Indie rock guitarist Simon O’Connor has exited the upcoming Modest Mouse tour. The band did not give a formal reason as to why. However, we can speculate that the move is related to allegations that O’Connor was inappropriately messaging a teen girl on social media.
On July 31, Modest Mouse shared an Instagram post revealing O’Connor’s exit. In his place, Les Savy Fav guitarist Set Jabour will be filling in.
Ahead of Modest Mouse’s announcement, O’Connor found himself being accused of some unbecoming behavior. According to Paste, a 17-year-old girl shared screenshots of messages with the musician. In her DMs, O’Connor allegedly sent a meme that contained a nude man, and made some references to her “bikini pics.”
He, at some point, apologized to her, claiming that he believed she was a troll who frequently pestered him. After the girl shared her side of the story on Reddit, O’Connor also took to the site with an explanation.
The Modest Mouse guitarist acknowledged his “poor judgment” in messaging the teen girl
“Throughout my adult life, there has been a person who has popped up from time to time with the intention of, for lack of a better term, messing with me,” he penned. “This person creates multiple social media accounts and deletes them… but always posts similar photos that I often recognize from previous accounts.
“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,” O’Connor continued. “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, “After a few minutes, I realized that I had made a mistake and this was not the person who I had dealt with before. I unsent the messages and immediately ceased communication.”
At this time, it is unclear if O’Connor is out of the band entirely or just sitting out this tour. He originally joined the band in 2021 and contributed to their new album, An Eraser and a Maze.
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