The Offspring’s Pete Parada won’t be appearing with the band anytime soon, after he was let go for refusing to get vaccinated.
That’s the line according to Parada, who, with the punk rockers set to embark on a major tour of north America, the U.K. and Europe, has found himself on the outside.
Taking to social media, the drummer admits he flouted band’s rules by not getting the COVID jab. But he claims that his doctor advised him “not to get a shot at this time,” due to the associated risks of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that he has battled with since his youth and which “evolved progressively worse over my lifetime.”
Despite this, he claims, Parada’s bandmates see him as “unsafe to be around, in the studio, and on tour.”
The 48-year-old musician says he has “no negative feelings towards my band” and is “heartbroken” by the situation. And he insists he’s not an anti-vaxxer but, rather, sits on the side of informed consent.
“I need to state, unequivocally, that I support informed consent – which necessitates choice unburdened by coercion,” he continues. “I do not find it ethical or wise to allow those with the most power (government, corporations, organizations, employers) to dictate medical procedures to those with the least power.”
The Offspring hasn’t commented on Parada’s claims.
Parada joined The Offspring in 2007 and performed on the band’s latest record, Let The Bad Times Roll, their first album in nearly a decade. Bad Times dropped out in April and went to No. 1 on the Billboard’s Alternative Albums Chart and No. 27 on the Billboard 200.
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