Tom Meighan is "stepping down" from Kasabian due to "personal issues"
6 July 2020, 12:11 | Updated: 6 July 2020, 14:45
The Leicester band have announced that their frontman will be leaving the band "by mutual consent" after suffering with personal issues.
Tom Meighan has announced his departure from Kasabian.
The Leicester rockers took to Twitter this Monday (6 July) to announce the news and reveal the decision was made by "mutual consent".
Their statement reads: "Tom Meighan is stepping down from Kasabian by mutual consent. Tom has struggled with personal issues that have affected his behaviour for quite some time and now wants to concentrate all his energies on getting his life back on track."
They added: "We will not be commenting further."
Tom Meighan is stepping down from Kasabian by mutual consent. Tom has struggled with personal issues that have affected his behaviour for quite some time and now wants to concentrate all his energies on getting his life back on track. We will not be commenting further.
— KasabianHQ (@KasabianHQ) July 6, 2020
Last month, Meighan told Sky News that he was working on solo material and "writing lots of songs". He said: "We'll see what happens. I've got a few cookies in the jar... and they're not bad, you know."It's very autobiographical, like the story of my life. It's kind of... heartbreaking. Well, not heartbreaking, just to the core, you know. Very real."
Asked about bandmate Sergio Pizzorno's solo project, The SLP, which released an album last year, Meighan replied: "His music was incredible... He's doing his thing, I'm doing mine but Kasabian are still solid. You know, it's just a bad time at the moment, for rock 'n' roll. For human beings in general."
Tom Meighan was one of Kasabian's founding members, forming the band in 1997 with Serge Pizzorno, Chris Karloff and Chris Edwards.
The Leicester outfit went on to release six studio albums in Kasabian (2004), Empire (2006), West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Velociraptor! (2011), 48:13 (2014) and For Crying Out Loud (2017).
Tom Meighan previously opened up about his mental health in 2017, admitting that he was impacted greatly due to splitting up with his partner and the death of a friend.
"Basically my life changed. I'm by myself. Because I lost myself," he told Q Magazine.
He added: "I had to sort my head out. My attitude. Stuff I was doing. People I was associating with. Not bad people.
"I was the one that was bad, I was in the haze. I was very unhappy, just down. You block it out by just carrying on."
The band - whose line-up now consists of Pizzorno, Edwards and drummer Ian Matthews - have not revealed whether they plan to replace Meighan or continue as a trio.
QUIZ: Do you know the lyrics to Kasabian's Where Did All The Love Go?
Kasabian were due to play Solstice II last month - a huge homecoming gig at Leicester's Victoria Park - which was forced to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Talking about their first Solstice gig, which took place at the same place in June 2014, the guitarist and chief songwriter told Radio X's Johnny Vaughan: "It’s hard to put into words because it felt… It was quite emotional actually because it felt like we’d taken 15 years to get there".
He added: "As exciting as it was to play in front of 50,000 you know, the actual gig itself... everyone’s families were there. All the pals, and then you have that moment of reflection and then remember the rehearsals.
"I mean as a band we just sat and talked about the journey so far.
"We really took it in. It was sort of incredible”.
Serge Pizzorno relives Solstice I gig
READ MORE: Kasabian's Serge Pizzorno is “writing tunes” and doing PE with his kids in lockdown
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Samaritans
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