Simon O’Connor has been kicked off of his band’s recent tour after some disturbing alleged messages went viral.
On Reddit, a poster claiming to be a 17-year-old fan of the band Modest Mouse shocked the internet with some serious allegations. The OP shared some screenshots of what they claimed to be Instagram DMs between themselves and the 42-year-old guitarist. In the post, they wrote last week:
“for context i am currently 17 years old but this happened right before my birthday, so i was still 16. i have a public instagram but its very niche, ive been following bands i like for a while so i have been following simon for a few years. late at night i checked stories and i spam liked whatever it was simon had put on his story. he came into my DMs and sent me an erotic image (to say the least) while giving me the excuse he had been partying or whatever, continuing to message me. my age is the first thing in my bio. i reached out to several people within the indie music fandom and nobody with a platform cared.”
Oof.
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In the screenshots the poster shared, the first message they allegedly received from the rocker was an image of the game Simon Says, which was captioned:
“SIMON calls your bluff BUZZ”
After the OP reacted to the photo with an alien emoji, Simon then allegedly replied with a picture of a naked man. He then, after a bit, allegedly said “sorry”, to which the teen said:
“it’s all good I assume you’re hacked lolz! have a good one Simon I love your music”
This is when the musician allegedly replied that he “wish” he had gotten hacked, and confessed to having had “a party night”. The OP replied, telling him to get a good night of sleep, but that’s when things took a weird turn. In the alleged text that came next, Simon can be seen saying:
“But you did blindside me with a gaggle of likes and then very little intro besides bikini pics so we are both to blame”
WHAT?!
Simon, after seeing the news go viral, reportedly logged onto his own Reddit account to talk about the situation, writing in his own post the next day:
“Hey, Simon here. I would just like to address some of the conversation on this thread that has come to my attention. Firstly, I would like to just state that I unequivocally oppose any sexual behavior towards minors, as a human and a parent it disgusts me.”
He went on to say he thought this OP was someone who had been harassing him. He claims the person always “creates multiple social media accounts and deletes them,” to which he assumed this person was the same one:
“I assumed that this was the same person I had dealt with before and, with poor judgement, I decided to reach out with a tasteless meme, a sticker that read “Simon calls your bluff,” and an attempt to indicate that I recognized the “barrage of likes” and similar photo content from the previous profiles…. Almost a “gotcha.” After a few minutes, I realized that I had made a mistake and this was not the person who I had dealt with before. I unsent the messages and immediately ceased communication.”
Wrapping up the statement, he said:
“I’m genuinely sorry to the person who received those messages. They didn’t deserve to be put in that position, and I’m sorry for the stress and attention this has brought them. I know some people will choose not to believe me, and I understand that. I can’t change what’s happened. All I can do is tell the truth, take responsibility for my mistake, and apologize.”
Okay… But the memes weren’t really the part people were concerned with! What about those bikini picture comments?
Following this controversy, his band made the decision to cut him from their upcoming tour. On Friday, Modest Mouse’s socials released a statement that read:
“Simon O’Connor will not be joining us on the upcoming tour. The good news is that Seth Jabour of Les Savy Fav will be jumping in to play guitar. We look forward to being out there with you all.”
See that post here (below):
What do U think of this situation, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments (below).
[Image via MEGA/WENN]