Ronnie Radke opens up on public persona and issues with Spiritbox and Chris Motionless on Rock Feed

Ronnie Radke, the ever-polarizing frontman of Falling in Reverse, recently appeared in a rare interview on the Rock Feed podcast, where he opened up about his career, his handling of numerous controversies, and his upcoming album and latest single. 

During the conversation, Radke discussed duality of his public persona across different platforms like X/Twitter and TikTok. He described Twitter as a "cesspool of negativity," contrasting it with the more personal interactions on TikTok, where fans seem to respond more positively when they can see his expressions. 

Radke believes that visibility helps in mitigating certain misunderstandings, stating:

My Twitter compared to my TikTok. When somebody sees my face when I'm saying something, for some reason, they like me more. On Twitter, when I say the exact same thing, they go crazy over that. You know what I mean? You have to see my face when I'm saying these things. I think that's the big difference in TikTok and Twitter. Twitter is such a cesspool of negativity and people. 

If you're a band out there and you're young right now and you're coming up and you're getting attacked online, even if you're not a band, I just want to let you know this right now. Every single celebrity, musician, YouTube creator, rock feed, all of them, everybody, anybody that's any type of successful thing on the internet, gets completely obliterated on a daily basis. 

Radke touched upon the symbiotic relationship between controversies and an artist's visibility. 

He used Elon Musk's Cybertruck unveiling as a metaphor for his own experiences with public backlash, suggesting that all publicity, even negative, has potential benefits. "It's just you got to play into it. It's like a WWE heel. I'm a heel, dude. I'm the bad guy." 

Radke explained, highlighting his embrace of the villain role in public narratives:

They don't realize that it's all fun. When I beef with people, you're just helping me. You think you're helping me, dude. Even if you're a no-name band, you're still helping me because all people are doing are talking crap. Here's a good example of why this works. People are going to watch us and completely forget that I said this and still engage with me on Twitter and still hit me. 

Elon Musk put out the Cybertruck before the Cybertruck came out. Cybertruck kinda sucks now, I guess. But before it came out, it was exciting, right? So Elon said he implied that when he threw the ball at the window saying it was bulletproof and it broke, he did that on purpose because all the people that hate him, all they did was talk about it, and it raised his stock. His stock shot up, brother. You know what I mean? It's just you got to play into it. It's like a WWE heel. I'm a heel, dude. I'm the bad guy. I'm NWO, brother…

And I'm a lead singer. I'm a lead singer, dude. You guys want all your lead singers to be normal people like you so you can spend all your money to go see someone that looks just like you and acts just like you. Not the other way around. No, you spend money to go see a movie that's larger than life, bro. You're paying money to go see somebody that might throw a mic stand in the crowd, bro. You're not paying to go see somebody to chill. We're supposed to entertain you. We're the monkeys. We're dancing, bro. This is what we're doing, dude. Enjoy it. Enjoy the show.

The conversation also touched on Falling In Reverse's 2023 headlining tour, initially set to feature Spiritbox, which caused a stir online due to backlash from fans regarding perceived clashes in values. This backlash resulted in Spiritbox dropping off the bill, leading to Radke expressing his disappointment in their decision.

Dude, they were friends with me. They were friends, not like buddy-buddy, but one time at a show, they opened for us about seven months before this happened, and I gave all my gear to them so they could perform, and they only got to perform four songs. They were so grateful. They're Canadians. They're super nice. They're saying sorry all the time. They're very nice people. You know what I mean? They are nice people, but I don't have any respect for them because they know me. They know what person I am to a degree. They don't know me personally, but they know all the stuff they've seen online before they agreed to the tour. They know about my Twitter. They know about everything. Their manager knows about everything, and they agreed to the tour, and then they backed out because a couple of fans got mad at them, fans that couldn't even probably afford to go or mad. They backed out with no word. It just really upset me. I have no respect for that. They're bowing to the mob, and I think that that's messed up. I don't like how they go and preach about the preach, wokey, preachy stuff after it, dude.

It's like, what are you doing? I can't respect that. I'm sorry. I hate to offend anybody else that thinks that that's okay. It's not all you guys are stupid that think that they backed out because they realized I was a bad person. No, they know everything. They agreed months in advance. They backed out because they felt the heat and they didn't like how they... They're not built for the heat. That's what comes down. They're not built for it. You know what I mean?

