News•November 14, 2019 9:14 AM ET•9,751 views

Behemoth frontman lied about getting ejected from YMCA

This past summer Behemoth frontman Nergal uploaded a video to Instagram in which he claimed to have been kicked out of a YMCA in Virginia for not worshipping Jesus Christ (he was purportedly questioned about his religious beliefs after an employee spotted him wearing a Darkthrone t-shirt). Long story short, the video garnered more than 60,000 views, public support from Darkthrone, and myriad articles on music websites (not this one, however). Now, in a new interview with Kerrang!, Nergal says he made the whole thing up because he enjoys "stirring the shit up." Seemingly oblivious to any potential hit to his integrity, Nergal gloated over the ruse:

"I like trolling, and I like provoking people. Remember that story of me being rejected from the YMCA? "Orion [Behemoth bassist] and I went, but we had to go back to another gym, and I just made up the story that we were rejected because of our beliefs, blah, blah, blah. Man! It made headlines all over the place. People are being fucking outraged… people saying that I should get beaten, that my opponents would just be happy about that. And I'm just reading all these comments and all these headlines and I'm going like, 'Why?' No-one would bother to ask me if it's true – because it wasn't true – I made up a story. It was again another occasion that I realised how it's easy to manipulate people, how to fool them around and just make whatever you want to do."

[via Brooklyn Vegan]