Metal Sludge — In a brand new interview on the Waste Some Time With Jason Green podcast, the guest is Mark Knight of Bang Tango.

Knight talks in depth about the recent news that Bang Tango and their all original members reunion is officially over.

All the hype, the plans, the work, phone calls, rehearsals and they did 1 show back in January 2020, and now it’s finished.

Knight admits the band collectively agreed to pull out of the M3 Music Festival (after being booked and advertised) simply due to their placement in the lineup and ego issues with other bands.

The guitarist also says they were offered a slot on the Monsters of Rock Cruise, to which the band, or select members didn’t seem to thrilled about the idea.

Other show offers were coming in including a European festival, but the Covid-19 pandemic made things difficult for all of humanity, especially the entertainment industry.

It also seems the band felt they were more worthy in some form or fashion than what was being offered to them in the way of these opportunities.

“There were some cool things out there, high profile gigs on the table, that were basically, turned down for whatever reasons… they didn’t manifest” says Knight.

“I will be frank, and really honest… and I don’t wanna make anybody look bad. But a lot of these guys in the band, not a lot, but some of the guys were doing it for strictly nostalgic fun reasons, to get up and play in front of people again, a crowd, and to go rock out again…. but maybe… 1 of ’em, (it) wasn’t appealing to them, to make it fun. So you know… they pulled out. Okay, 1 guy didn’t wanna do it, because it wasn’t fun for them… okay… so you don’t wanna get on a boat and be around a bunch of your fans” added Knight who was reluctant to name the member.

Word on the street is that the band were being picky about who they would play with, who it was okay to open up for and who they refused to go on in front of.

Short answer is, this reunion was a collection of egos that hadn’t played together in 25 years, did 1 show at the “Whisky-A-Go-Go” and then started making their list of demands.

And when the demands got shot down, or rejected, the band started saying “No thanks” to the gigs that were offered.

Shows that Knight himself seemed to acknowledge were ‘high profile‘ gigs, at least for a band of their caliber.

“So here we are turning down 2 pretty good gigs, you know the way I see it. I am not speaking for them, just the way I see it, now we’re getting to the point that we’re like, turning down pretty good gigs, we’re really not pursuing this, unless it’s all on our terms.”

Knight beats around the bush throughout the entire interview but can’t bring himself to name the party pooper.

But based on his past touring resume, it’s likely that Joe LeSte was game, along with Knight and Tigg Ketler (drummer) who also plays regularly with Knight in The Unsung Heroes project.

So at some point the host Jason Green says: “It’s someone named Kyle!” as Knight laughs.

Talking about the band’s first big festival style booking (which they pulled out of) at the M3 Music Festival Knight says: “What are you gonna do, like, turn every gig down because you’re not at the top of the bill, it’s like c’mon. You know, it’s understandable, because they had booked us higher up, and then they knocked us down and then that type of stuff happens, and unfortunately it did happen with us, and there were some weird feelings about it and it just didn’t work out.”

“Then the M3 thing, which was ridiculous, because we… we honestly had been booked on that. Then there were some, you know some ego issues with other bands (on the bill) and placement, and set times, and this and that, that people weren’t too happy about in the band” says Knight about their decision to pull out of M3.

To his credit, Knight sounds disappointed and said “my bags were packed, really honestly, but I did understand the reasons for some of the guys not wanting to do some of these things (gigs)” adding he was excited to do these gigs but it’s clear that someone else in the group wasn’t thrilled to be on a boat or hanging with a bunch of hairbands for the day or week.

“It wasn’t appealing to (some) people, to get on a boat and play amongst that group” said Knight.

Translation, well… you make up your own, but those words are kind of dissing everything these events stand for.

In short it sounds like some member(s) of Bang Tango felt they were too good for said events.

Oh well… we’re pretty sure there are some other bands who will be happy to take that slot and play their guts out at the shows too.

To hear the interview, listen below.

Make sure to take our Bang Tango poll below on Twitter!

How Bummed out are you that Bang Tango reunion is over?#bangtango #joeleste #someonelikeyou
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— metalsludge (@MetalSludge) December 3, 2021