Keith Buckley Addresses Every Time I Die Breakup: 'This Is My Truth'

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When Every Time I Die announced their breakup earlier this week, it was notable that singer Keith Buckley's name was left out of the statement. The news wasn't all too surprising to fans who've been keeping up with the band and Keith's recent social media interactions; however, the way it all went down was still a little jarring.

The night of the announcement, Buckley addressed his former bandmates' words with a screenshot of an official legal letter of separation on behalf of the other four members but didn't give a statement of his own. After taking a couple days to articulate his thoughts, the singer shared a lengthy statement on Twitter that tells his side of the story.

"this is my Truth. read it if you want to know it," he captioned the post.

"There is absolutely no hate in my heart when I say that whatever is going on with the guys from now on is between them and their God," Keith began his message before detailing his own experiences, beginning with overhearing his brother Jordan discussing that he wanted to replace him in the band before Keith left tour to "protect" his mental health.

When he got home, the frontman tried to reach out to his bandmates to talk things out but claims his requests were "dismissed or outright ignored."

After sticking it out for their annual Christmas shows, Keith was then hit with the aforementioned legal letter without a warning and "immediately lawyered up." The separation agreement was paired with a cease and desist, barring Keith from using the band name on any promotional materials. On January 5, he received an offer from "the members of Every Time I Die" allowing him to find new bandmates and continued playing as ETID, as long as his former bandmates received payment for his continued use of the name and likeness.

"The thing is, being given the band back and/or replacing them was not something I was interested in doing at this point in my life. Also, I do not see ETID as anything other than these specific members. I declined the offer on Jan. 6," Keith wrote.

He then addressed his former bandmates' statement. "That is how I found out that the band I started when I was 19 years old was publicly over," he wrote, lamenting over the lack of communication before a final decision was made. "In posting that without prior conversation, without legal consultation, without any personal sense of honor for the band we built, these men took away my ability to say goodbye to 20 years worth of sacrifice."

Keith then spoke about his own personal journey with sobriety and how it affected the band. "After I became sober, I acknowledged to the band the pain I had caused in the past and begged for their forgiveness. I promised in return that I would allow the pain they caused me to heal completely and all hatchets would be forever buried. For those understandably unwilling to immediately forgive me, I promised my vigilance at finding the perfect balance of happiness and sacrifice," he wrote.

He also acknowledged that the band's dysfunction goes "back decades," admitting that ETID should have broken up in 2014 but that he's happy it didn't.

"In hindsight, I'm so thankful I stuck it out. [From Parts Unknown], Low Teens and especially Radical are important records that I feel needed to be made," Keith wrote. "I still sense Radical gaining importance, but the firm spiritual and political stance I took on that record became an insurmountable point of contention between Jordan and I. I, however, make no apologies for a single word."

He ended his message with gratitude for fans and affirmed that he's doing well after taking time to process everything.

Meanwhile, it appears that Keith's ex-bandmates plan to keep making music together under a different name. When a fan pleaded "please keep going with at least the four of you" on Twitter, Jordan replied: "That’s the plan. I hope I never stop getting in a room with these 3 to write rippers"


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