Waylon has fired one of his band members and is also publicly attacking him extensively. He portrays the musician in question, André Sommer, as an alcoholic. “I got a phone call.”
André Sommer is shocked to hear that he is no longer welcome in Waylon’s band pedal steel guitar to play. He traveled to Nashville with the entire group at the end of October. “Unfortunately, after a four-day stay, I fell from a staircase just behind the door in my bedroom,” he says on Facebook.
X-rays
Where were Waylon and the rest at that moment? “The band had already been on its way to Memphis for several hours, so I was alone that whole day. In the evening, Joost van Es drove me to a hospital in Hendersonville. X-rays showed that my right leg was not broken. I did have tears in my thigh muscles.”
André says he walked on crutches for the remaining five days. The return flight was easy due to an empty row. “Two days later I received a call from Waylon and guitarist Stefan. I told them that I could now walk without crutches again and that playing the pedal steel guitar is no problem at all.”
Kicked out
However, André was no longer welcome. “To my astonishment, it turned out during that telephone conversation that I had been kicked out of the band. The reason for my forced departure was that I was a bit older and they were concerned that something like this might happen again in the future.”
Nonsense, he says himself. “I would like to emphatically emphasize that the fall incident had nothing to do with my age and that my health and fitness are doing fine. I am now healed and ready to play for this upcoming tour and was fully prepared for the previously agreed rehearsals.”
Waylon responds
André has been playing for Waylon’s band since 2018. “I have performed hundreds of performances with them. It goes without saying that this completely unexpected situation for me and also in this very short term has substantial consequences for my income.”
Well, Waylon doesn’t just let this be said. He responds: “How strange that you only remembered this from the conversation. You know that there have been considerable discussions for months about other matters that you conveniently ignore. I no longer need a very long discussion because (as it turns out) it makes no sense at all.”
Alcoholic
Waylon then portrays André as an alcoholic. “Just a small side note about the incident in America… I never said that age was the cause of your fall, but I did tell you that if you start drinking at 8 am, there is a greater chance that you will fall down a flight of stairs at 11 am.”
He continues: “The fact that we had already been on the way to Memphis for several hours is only relevant if you had let us know what had happened. But no, you chose to stay in the house yourself. We heard what had happened on the way back… A very strange situation that the whole group was a bit angry about because we would have simply turned around if you had called us.”
Bruised
The situation is also exaggerated by André, Waylon believes. “Oh, and that knee was just bruised, nothing was torn. We were all able to read the doctor’s statement. You also forgot to mention that a day after the incident you were able to sit in the pub all day from 11 o’clock in the morning until midnight.”
“Self-pity is a well-known pattern among alcoholics, which is also evident from the reactions of some other sad figures here. The 100 people who think I’m an asshole can take a number and go to the back of the line. In any case, I’m an asshole with context now. If you have any questions, you can email [email protected].”