JAMES DURBIN Explains His Abrupt Departure From QUIET RIOT

James Durbin says that he wanted to stay with QUIET RIOT long enough to play shows in support of the last album he recorded with the band.

In September 2019, QUIET RIOT parted ways with Durbin and replaced him with Jizzy Pearl. Pearl previously fronted QUIET RIOT from 2013 until October 2016, when he was briefly replaced by Seann Nichols, who played only five shows with the group before the March 2017 arrival of "American Idol" finalist Durbin.

Durbin recorded two studio albums with QUIET RIOT — 2017's "Road Rage" and 2019's "Hollywood Cowboys" — during his three-year stint with the group.

Asked about his abrupt departure from QUIET RIOT just two months before the release of "Hollywood Cowboys", Durbin told Dr. Music (see video below): "There's just certain ways that some people do business. And I'm the type of person that is good to my word. I told them I'd make the commitment for this as long as I could and do it as long as I was still having fun. And I wanted to stay on board and promote that album and finish out the year, as I had promised. But that's not how they go about it. So to each their own, and I have to respect that decision, which I do. They made the decision that they thought would be the decision that was necessary for them to make. And business is business. We just couldn't come to an agreement on new terms or anything."

A month after Durbin's exit was made official, QUIET RIOT drummer Frankie Banali told LA Weekly that it wasn't odd for him and his bandmates to play shows in support of a new album when the group had just undergone a vocalist change. He said: "I reached out to Jizzy Pearl before looking at any other potential singers because I always thought that Jizzy was a really good fit for QUIET RIOT and is a total pro. He welcomed the opportunity to return to QUIET RIOT which made me very happy and we replaced our former singer in less than 24 hours."

Banali resurrected QUIET RIOT in 2010, three years after the death of founding member and singer Kevin DuBrow.

QUIET RIOT went through two vocalists — Mark Huff and Scott Vokoun — before Pearl's first three-year run with the band.

Banali, who joined QUIET RIOT in 1982 and played on its breakthrough album, 1983's "Metal Health", the first heavy metal LP to top Billboard's album chart, died in August 2020 after a 16-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

QUIET RIOT announced in September that it will carry on touring following Frankie's death. The band, which now features drummer Johnny Kelly (DANZIG, TYPE O NEGATIVE),played a couple of shows in October and has a string of dates booked in 2021.

QUIET RIOT initially featured the late guitar legend Randy Rhoads and went through some early lineup shifts before securing the musicians that recorded "Metal Health".

Durbin will release the debut album from his solo band, DURBIN, "The Beast Awakens", on February 12 via Frontiers Music Srl.