“My world came crumbling down right in front of me”: Original Arctic Monkeys bassist reveals the moment he was kicked out of the band
Back in 2006, the Arctic Monkeys parted ways with Andy Nicholson. Up until 2019, it was implied that the split was mutual – now, however, the former bassist has began sharing how getting fired by his “three best friends” left him feeling betrayed, devastated and even suicidal.
In a new interview with Mojo, the founding Arctic Monkeys member recalls the day that he discovered his bandmates had replaced him. Originally, the band’s current bassist, Nick O’Malley, was only intended as a temporary stand-in for Nicholson. “Towards the end of a European tour, I had some family stuff that I needed to be at home for,” Nicholson explains. “So we were like, ‘Why don’t we get Nick to fill in?”
READ MORE: The story of Tom Morello’s ‘Arm the Homeless’ Guitar
It felt like an obvious choice – the band “grew up” with O’Malley, and he “wasn’t some stranger”. However, as Nicholson soon found out, he was also the perfect candidate to replace him. “We had a meeting in the manager’s office in Sheffield, and they said, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re gonna keep Nick now,’” he remembers. “My world came crumbling down right in front of me.”
“I’d gone from having the next year scheduled to not even knowing what I’m doing tomorrow, and my three best friends had done this to me,” he continues. “I can’t imagine it was easy for them either. I remember saying, ‘Best of luck with everything’. I shook all their hands, and I walked out.”
While Nicholson tried to keep things amicable, there were legalities to finalise. After all, the band had come a long way from the amateurs practising together in Alex Turner’s “dad’s garage”. “That same day, the other manager was like, ‘You’re gonna need a solicitor,’” Nicholson says. “My head was spinning… I would have died for that band, but, unfortunately, that band wouldn’t have died for me.”
While Nicholson played on the band’s debut record, 2006’s Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, he was thrown out before he could experience the skyrocket of stardom the debut would beckon in. “The band headlined Glastonbury the year after, and I’m sat on my own at home in floods of tears watching it [on TV],” he says. “I was thinking ‘That [was meant] to be me.’”
It’s an experience that left him in an incredibly dark place, even leading to him contemplating ending his own life. “It’s testament to my really close friends and family that I’m still here, to be honest,” he explains. “It probably took 15 years for me to finally digest it all, and to be at the point I’m at now.”
Nicholson first revealed that he had been fired from the Arctic Monkeys back in 2019. Speaking on The Michael Anthony Show, Nicholson described the experience as “one of the few soul-destroying moments of my life”.
To this day, Nicholson insists that he has “no idea” why his bandmates replaced him. “We’ve never had that chat and it feels like it doesn’t matter any more,” he tells Mojo. “But we had some distance and time between us, and we’ve got our relationship back now.”
Now that his relationship with his ex-bandmates has healed, it has allowed him to feel proud of his role in the Arctic Monkeys. “At first, the photos [in new book I Bet This Looks Good On Your Coffee Table] were really painful to look at, but now that time is something that I’m really proud to have been a part of and to celebrate,” he admits.
In a 2019 interview with NME, Nicholson also showed signs that there isn’t much bad blood nowadays. “When [the band are] back in Sheffield we go out for some food or if I happen to be in the same country as them then we try to meet up when we can and text,” he said.
“It’s one of those things when you grow up; they’re busy doing their thing and I’m busy doing mine,” he added. “It’s usually Christmases and birthdays when we exchange texts but we see each other when we can.”
Leaving the band also led to Nicholson being free to explore his passion for hip-hop, infusing it into indie rock project Mongrel as well as his latest work both producing and performing as GOLDTEETH.
The post “My world came crumbling down right in front of me”: Original Arctic Monkeys bassist reveals the moment he was kicked out of the band appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
