The Mars Volta Blame Band Split On 'Tyranny of Laziness'

The Mars Volta have blamed drummer Jon Theodore’s departure from the band on his flirtations with women, drink and surfing.

Theodore contributed to the prog outfit’s current album ‘Amputecture’, but left shortly before its release.

Shedding light on the split, band lynchpin Cedric Bixler-Zavala explains to Gigwise:  "We come to a city, and we play one album live, but we're making another album during the day and then after we play.  And Jon just wasn't having that. Jon likes his women, Jon likes his surfing, Jon likes his drinking.

“You can ask any fan that was in Hamburg when we played for Frances the Mute, we were set to play the last thirty minutes of the set and Jon took off, because the night before he partied too much.”

He continued: “We had five years of a tyranny of laziness, he just didn't like to throw down as much as we did.  When he did care about the band it's when it was a money issue, that's when he would show up to a meeting.

“God bless him, he's a great drummer, but the guy was late for his own funeral as well:  we were telling him he wasn't in the band he didn't even show up to that meeting - an analogy for the whole time we were in the band with him."