Modest Mouse guitarist Simon O’Connor was kicked off the band’s upcoming tour after he allegedly sent inappropriate messages to an underage fan.
In a shocking Reddit post, an anonymous person shared Instagram DMs O’Connor allegedly sent her after she “liked” a few of his posts days before her 17th birthday.
In the first message, the musician sent a picture of people playing the game Simon Says that read, “SIMON calls your bluff BUZZ.”
When the fan “liked” the message with an alien head emoji, O’Connor then allegedly sent a photo of a naked African-American man who was sitting with his legs open.
He quickly apologized and the fan wrote that it was “all good” because she believed O’Connor had been “hacked.”
However, the “An Eraser and a Maze” singer replied that he wasn’t hacked.
“Wish I was hacked just had a party night and looking at everything with one eye ya know,” he allegedly penned.
The unnamed fan told O’Connor, 42, to “get a good night of sleep,” to which he replied with a saluting face emoji.
He then allegedly wrote: “But you did blindside me with a gaggle of likes and then very little intro besides bikini pics so we are both to blame.”
After unsending the message, O’Connor allegedly wrote: “I did it again.”
The fan claimed on Reddit that she has a “very public” Instagram which includes her age in her bio.
After she received the “weird” messages, she said she reached out to several people “within the indie music fandom and nobody with a platform cared.”
O’Connor responded to the allegations with a Reddit post of his own.
“Hey, Simon here. I would just like to address some of the conversation on this thread that has come to my attention,” he wrote.
“Firstly, I would like to just state that I unequivocally oppose any sexual behavior towards minors, as a human and a parent it disgusts me,” O’Connor added.
The musician claimed that “a person” has been “messing” with him, allegedly creating multiple social media accounts and deleting them.
“After a long night, I picked my phone up to discover that a similar profile had been interacting (‘likes’ to be specific) with some of my instagram posts and stories,” he penned.
“I assumed that this was the same person I had dealt with before and, with poor judgement, I decided to reach out with a tasteless meme, a sticker that read ‘Simon calls your bluff,’ and an attempt to indicate that I recognized the ‘barrage of likes’ and similar photo content from the previous profiles…. Almost a ‘gotcha,’” O’Connor added.
The guitarist said after he realized the person he was messaging “was not the person who I had dealt with before,” he “unsent the messages and immediately ceased communication.”
“I’m genuinely sorry to the person who received those messages. They didn’t deserve to be put in that position, and I’m sorry for the stress and attention this has brought them,” he wrote.
“I know some people will choose not to believe me, and I understand that. I can’t change what’s happened. All I can do is tell the truth, take responsibility for my mistake, and apologize,” O’Connor concluded.
Page Six has reached out to Modest Mouse’s rep for comment but did not immediately hear back.
On Friday, Modest Mouse announced that O’Connor would not be joining the band on their forthcoming tour.
“The good news is that Seth Jabour of Les Savy Fav will be jumping in to play guitar. We look forward to being out there with you all,” they wrote on Instagram.
The rock band’s tour kicks off on Aug. 4 in Ojai, California, and will go until Oct. 23 in Sacramento, California.
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