ANDY LA ROCQUE On His Exit From KING DIAMOND: 'We Mutually Decided To Part Ways In A Respectful And Friendly Manner'

Andy La Rocque has commented on his decision to leave KING DIAMOND after more than four decades.

Earlier today (Sunday, July 26),the 63-year-old Swedish-born guitarist, whose real name is Anders Allhage, took to his social media to write: "Hi everyone ! Just a short heads up: as many of you have seen I've left the KING DIAMOND band.

"Leaving a 'family' after more than 40 years full of great music, friends and lots of good memories is not an easy decision but we mutually decided to part ways in a respectful and friendly manner wishing each other the absolute best for the future!

"Now is the time for me to move on with full focus and write some more music and play live with LEX LEGION.

"Thanks for your support, See you out there!"

La Rocque's exit from KING DIAMOND was announced by the band on Friday, July 24. At the time, the group's namesake frontman said in a statement: "After 40 years KING DIAMOND the band and Andy La Rocque have mutually decided to part ways.

"Looking back, we do so with nothing but pride, gratitude, and respect for everything we have achieved together. All the countless memories we have created along the way are forever. Our friendship and respect for each other will always remain the same, and we all sincerely wish each other the absolute best for the future!"

Also on Friday, KING DIAMOND announced the addition of guitar virtuoso Gus G. (FIREWIND, ex-Ozzy Osbourne) to the band's lineup. Gus G. joins as guitarist and will compose, record, and tour with KING DIAMOND going forward.

La Rocque is currently focusing on LEX LEGION, the new band featuring four-fifths of KING DIAMOND's classic late '80s lineup, which recently released its self-titled debut album via MNRK Music Group.

In addition to La Rocque (guitar),LEX LEGION includes Mikkey Dee (drums),Pete Blakk (guitar) and Hal Patino (bass) — alongside vocalist Nils K. Rue (PAGAN'S MIND).

Earlier this year, Andy told The Metal Crypt that his contributions to LEX LEGION were not based on any "leftovers from the KING DIAMOND songwriting, if you know what I mean, from the library I have with KING DIAMOND. This is completely different and has nothing to do with KING DIAMOND in that sense," he explained. "KING DIAMOND is KING DIAMOND, and I write songs for KING DIAMOND, and then I write songs for LEX LEGION. I don't want people to believe that, 'Oh, he has some songs that were intended for KING DIAMOND that he's using here.' No, not at all. It's not the other way around, either. It's two very different and separate things."

Just last month, La Rocque told Rock Hard Greece that he had no idea when KING DIAMOND's forthcoming horror trilogy, part one of which is titled "Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920", would see the light of day. He said at the time: "I can't really tell you too much about it because we have some songs. I wrote songs, like, four or five years ago that we will have, a few of them, for this upcoming album. And I already started with the right guitar tracks on it. I think Matt [Thompson, KING DIAMOND drummer] even played drums on one of my songs. And we've been playing that live too, actually, for a while, the 'Electro Therapy'. We played that live for a while. And we just need to put together some more songs before we can start recording. And, well, we actually have the songs, so I don't know. I can't really tell you how long it's gonna take to do that. Nobody knows. [Laughs] Nobody knows. We'll see. But all I can say is that we're working on it."

In May, Andy was asked by Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation if fans could expect "Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920" to arrive anytime soon. Andy said at the time: "That's a question [that should be put] to [KING DIAMOND's namesake frontman] King [Diamond]. As you probably heard, we've been working on that for ages. But my part of it is that back in 2022, I had a bunch of songs, pre-production with the right recording guitars, some keyboards from [early KING DIAMOND collaborator] Roberto Falcao, actually. I asked him to do a few things on my songs. So I had, like, eight songs that I sent off to all the members in the band — pretty much ready to start recording, with vocals and the real proper drums and bass from Pontus [Egberg, KING DIAMOND bassist] and stuff, even though I played some bass on it, and [I used a] drum machine [for the demos] and all that stuff, just like a guideline. And we talked about it, and King wanted to use, like, three of those songs. And so I guess now he's finishing up his part of it, which is gonna be, like, five or six songs on the album. So that's what we're waiting for."

Image courtesy of ESP