DROWNING POOL Parts Ways With Singer

Texas heavy rockers DROWNING POOL have parted ways with vocalist Ryan McCombs.

A member of DROWNING POOL since 2006, McCombs replaced singer Jason "Gong" Jones, who joined the band following the tragic passing of Dave Williams.

Ryan recently rejoined his former bandmates in SOIL for a tour of the U.K. that featured a setlist comprised of select cuts from the group's "Scars" and "Re.de.fine" albums, along with a song from SOIL's debut "Throttle Junkies" release.

Commented DROWNING POOL guitarist C.J. Pierce: "We have always been a band who has gained success despite having multiple singers... maybe we suffer from reverse 'lead singer's disease.'

"Changing things up has not always been easy, but the band has become re-energized time and time again.

"We are looking to find a new singer who will give both us, and most importantly our fans, the new adrenaline shot they deserve." He went on to say, "We do wish Ryan great success in his future endeavors."

In a 2007 interview with Live-Metal.net, DROWNING POOL bassist Stevie Benton stated about the band's collaboration with McCombs, "After Dave passed, Ryan was the original singer, I think, we wanted, the reason being we knew the guy, we were friends with the guy. We just thought he'd be a great fit, both musically and personally. Unfortunately, he was still working in a band, so we didn't want to go in there and break up that whole rig. So instead, we held auditions and just wound up getting a total stranger in the band."

He added, "We'll always be proud of the record we made with Gong. That was never a problem. It was once we got on the road touring together every day that we realized the personality conflict was not gonna allow the band to continue that way. With Dave, we had always been such a tight-knit group, such a family brothers, basically. So we weren't used to having to deal with these personal issues that we had with Gong, just the personality conflict. I would say probably he didn't handle that very well and neither did we. So that's what ultimately led to us parting ways. By the time that happened, luckily Ryan had quit his former band, so we didn't have the guilt of breaking that whole rig up. We called him one day, you know, 'Hey, bro, you wanna tour? You wanna make a record?' It all fell together quite nicely after that. The situation is just so much better because we do have a past with the guy. We toured with him lots of times before, done a hundred shows with him in his old band. So we had that tight-knit circle again."

DROWNING POOL's self-titled fourth album was released in April 2010 via Eleven Seven Music. The CD was recorded at House of Loud (BREAKING BENJAMIN, PARAMORE) with Kato Khandwala producing and David Bendeth mixing. Drummer Mike Luce previously stated about the album, "Sonically, 'Drowning Pool' squashes anything we've ever done. This record is really diverse too. There's some material that could've been taken right off 'Sinner', and there's some new stuff that goes beyond all expectations of this band."

Following their first hit with "Bodies" in 2001, DROWNING POOL developed a special relationship with the military and their families, eventually visiting and performing for the soldiers in Kuwait and Iraq in 2005 and 2006, respectively. They were also instrumental in the passing of the Lane Evans Mental Health Care Reform providing better mental health care for our veterans. During a trip to Capitol Hill, they presented then-Senator Barack Obama with a petition which helped to pass the Lane Evans Mental Health Care Reform, which he sponsored in the Senate and went on to become law supporting the medical rights for our returning warriors. DROWNING POOL engaged in a tour of South Korea for MWR (The US Army's family and morale, welfare and recreation organization) and on Memorial Day 2009 they even played Guantanamo Bay.