Former HELLYEAH/DANZIG Bassist In Hotel Smackdown With BIG & RICH Singer

October 17, 2008

TMZ.com reports that bassist Jerry Montano (DANZIG, NOTHINGFACE, HELLYEAH) got into a fight with John Rich of the country band BIG & RICH early this morning (Friday, October 17) at a hotel in California. Cops were called to the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood at 4:20 a.m. Paramedics responded to the scene at 4:28 a.m. and "one of the dudes was treated for a bloody nose but no one was transported to the hospital," according to the site. "Cops say they're investigating the incident but no arrests have been made — at least so far. Neither guy wanted to press charges against the other."

UPDATE: Check out photos of the bloody aftermath.

According to unconfirmed reports, it was during HELLYEAH's CD-release party on April 10, 2007 at the Clubhouse, the Dallas nightclub founded by HELLYEAH drummer Vinnie Paul and his late brother, PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, that the group's then-bassist Jerry Montano got drunk and violent, allegedly threatening his bandmates. One week later he was dismissed from the band and was subsequently replaced by Bob "Zilla" Kakaha, who played with the Abbott brothers in their post-PANTERA group, DAMAGEPLAN, until Dimebag's death.

HELLYEAH singer Chad Gray spoke to The Pulse of Radio about the events leading up to the band's dismissal of Montano. While Gray was not present for the incident, he told The Pulse of Radio that the group took the decision to let Montano go very seriously. "I've heard through the grapevine that obviously some things went down or whatever, and we just banded together as a group and we felt, all of us, including Jerry, I think we all felt like we needed to do what was best for HELLYEAH and we wanted to do what we thought was best for Jerry at the time," he said. "And we wish him the best and we love him, and it was for a lot of reasons and it was, believe me, there was a lot of deliberation. I mean, it took us a long time to come to that decision."

No official explanation was ever given for Montano's exit.

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