TESTAMENT Singer Dismisses Former Bassist's 'Delusional' Rants

TESTAMENT singer Chuck Billy says that his former bandmate Greg Christian is "delusional" with regards to the bassist's recent complaints about the way was treated while he was a member of the group.

Christian — whose acrimonious January 2014 exit from TESTAMENT was well publicized on these pages — has been critical of his former bandmates for much of the past two years, claiming in various social-media posts that he was "fully taken advantage" of by TESTAMENT because he was "shit broke and struggling" while he was a member of the group and explaining that he only continued playing with them because he needed to pay his bills.

Addressing his former bandmates in a recent Facebook message, Greg wrote: "Truth is, all I ever wanted to do was play music — but truth also is both [singer Chuck Billy and Eric] have been living off my investment along with [their] own, while I've been starved out. That's polluted the energy of TESTAMENT. It can be fixed, but only by actual corrective action."

He added in a separate post: "I wasted my fucking life working for and investing my time and energy building something only to be ass out after all these years. At the time when I should be doing OK. It's not like I didn't earn it. And to have one of the two people that've been living off my investment smile and act like they give a shit. Wow.

"I don't hate. I just don't care. Obviously it's mutual. Talk is just hot air and lip service. In the real world, I made a real investment. The only way to make things right is with real money. Until then. I don't care."

He went on to say: "If I had it to do again — [I] would've done something different with my life. Not that. Not with those people. It wasn't worth it and it was a huge mistake… I love playing on stage and put everything I have into it. But I still think I made a bad life choice here."

Asked by Eonmusic to comment on Greg's online rants, Billy said: "We shot our [new] video last weekend. We're actually documenting some of the history of [1987's] 'The Legacy' record, and we'll hopefully put out a thirty-year-anniversary edition or something [next year], and we invited Greg to come down [to do an interview about the album]. Even with all the stuff that he has said [in the past], we still thought it was the right thing to do to invite him, because he was a part of it. He came down, and he said, 'I'm not going to bring any negativity; it's all going to be positive.' So he came down, did his thing, and we all said hi, smoked a joint together, and he was off on his way — no big deal. I don't know what happened by the time that he got home, but by the evening, he just went on a rant again. I can't quite figure out what's going on or why, but his accusations are very delusional."

TESTAMENT's twelfth album, "Brotherhood Of The Snake", will be released on October 28 via Nuclear Blast.