In a new interview with Soundterror, VENOM INC. bassist/vocalist Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan spoke about the circumstances that led to Jeff “Mantas” Dunn‘s announcement last December that the guitarist was officially out of the band. Tony said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): ”Mantas, he’d had a heart attack about four or five years ago and died. They brought him back to life, and about 11 weeks later, he was out touring again. But then he took a second heart attack, and then he was, like, ‘My mind’s fucked. And I don’t wanna travel,’ so he just stopped. He didn’t wanna play any more live shows. So I was, like, ‘Oh, shit. Well, what do I do? I’ve still got an album to do with Nuclear Blast. I’ve still got shows coming up that I could do, offers.’ And I thought, ‘Okay, well, I’ll just carry on.’ And I got Curran Murphy, who was with ANNIHILATOR and NEVERMORE, and his band had opened for me on a tour, and I thought, ‘That’s the guy [who can fill in for Mantas].’ So I approached him, and that’s who’s now playing guitar. And the idea was originally that Mantas would get better and return, but he decided not to.”
Dolan also addressed Mantas‘s comment from this past February that the guitarist was “fucking done with” VENOM INC. and that he would ” never speak” to Dolan again. Asked if he has had any contact with Mantas since then, Dolan said: “Not after [that] statement. No. I was, like, ‘Okay. Well, I don’t get.’ He was saying that there was no communication, but I have all the communication. Even my drummer was talking to him… And he was the one telling me, ‘I’ll talk to you next week. I’ll talk to you next week.’ I sent him a whole list of American dates and I said, ‘I know you said you didn’t wanna tour, but just let me know. You don’t have to do all of them. You could come and do some of them. You come and play New York and then go home.’ But he didn’t wanna travel, so he wouldn’t respond. He kept putting me off saying, ‘I’ll talk to you next week, I’ll talk to you next week.’ And then, all of a sudden, he was releasing videos and music… And I’m in the press telling everybody I’m waiting for him to come back and all the time he’s recording new music. And then he blames me. It’s, like, well, you left. You’ve just left. You recorded new music. You just done your videos. And now you blaming me. For what?
“He knew that Curran was covering for him, and Curran Murphy, every time anybody said to him, ‘What’s it like being in the band?’, [he always said] ‘I’m only here until Mantas gets better and comes back. That’s all I’m here for.’ He never committed to being in the band,” Tony explained. “I never said it in the press. And they kind of were pointing at me as if I’m doing damage management. It’s, like, what damage management? You were sick’ You’d said you don’t wanna tour. I’m hoping you want to, so I’m just waiting for you to come back.’ And he never came back. So, for me to see the third time he did that to me, made statements in the press about what he was going to do… I get sent screenshots. People were going, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe what he just said.’ And I said, ‘Neither can I.’ And they’re going, ‘Well, did you talk?’ I said, ‘No, I’m still waiting for him to talk’. So I was just as shocked as everybody else.
“But at the end of the day, he’s not dead,” Tony continued. “And he’s my brother and I love him, regardless of what he says about me or anything else. I couldn’t love him for four years and then not like him in a week. So he’s still my brother. When he [nearly] died, I was the first one there. I looked after him and his wife, and I was driving her to the hospital twice a day. And I bought him coffee machines and I was supporting them. And as soon as he could get out to earn money, I got out there to earn the money so they could be okay. So to then be like I didn’t give a shit… And he was, like, ‘Well, he was always working.’ It’s, like, well yeah, because I have to earn money, ’cause I live in London and I have to pay my rent. The band doesn’t pay me enough. I have to have a job and I have a very demanding job, and so I do my job. So it wasn’t that I didn’t care and it wasn’t that I was not communicating. He was not communicating, but blames me, of course. And it’s, like, okay, well, he can blame me. But at the end of the day, I want him to not be dead and I want him to be at peace and not have another heart attack. And if this is how he is gonna survive, then great. That’s good. It’s better than not being here.”
