressed their fans, some of whom feel deceived, more directly. At the end of the day, the stunt worked, however, even if it might have cost them some fans and the good will of some journalists that might not want to cover them now. If you want to hear Ice and Danny chat about that, you can listen to the podcast, which starts at about 20:30.