THE GHOST INSIDE’s Chris Davis Says Band May Have Broken Up If They Hadn’t Canceled 2023 Tour

The Ghost Inside guitarist/vocalist Chris Davis recently opened up about the critical state the band found themselves in late last year—a point so severe that, in his words, pushing forward with their canceled 2023 U.S. tour might have ended the band for good.

Appearing on the ‘BREWtally Speaking’ podcast, Davis offered candid insight into the emotional and physical toll that years of recovery and relentless touring have taken, especially following their life-altering 2015 bus accident. That tragic event left drummer Andrew Tkaczyk without a leg and impacted every member of the band with long-term injuries and trauma. Though they’ve since made a celebrated return to the stage, the long-term effects are still being felt.

When the band pulled the plug on their fall 2023 North American tour, they issued a public statement at the time, saying:

“The last 8 weeks of international touring have taken a much bigger toll on us than we anticipated. Our physical health, mental health, and home lives are telling us that rolling right into another month on the road is more than we can handle right now and we are very sorry to say we’re not going to move forward with the USA tour that is coming up. We hope you understand that making a decision like this stinks and leaves a lot of people disappointed, but for the long term well being of us as individuals and a band this is the right thing to do.”

Looking back now, Chris Davis admitted that the decision to cancel the fall 2023 tour forced The Ghost Inside to confront some uncomfortable realities about their ability to tour at the pace they once could.

For those unfamiliar, The Ghost Inside were involved in a devastating bus crash in 2015 that tragically claimed the lives of both drivers and left members of the band with serious, life-altering injuries. Drummer Andrew Tkaczyk lost a leg in the accident, and the band was sidelined for several years as they recovered both physically and emotionally.

Although they’ve since made a triumphant return—releasing new music and performing around the world—those injuries have continued to affect their daily lives. When combined with the pressure of extensive touring and the personal challenges of maintaining a home life, the burden became too great. In his new interview, Davis revealed that had they tried to push through that canceled tour, the band may not have survived it at all:

“…I’m proud of us for figuring out how to continue to enjoy, you know, what we do together as a band. Because it’s not always easy living on top of each other, for as long as you have to live on top of each other — especially when you’re fucking crippled and broken and normal everyday activities aren’t as easy as they used to be.

The other side that too is, I’m really proud of us —and this is probably going to piss some people off — but again, I don’t fucking care, we, for the very first time, had to cancel a tour last year.

And to be honest, had we not canceled that tour, we might not be a band right now. But that’s what I’m saying, is like we we had a very tough conversation of like, we bit off more than we could chew. We thought we were ready to get back to touring the way that we used to tour before the accident. And our bodies are telling us right now that you’re not capable of doing that.

And that fucking… A: That’s a blow to the ego, big time, right? Like, that’s a massive ego blow to know that, this is how I used to do it, and I thought that I could handle it that way, but I can’t. And obviously, you know, you’re going to piss a lot of people off when you cancel a tour. You’re going to piss off promoters, you’re going to piss off your agent, you’re going to piss off your manager, and you’re going to piss off fans. Like nobody wants to piss off fans.

But we had to just look at each other and be like, we’re hanging on by a thread physically. A lot of us have a lot of shit going on at home, and we’re all hanging on by a thread emotionally, and mentally, and we just have to admit defeat here, go home and reset. And I feel like, you know, 10 years ago, we may have pushed through that, and maybe we would have survived, and maybe we wouldn’t have.

But I’m proud of us now for looking at that and being like, we thought we could do it the way we used to, we can’t. We have to be more conscious about this moving forward and not biting off more than we can chew, and we have to go home for ourselves right now. Because I can tell you right now, like, I sincerely mean this, I think that the likelihood of the band breaking up by the end of that next tour was pretty significant.

And it’s not that we had an issue with each other, it’s that we were physically fucking worn out, and literally all five of us had fucked up shit going on at home that we were trying to handle, while also physically feeling like shit every day, and knowing that we had another month of that that we were basically gonna go straight into is like, there’s no way we’re gonna make it to the end of this.

And so I’m just, I’m proud of us for being like, ‘gotta pump the brakes.’ And let’s pump the brakes, admit defeat here, go home, reset, put it behind us, and move on into the future. And like I said, I don’t think that 10 years ago, I don’t think that we would have made that decision. I think we would have tried to push through it, and it probably would have ended poorly.

So I’m proud of us for being honest enough with each other to just be like we got to call it on this one.”

[Via ThePRP]

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