In June 2019, there was significant disappointment among the concertgoers at France’s Hellfest when MANOWAR, one of the main acts, decided to cancel its show at the very last moment.
According to the promoters, it was MANOWAR that opted out, but the band countered that assertion, claiming that the organizers had “obstructed our efforts to put on the epic show we had promised.” This took place on June 17th, 2022.
Now, while appearing on Metal Hammer podcast, MANOWAR bassist Joey DeMaio took a shot at Hellfest promoters, by saying: “I think about it every day. I can’t wait to get to court. I can’t wait.”
“I hope all the people that were stupid enough to piss on me and the band and call me an assh*le and say that I canceled, not one of them can find a cancelation on my website,” he continued. “I never canceled. It’s a f**king dream. It’s a lie. They canceled — not me. Why would I show up in France with all my trucks and 50 people if I wasn’t prepared to play and wanted to play?”
“Don’t worry — we’re going to court, and on that day, it will be the day of deliverance,” DeMaio added. “People will find out what really goes on in this business. So I invite anybody who’s out there, when the day comes, come and watch me in action when I get a chance to tell my story to the judge. And I hope everybody who condemned me will use that same energy to apologize. Not to me — I don’t give a f**k — but apologize to the fans that believed in the band and stand behind us.”
DeMaio previously addressed the lawsuit while addressing the crowd in Istanbul, Turkey, where band performed in July 2019.
He said at the time:
“When people talk about MANOWAR leaving a concert and not playing for some stupid reason, they have their head up their a—s.
“MANOWAR played out first show for seven people — seven! Okay? One of them was our manager; the other was a bartender. So if somebody says, ‘MANOWAR, they have to have a big stage; they have to…’ No. We have to have our people treated like they deserve. And we have to have a promoter that honors their agreements and their contracts and doesn’t just pick and choose what they’re going to do and what they wanna do. That’s the f*cking reality.
“We signed a contract in blood in 1983, and the reason I signed that contract is I wanted the world to know MANOWAR was the one band that will never f*ck our fans and never play sh*t music or make the fans eat sh*t with bad sound, bad lights and without our equipment,” he said. “That’s the f*cking reality.
“I didn’t see any of these f*cking promoters sign a contract in blood, but they’re happy to talk sh*t about people.
‘I wasn’t invited to the Hellfest press conference — just so you know — but they will be invited to mine, because I want the world to know the f*cking truth, exactly what happened over there. It was the promoters that caused every f*cking problem — not MANOWAR.”
DeMaio continued: “Now, I want you to think about something. We have played, just this tour, 30 different shows — 30. In 13 countries. We played a show in Israel; didn’t have any problem. We played nine shows in Russia — no problem. One show in the Ukraine — no trouble. One show in Belarus, two in the Czech Republic, five in Germany, Denmark, four in Norway. We played to 650 people at the f*cking North Pole in a city that has two thousand people and four thousand polar bears, okay? So don’t tell me MANOWAR are f*cking divas. We went there because we wanted to play for the people that lived there, ’cause they never had a heavy metal concert. We played four shows in Norway, two in England, one in Switzerland, one in Greece, one in Bulgaria, and we’re here on stage tonight in Turkey. So you tell me who’s wrong. You think it’s MANOWAR that’s wrong? One country, one f*cking show out of all of these, and there’s a problem. You tell me who f*cked up.
“The truth of the matter is we have filed a lawsuit against Hellfest organizers,” Joey added. “We don’t f*ck around. People try to f*ck with our fans… Nobody’s gonna push MANOWAR around. We’re not gonna give our fans less than a hundred percent. We don’t take sh*t from anybody. And yes, we would rather give a hundred percent or nothing. And I’m sorry that people traveled from all over the world. You have no idea how sorry I am, how sorry Eric [Adams, vocals] is, how sorry Anders [Johansson, drums] is, E.V. [Martel, guitar], our f*cking loyal crew. We feel terrible. People flew from all over the f*cking world to that place, and MANOWARdidn’t play. But you know what? We’re suffering for it, and the true fans will suffer along with us.
“I believe we will win this lawsuit, and when we do, we’re gonna take some money and we’re gonna find a country and we’re gonna find a city in that country that will have us, and we’re gonna play a free concert, and the whole f*cking world is invited,” DeMaio said. “You have my f*cking word that that will happen. You can believe on behalf of myself, Eric, E.V. and Anders, and the MANOWAR crew — the loyal crew that we’ve had for 30 years — we will do what we say. And don’t listen to these f*cking a—s-kissing motherf*ckers on the Internet talk sh*t about MANOWAR and their rumors. None of those f*cking assh*les were even there.
“Do they have a copy of our contract? Were they backstage? Did they see what happened? No. They’ve got nothing better to do than play with their f*cking little dicks and type on the f*cking Internet and talk sh*t about people. But we’re the band that showed up there with eight f*cking trucks, or however many we had, ready to play. And guess what? We never canceled. Yeah, that’s right. The announcement came from them, on their site. But it was nice for people to say we canceled so they wouldn’t have to listen to the fans bitch. So maybe those people should ask these f*ckers some questions about what really happened.
“I’m sorry to take your time with this, but the f*cking truth must be told,” Joey concluded. “And very soon this lawsuit will be made public. You can all go on the Internet and you can read it there yourselves. And everybody that pissed on us and pissed on you is gonna f*cking eat sh*t when they see what the f*ck really happened.”
