
Falling In Reverse vocalist Ronnie Radke has now issued a personal statement regarding this week’s postponement of his band’s planned UK touring this month. Per a statement issued yesterday, December 03rd, the tour was forced to be postponed after Radke was unable to obtain the proper visa to enter and work in the country. That statement read:
“We regret to announce that the home office has denied Ronnie‘s visa application for the remaining 2024 UK shows. (4 Dec – 16 Dec)
The UK is currently refusing entry to visa applicants who served more than 12 months prison time, as Ronnie did in 2008.
Therefore, we will not be able to come to the UK this month to perform the shows we were greatly looking forward to.
We will be postponing the shows to next year while we continue to work thru this issue legally to obtain the necessary visa.
We will keep you posted as we know more. For anyone who cannot attend the new dates, refunds are available at point of purchase.
Thanks everyone for your support and we hope to see you next year.”
Radke previously spent time in prison after partaking in a fatal brawl that claimed the life of one of the participants. Radke pled guilty to battery with substantial bodily harm, a charge influenced by his possession of illegal brass knuckles during the incident.
Radke was ordered to pay roughly $92,000 in restitution to the family of the man who was murdered, and sentenced to five years of probation. Radke however violated the terms of his probation and was thus sentenced to serve two and a half years in prison.
In 2020, the UK introduced a law imposing a mandatory refusal for those who have served a custodial sentence of at least 12 months. Despite the legislation being in place for some time now, there was apparently a contingent of fans who assumed Radke was being excluded due to his controversial viewpoints he frequently expresses on social media.
Essentially they were insisting his visa was denied because he isn’t ‘woke.’ Radke has since cleared that up in a video newly posted to TikTok. He said of that [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“…You probably heard the news that I was denied my visa into the UK after selling 75,000 tickets — a literal Taylor Swift-sized concert worth of tickets. And you probably go and assume that it’s a politically charged reason, but it’s not. It’s just the fact that they changed the law. I was allowed to get in after 10 years, after getting out of prison, they changed the law.
That’s why they didn’t let Lil Wayne in. That’s why they didn’t let Ja Rule in. That’s why they didn’t let Snoop Dogg in and a multitude of other artists. It’s not a personal attack, guys. I know you guys are really upset it’s postponed. But the funny thing to me is, is you see people online celebrating.
Homie, I just played sold out arena tour in Europe right before the UK. I’m at home right now. Brother, what are you celebrating? My rest and relaxation? You’re celebrating the kids in my DMs with cancer that were excited to see me now they can’t. That’s what you’re celebrating. You’re celebrating the giant economic hit that’s gonna have on the UK for a little second, like the flights, the hotels, the tickets and all that stuff and all this travel and all this stuff. That’s what you’re celebrating.
You’re celebrating your own people being upset, yeah, man, congratulations. You’re a wonderful person. And in honor of all the people that think that they got a W for this, I just dropped a ‘god save the king of the music scene’ t-shirt on my Falling In Reverse website for all, and the UK website. And this is not just an ordinary t-shirt, guys. 100% of these proceeds are going to the United Kingdom Prison Reform charity. 100% of the proceeds.
And to all the fans that were really upset that I couldn’t come over there, 75,000 tickets sold, which is ridiculous, guys, it’s so crazy. I’m so honored to know that I could sell 75,000 tickets in the United Kingdom. All my fans, I love you guys, I’ll see you guys over there. And this t-shirt is for you guys, and 100% is going to that charity that I just said, I’m sorry. I love you guys. See you guys soon.”
The shirt he mentioned above can be found via fallinginreverse.com. In a separate video shared via TikTok, Radke also addressed his band’s recent removal from the bill of next year’s ‘Nova Rock‘ festival next year in Nickelsdorf, AUT. The band were removed from the bill last month, closely following 1 of 5 canceled shows of the band’s recent European tour that were scrapped ahead of the UK leg being rescheduled.
To be precise, the band’s removal from ‘Nova Rock‘ took place roughly a day after Falling In Reverse scrapped their planned November 26th Vienna, Austria show on the day it was due to take place. While the cancelation of several mainland European shows were attributed to production issues and illness, the reason behind the Vienna concert cancelation was not made clear.
As such, during a livestreamed gaming session that day, a Viennese fan asked Radke in the chat why the show was canceled. While Radke didn’t provide a clear answer, he went on to excoriate said fan in an expletive-filled rant, while also slamming fans as being “entitled”, “spoiled” and even “parasocial” for their negative reactions to the show cancelations. Amid that rant, Radke also indulged in Viennese-related insults, which seemingly didn’t sit well with some.
A day after all transpired, Nova Rock announced that Falling In Reverse would no longer be playing next year’s edition of their annual festival. It soon also became clear that Radke wasn’t happy about the situation, taking to publicly beefing with the festival. In his newly shared video today, Radke goes on to further call out the festival, labeling them ‘baby back bitches’, among other insults. He stated [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“This message is for all my Vienna fans wondering why we’re not on Nova Rock festival. This was the festival admat. We were co-headlining with Korn on this day, and Nova decided to take us off. They announced it. They said we are no longer playing it because a couple people were mad that we canceled a smaller show on our Europe tour, due to a laundry list of reasons why. People cancel shows all the time.
But however, the reason why Nova Rock took us off the festival is because of my personality. I’m a jokey kind of guy, so fans were mad, so I told the fans to chill out and have a ‘Vienna sausage.’ Nova Rock being the baby back bitch, spineless pieces of shit they are decided to get too scared and take us off.
You would think a literal joke about Vienna sausages would would fly under the radar for these baby back bitches, knowing the shit that that country’s already had to go through. So this message is for all my Vienna fans that aren’t fucking soft ass little punk ass bitches, I’m sorry. I’m coming back and I’m gonna play a fucking show, in spite of Nova Rock being such punk ass bitches.
And ‘Nova Rock‘, if you’re watching this, send me my money, because you still have to pay me. Have a wonderful day… And hold on, guys. I don’t like drama. Drama likes me. Okay? I don’t want this shit. I just… Everybody’s so scared nowadays of like, offending anybody. And that’s probably why everybody’s, like, afraid of [confrontation,] of like, confronting each other. I’m not afraid of confrontation.
That’s probably why you guys are always like, ‘Oh, here we go again. Ronnie‘s got some [confrontation.] No, it’s not. I just don’t fucking put up with your shit. Okay? I’ve had it with your shit. You guys, listen, if I’m gonna make a joke, it’s a joke. It’s so obvious. It’s Vienna sausages. You guys are fucking out of your goddamn minds. minds, take a joke. I’m walking here.”
It would appear that there is a growing wave of frustration among some fans of Falling In Reverse with criticisms and commentary regarding the frequent cancelations and show postponements being expressed on the band’s Reddit page. Others have criticized Radke and the band’s camp for allegedly failing to do the due diligence in getting his visa sorted out well before the tour was to take place, as is often common practice within the touring industry.
@ronnieradke36
@ronnieradke36