Asked if he thinks it’s possible that one day he will sit down with Mantas and work things out between them, Dolan said: “Not now. He said too many bad things about me that are untrue, and it’s not fair. And I just think, hang on. I’m the same person that I was back then, the same person that VENOM tried to destroy my band, the same person that they stole all my money, the same person that they embezzled and they didn’t give me my publishing and I didn’t get any money from advances, and I didn’t get paid for any tours, and I never got paid for any albums. And they took my publishing money off my records, including [VENOM frontman] Cronos [Conrad Lant], and then laughed about it in public. It was, like, ‘We get his money.’ Now I go out and play shows. If I play 10 VENOM songs in a tour on a show, I don’t get the money. They get the money. It’s their royalties. So I’m still making that money for them, but I don’t care about that.
“I brought Abbadon [original VENOM drummer Antony Bray] back [to play with VENOM INC.] after everything he did because I didn’t care. Mantas was, like, ‘Don’t bring him back after everything he did.’ And I was, like, ‘But it’s not important to me.’ Money’s not important to me. I mean, if I can eat and sleep and I have a house and I have a car that works and I have food and clothes and everybody’s okay, that’s all right. I don’t need more than that. But what I do wanna do is play music and meet people. That’s why I’m doing this. So I don’t care. And I thought in the back of my mind, [Abaddon] changed. He’d grown up. And he’s in his sixties. He’s not gonna be the same. But I was wrong. And Mantas said to me, ‘I told you. I told you he wouldn’t change.’ And I was, like, ‘Okay.’ And so they wanted him not to be in the band anymore. And I fought for several months to keep him in the band. And eventually [Abaddon] walked away and then blamed me. I was, like, ‘Okay. Right.’ So, they all blame me for their own demise. And it’s, like, ‘Well, I’m just doing what we set out to do, what we agreed to do, and I haven’t changed my mantra, and I’m not going to change it. This is what we decided to do, and I wanted you to be part of it, not not to be part of it.'”
As for the possibility of Dolan, Mantas and Abaddon ever playing together again, Tony said: “No, never. No. No. And I don’t think [there is any chance of the original VENOM reunion either]… Well, that’s up to Cronos, but that’s never gonna happen either, because they did the same thing to him. They said so many bad things about him and did so many bad things towards him. And now because they haven’t got VENOM, they wanna [say], ‘Let’s forget about all that.’ Well, he doesn’t need to, does he? He’s still VENOM. He still plays his shows. He’s still making albums. He’s signed to Spinefarm. He doesn’t need them. He has a band. So I don’t know, but I can’t see that happening. But certainly for myself, no. I’m much happier not being oppressed by them. I don’t have to deal with any of the bad politics or any of their bullshit. I don’t have to. I can just be free and just play music, and that’s all I wanna do.”
Dunn formed VENOM INC. nearly a decade ago with two other former VENOM members, Dolan and Bray.
In his announcement that he was leaving VENOM INC., Dunn said that his “health and wellbeing are of paramount importance to myself and my family,” but added that “there are also more personal issues which have influenced my decision.”
Mantas sat out VENOM INC.‘s fall 2023 U.S. tour after revealing that his wife had been diagnosed with cancer. He was replaced on the trek by Mike Hickey, known for his work with VENOM, CARCASS, CATHEDRAL and CRONOS.
VENOM INC. is not to be confused with the Lant-fronted version of VENOM, which is continuing to tour and make albums under the VENOM moniker. Joining Cronos in that group are Rage (a.k.a. Stuart Dixon) on guitar and Danté (a.k.a. Danny Needham) on drums.
VENOM‘s classic lineup trio of Dunn, Lant and Bray recorded four studio LPs, “Welcome To Hell” (1981),“Black Metal” (1982),“At War With Satan” (1984) and “Possessed” (1985),and live album, “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (1986). Often cited by bands such as METALLICA, BEHEMOTH, CELTIC FROST and MAYHEM as major influences, they are one of the most revered bands of their generation. VENOM is still fronted by Cronos and headlines festivals all over the globe and continues to release new music while Dunn and Dolan had joined forces in the similarly named VENOM INC.