Discussing his collaboration with Alex Terrible, Radke dismissed the criticisms aimed at Terrible as baseless and reflective of the toxic elements within the metal community. 

He praised Terrible's character and professionalism, saying:

People want to call him all these names, too. He's another person after the fact, by the way. I didn't work with him because he was getting attacked online. He just started getting attacked online after. It wasn't because of me. It was because everybody thinks he's a terrible person or whatever. Or not everybody, just some people want to start stuff. But go figure. His band starts blowing up, and now all of a sudden, he's an awful, terrible human. That seems to be the thing that happens here. I mean, in metal, too, because for some reason, a metal elitists love to just want to hold bands down. Working with him was incredible. He's the nicest guy in the world.

Radke also addressed his issues with Motionless In White, notably taking issue with how the band handled an accusation against fellow metalcore band, Crown The Empire.

Responding to a question on the beef, Radke said:

It's not like a beef, dude. The band, the members are cool. I have a problem with Chris. Me and him, he doesn't respond, and people think that his silence means he doesn't care. Oh, he cares. He's not responding because it's like Kendrick and Drake. You know what I mean? He don't want to respond to it. That's all I'll say. It starts because there's a band called Crown the Empire, and they're the little guys, right? They're the little guys, man. I've known those guys since I put those guys on the their first tour in 2012. They were just kids at the time, right? They're such good dudes. There's a guy in the band, his name's Brandon. He talks with a stutter. He's the most innocent, genuinely nice people. He really is. I'm saying this, and I know some of you don't think my word is gold because you think I'm a terrible person, so why would I cosign for a good person? But he's a good person, and he got accused of some things that aren't true. They were on this tour with Motionless, and Chris kicked him off the tour just because he saw something that was accusing him instead of getting to the bottom of it.

He just immediately kicked them off and then cut contact with them. Then they couldn't pay their rent or their bills and stuff, and it just really messed them up. That's when I was like, 'That's so messed up because anybody can say anything they want about you, man. What about the truth? What if it's not true?' It turned out it wasn't true. He never responded to them, and he still hasn't said anything. He just kicked them off the tour. They lost money. They lost a lot of stuff. They got attacked online. It turned out to not be true. Where's the repercussions for that? It's really messed up. I would never... If I brought a band on, that's why I brought them on high tour after that. That next tour, I did that for a statement because everybody's just tagging them online, and it really upset me because he didn't do anything, dude. He didn't. I know personally, I know for a fact, he didn't do anything. That's where I got really upset. I got upset because it's messed up, man. You don't do that. If I bring a band on tour and someone's like, Hey, they did this, this, and this.

I'm like, Okay, well, we need to... Let's get to the bottom of this first. Then they show me something. I'm like, What the hell? You're out of here. You piece of shit. Get the fuck out of my face. But if you wait a couple of days and it turns out, you're like, 'Wait a minute. This person's insane. Wait a minute. Hold on. This doesn't add up. It's not adding up.' I'm not going to kick somebody off and then cease contact and ruin. That's messed up, man. 

He continued:

It's not fair, man. I sympathize with people that get wrongfully accused because it happens way more now. Even if it's small little accusations, then they spiral into big things. I really took offense to that. I don't like when somebody tries to keep this squeaky, clean personality when I know for a fact… I've been a band since they've been a band, bro. I know a lot about them. I just don't like when people try to upkeep this squey, clean personality when they have demons, too. Then they go and they take the route of kicking bands off tours. Then it goes into their label contacting my director and my producer to do songs because my songs are doing good. Then they go and then they turn into... It's just It's just a spiraling thing, and you shouldn't be so upset about that. It's stupid.

You got to stick up for the little guy, man, period. I don't care what anybody says, and I'll do it, and I'll take it to my grave. I'll stick up for the little guy because it's messed up. I don't care. I'm not going to stick up for the rich guy because it's going to get me somewhere. I'm going to stick up for the little guy that has nothing, dude. You guys just messed this guy this guy's whole career for a year because of something that somebody said that wasn't even true. Then you're going to ignore it and pretend like it doesn't happen and ignore all contact with these people. I don't respect that, man. I don't respect that. That's it. That's the line drawn in the sand.

Watch the full interview below:

Despite his apparent issues with the platform, Ronnie Radke reappeared on X/Twitter today after previously removing his account: