In this week's installment of our new bi-weekly feature "We Told You So: The 2014 Fall of Wayne Coyne," we're going to take a look at what exactly we think is wrong with the Lips' frontman. But before we get to that, let's recap the continued fallout between Wayne and his former drummer, Kliph Scurlock.
A few weeks ago, Kliph posted something manic to Facebook where he detailed his firing from the band, and in the process, outed Wayne Coyne as a short-tempered, abusive asshole. The rant was picked up by the popular indie music site, Pitchfork, which published an article titled "Kliph Scurlock Accuses Wayne Coyne of Racism and Abuse in Detailed Account of Firing From Flaming Lips." Obviously, that story hit every other music website, blog, zine, whatever out there, and although he'd never admit it, Wayne Coyne had a little crisis on his hands. Just like his band's music, he went from being revered and loved to being questioned and criticized from his loyal fan base.
As the fallout from Kliph's first Facebook post was settling, the drummer left another long, rambling Facebook post. This one was less publicized, and it's too long and incoherent to post here, but let's just say it read like Wayne sent Stardeath and the White Dwarves to Kliph's house with a pair of pliers and a blow torch. Kliph spun a 180. He semi-apologized and defended Wayne from accusations of racism. He claimed there was more to his firing than just Hipster Boo Boo's Cleveland Indians impersonation – something we told you – and essentially apologized for igniting the controversy.
Wayne repaid Kliph's favor by giving an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone where he called the ex-drummer "a pathological liar," "immature," "asshole bully," "cowardly Internet hater," "closed-minded musician," "non creative" and "hateful person." All those things may be true, but Wayne came across looking like a dick. Although he distanced himself from Hipster Boo Boo and her philosopher bf, he was combative, entitled, hypocritical and other choice words used to describe a washed-up hero turned anti-hero. The hypocrite part really stood out.
For example: