Hi all,
We want to update you on the current situation regarding Jimmie Strimell.
In doing so, we want to be completely honest and transparent.
When we gave him a second chance to once again enter the band as a full time member, our only demand was that he would be totally clean from his drug abuse.
The very drug abuse he himself has written about, and talks quite openly about in general. We reached a mutual agreement on zero tolerance against drugs and alcohol, accordingly.
Additionally, this would only apply on shows when we are to perform as Dead by April. As it is of course up to him, or anyone else, to make whatever choice in life they’d want otherwise, obviously.
The last couple of months there has been several occasion where we have caught Jimmie both high, and drinking alcohol. In fact, the very first tour he did with us as a returning member — he drank alcohol on the tourbus. So he has had multiple chances.
The last two shows on tour, Jimmie actually left us just a few hours before stage time. That’s insane!! 😳 Without saying anything to anyone. That’s so disrespectful towards the DBA fans that bought their tickets to enjoy the show. The rest of us actually stayed to perform the shows as we refused to cancel.
If anyone of you here on AA have any experience what it is like trying to communicate, have a relationship with, or even help (lending money, organizing, just being there when needed the most) with an addict — you’d know that it can be a complete nightmare…There are so many lies, paranoia, manipulation attempts, false accusations, it’s ridiculous. And there is literally nothing you can do.
We cannot be his emotional punching bag for whenever he chooses to use or drink. It’s extremely exhausting, tumoultus, stressful, and incredibly destructive…
We also don’t want to be his enablers and constantly give him new chances regardless of his behavior as he always promise us that this time — is the last time he is gonna use or drink.
As you can probably understand - we have no other choice but to let Jimmie go.. And we can only hope that he will make future choices that will put him on the right path in life. This is beyond our control, and we wish him all the strength, luck, and best we possibly can.
Note: we have a replacement ready. This will be updated in a separate post later today. #dbaforever
Comments
@Mark – Yep, it’s sad but true. I found the instagram post caption for proof, I posted it in the comments section of DBA’s post about Jimmie, it’s in reply to someone so you’ll have to look through a bit to find it. And April Army members if you see this, there’s evidence of Jimmie admitting to being a heroin addict which I just posted a screenshot of in the latest forum thread. Very sad indeed
Does the instagram post proof Jimmie himself is/was a heroin addict though? I don’t think so, all it said really was “I know what it’s like to be lost in hell (due to drug addiction)”, not necessarily “I know what it’s like to be on the very same drug”. That’s how I interpreted it?
To the person below who asked, by saying “I have been there”, in that instagram caption, Jimmie implied he knows what it’s like to be addicted to heroin and write songs about it. I have contact with DBA and I’ve just been told by someone in the band they can confirm that it’s true. I’m sorry, I know it’s a lot to take in, everyone is sad and angry about this. But Jimmie seriously needs to accept the help he clearly needs. Two Faced, which he wrote himself, is also literally about heroin addiction.