TONY DOLAN Says The Door Is Open For JEFF 'MANTAS' DUNN To One Day Come Back To VENOM INC.: 'He's My Brother'

In a new interview with Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic, VENOM INC. bassist/vocalist Tony "Demolition Man" Dolan weighed in on guitarist Jeff "Mantas" Dunn's announcement that he was not planning to return to the band. Tony said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "For those of you who don't know, and I assume most of you do, but, unfortunately, a few years ago, Jeff took a major heart attack and we lost him. But they managed to bring him back to life; they saved him. Of course, I was next day in Portugal beside his bed, immediately from London, and we got him back up and going again. And I think his mind, it took a hit because it's not every day you die and then come back to life and think, 'What the fuck?' So, yeah, scary, scary, scary, scary stuff. But he got his shit back together and was working through it all. And we ended up back on stage. So everything was going well. And then not last season, but the season before, we went to America. We had two [tour] halves to do. We did part one, and then his wife got diagnosed — got real sick — with something that could have been terminal. So they went into panic mode and, of course, they live in Portugal, and they don't have a lot of friends who live near them who are English. So the focus had to be on looking after her. So we decided, okay, that's the thing to do. We decided to maybe get a dep guitarist in. It was a bit last minute, so he could stay home. So there was an idea to cancel, but, of course, the whole tour had been booked as a single thing and just split into two. So that was going to be a bit complicated. So, I put a call out to Mike Hickey, who, of course, had been in VENOM for 'Calm Before The Storm' and the CRONOS band and was a friend, and said, 'If Jeff couldn't do it, is there any way maybe you could step in just to help us out?' Of course, he said yes straight away. He lives in Boston. So, I put him with Jeff and they worked on some of the material, some of the finer points… So things were good. [Jeff] was getting then ready to do — the first festival we had was in Belgium for the next season. Of course, that was close to home, so him and his partner decided that that would be okay for him to do. The idea was to get him in and get him out as fast as possible, so he didn't have to panic about her being by herself too long. And then we would do a call and three days went by and I hadn't heard from him. And I texted him and he said he was in hospital. And I thought, 'Oh my God. Something's happened to his partner.' So I called straight away and he said no, it was him. And I was, like, 'Why are you in hospital?' He went, 'I had another heart attack.' And it was, like, 'No.' So at that point it was, like, 'Shit.' He was already reeling from the first one. We assumed that was it, [that] it wouldn't happen again because he was on meds and stuff, but it happened again. So his mind just totally went to shit and hit panic and the fear set in"

Tony continued: "If [Jeff] goes, he wants to go on his own in his own slippers. He doesn't wanna be running through an airport somewhere across the other side of the planet. And I totally get that. We're all human. So the idea was to just, 'Take your time. You just take all the time you need. I'll continue with the [VENOM INC.] obligations.' Because when you do a band on this level, you get money from your record label in advance and from your publisher in advance, and they want that money back. And the way you make it back these days is by touring to push the music which sells to pay them back their money. So even if I decided, 'Oh, well, fuck it. I'll not do it either,' we'd be leaving a bit of debt that these people might want back. So I would continue. Fortunately, I used Curran Murphy from 72 LEGIONS, who was happy to come in and dep until Mantas got back fit, so we could do the shores that Mike Hickey wasn't able to come out of America for personal reasons. So, that was it. We were set to do that. And we've never hidden the fact that we've got the door open for Jeff because he's my brother. And we've been through so much together. But I wasn't prepared to try and put him in a headlock or to try and force him into a corner where he had to make a decision because he's sick and he had to take his own time to make his own decision."

Addressing Dunn's social media post in which the guitarist announced his exit from VENOM INC., Dolan said: "I know that yesterday was quite shocking — he made this statement, and everybody's picked up on that — but it may not be forever. He may feel, in a year's time, he feels great and wants to do it again. He will produce music in his studio because that's what he does. And that's his therapy and that's great. And his social media he was doing, that was his therapy. So that was all good. When he stopped doing that, I thought maybe that's not the best thing to do. And as much as, in my heart, I would like him to still be doing the tour and the shows, even through the whole season, we did Indonesia, we did all of South America, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Romania, Poland — I mean, we did huge shows, half a million people in Poland, 18,000 in Indonesia; I mean, it's huge shows; every night in South America, I think it was three to six thousand people. So we did these incredible things and I wanted him to be there. But you have to feel good about it. And he didn't feel good about it. So he had to sit it out and I had to accept that."

Dunn formed VENOM INC. nearly a decade ago with two other former VENOM members, Dolan and drummer Antony "Abaddon" Bray.

In his announcement that he was leaving VENOM INC., Dunn said that his "health and wellbeing are of paramount importance to myself and my family," but added that "there are also more personal issues which have influenced my decision."

This past May, Dunn revealed that he had suffered another heart attack on the morning of April 17. Despite this frightening event, the swift response from medical professionals at Abrantes UCIC and later in Lisbon ensured he received the necessary care promptly. An angiogram revealed issues with two valves, leading to the immediate placement of two stents.

The 63-year-old British-born musician, who currently resides with his wife in Portugal, previously suffered a heart attack and underwent a double bypass surgery in May 2018.

Mantas sat out VENOM INC.'s fall 2023 U.S. tour after revealing that his wife had been diagnosed with cancer. He was replaced on the trek by Hickey, known for his work with VENOM, CARCASS, CATHEDRAL and CRONOS.

Earlier this year, VENOM INC. recruited Marc "JXN" Jackson as the band's new drummer. Jackson was previously a member of M:PIRE OF EVIL, the group formed in 2010 by Dunn and Dolan.

VENOM INC. is not to be confused with the Conrad "Cronos" Lant-fronted version of VENOM, which is continuing to tour and make albums under the VENOM moniker. Joining Cronos in that group are Rage (a.k.a. Stuart Dixon) on guitar and Danté (a.k.a. Danny Needham) on drums.

VENOM's classic lineup trio of Dunn, Lant and drummer Anthony "Abaddon" Bray recorded four studio LPs, "Welcome To Hell" (1981),"Black Metal" (1982),"At War With Satan" (1984) and "Possessed" (1985),and live album, "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" (1986). Often cited by bands such as METALLICA, BEHEMOTH, CELTIC FROST and MAYHEM as major influences, they are one of the most revered bands of their generation. VENOM is still fronted by Cronos and headlines festivals all over the globe and continues to release new music while Dunn and Dolan had joined forces in the similarly named VENOM INC.

Photo credit: Fernando Serani (courtesy of Nuclear Blast)