Frankie Palmeri says he was standing side stage at Louder Than Life in Louisville watching Pantera when he attempted to start a conversation with Glenn Danzig — and that Danzig’s security then demanded he be removed from the stage and stripped of his access pass. The Emmure frontman posted about it the same night, and the reaction was not measured. What makes it land harder than a standard backstage story is that Palmeri had performed at the same festival hours earlier.
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Scott Penfold covers the Danzig incident on today’s Metal Breakdown Daily — what Palmeri says happened, why the detail about his own set that day changes it, and the thing in his post that nobody else has noticed. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and get it every weekday morning.
What Palmeri says happened
His account, posted the same night.He was side stage at Louder Than Life, watching Pantera — and he’s careful to explain why that mattered to him. He’s previously been asked to cover Pantera songs live as a tribute to Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul.
His words: he has a lot of love for Pantera, and for Phil.He got, by his own description, a split second of the set.Then, in his words: “I made the mistake of attempting to strike a conversation with Glen Danzig…while side stage…which lead to his security demanding I be removed from the stage and stripped of my access pass.”And then the question that’s the actual heart of the post:“For what? Being a human being and asking about a mutual friend?”
He closes with three sentences aimed at Danzig, Danzig’s security, and the stage manager, in that order. I’m not going to reproduce them — there’s a word in there I won’t print — but the temperature is roughly what you’d expect from a man writing at one in the morning with a revoked laminate in his pocket.Danzig has not commented, and on past form probably won’t.
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The detail that changes the story
Here’s what most coverage of this is going to miss.Palmeri wasn’t a guest with a spare pass. He’d played that festival the same day.
He joined The Acacia Strain on stage during their Louder Than Life set — footage of it was circulating before this story broke. So the man being walked off the side of the stage by somebody else’s security had, hours earlier, been standing on a Louder Than Life stage himself, performing.
Which recasts the one line in his post that isn’t swearing. He said the stage manager acted as though he wasn’t worthy of being there.That’s not wounded ego about a laminate. That’s a working musician being told he doesn’t belong at an event he’d played that afternoon, and it explains why the reaction was as hot as it was.
The other thing nobody’s noticed
I want to flag this because it’s genuinely the funniest part of the whole business and it’s going straight past everybody.
In the middle of the rant, Palmeri spells Danzig’s name wrong. Twice. Two different ways.“Glen Danzig” once. “Glen Danzing” the second time.
Look — I’ve written things at one in the morning that I regretted by breakfast, and I suspect most people reading this have too. But if you are going to publicly dismantle a man in front of your entire following, take the extra four seconds and spell-check the man. The typo is now permanent and it’s doing considerably more damage to the post than to Danzig.
Is this normal for Danzig?
Fair question, and the honest answer is that nobody who has followed this man’s career for forty years is remotely surprised.
Glenn Danzig has one of the most thoroughly documented reputations in heavy music, and almost none of it involves being easy to approach. He has a long-standing and well-known objection to being photographed without arrangement. He has walked off stages. He has had extended public disagreements with former Misfits bandmates that ran for decades. And the single most circulated piece of footage in his entire catalogue isn’t a music video — it’s the 1996 incident in Tuba City, Arizona, where he was knocked down by a promoter and the clip became one of the internet’s founding memes.
So an artist’s security removing somebody from the side of the stage isn’t an aberration. It’s consistent.
None of which means Palmeri is wrong to be annoyed. Both things can be true: Danzig’s team acted entirely in character, and a fellow performer got treated badly. Those aren’t in conflict.It also belongs squarely in the long, well-populated tradition of metal’s most infamous feuds — though this one is considerably smaller than most of them and will probably be over by the weekend.
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Who’s actually involved here
Worth a line each for anyone arriving from outside.Glenn Danzig, 71, founded the Misfits in 1977, then Samhain, then Danzig — three bands that between them shaped horror punk, deathrock and a significant portion of what heavy music looks and sounds like. “Mother” is one of the defining rock singles of the early nineties. His influence is not in dispute by anybody.
Frankie Palmeri has fronted Emmure since 2003 and is the band’s only constant member. Emmure are one of the more divisive acts in deathcore — enormously popular, frequently criticised, and Palmeri himself is no stranger to a public disagreement. He’s the sort of frontman who has always said exactly what he thinks, which is both why this story exists and why it’s being shared.
Louder Than Life is Danny Wimmer Presents’ Louisville festival and one of the largest rock events in the United States, drawing crowds well into six figures across four days. Pantera headlined the night in question.
Which is worth noting, given what’s coming
One more piece of context.
Pantera are currently the busiest they’ve been since the reunion, and in November they headline their own two-day event — The Great NOLA Trendkill at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, alongside Down, Black Label Society, Corrosion Of Conformity, Crowbar, Eyehategod and Power Trip. Full details here.
Palmeri, for what it’s worth, has openly said he’d been asked to cover Pantera songs as a tribute to Dimebag and Vinnie. Whether anybody in that camp noticed what happened at Louder Than Life is not something anyone has said.If you’re mapping out the rest of the year’s live schedule, our touring guide has the wider picture.
TL:DR
Frankie Palmeri says he was removed from the side of the stage at Louder Than Life in Louisville and stripped of his access pass after attempting to start a conversation with Glenn Danzig.
He was watching Pantera at the time, and notes he’s previously been asked to cover Pantera songs as a tribute to Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul.
His account of the reason: “For what? Being a human being and asking about a mutual friend?”
He posted a furious response the same night aimed at Danzig, his security and the stage manager.
He had performed at the same festival hours earlier, joining The Acacia Strain during their set — which is why his line about being made to feel unworthy of being there lands the way it does.
He misspelled Danzig’s name twice in the post, two different ways. Danzig has not commented.
FAQ
What happened between Glenn Danzig and Frankie Palmeri?
According to Palmeri, he was standing side stage at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville watching Pantera perform when he attempted to start a conversation with Danzig about a mutual acquaintance. He says Danzig’s security then demanded he be removed from the stage and that his access pass be taken from him. Danzig has not publicly responded.
Was Frankie Palmeri performing at Louder Than Life?
Yes. He joined The Acacia Strain on stage during their set at the same festival earlier that day, which is part of why his complaint about being made to feel he wasn’t entitled to be side stage drew attention.
What did Frankie Palmeri say about it?
He posted publicly the same night, writing that he had “made the mistake of attempting to strike a conversation” with Danzig and asking, “For what? Being a human being and asking about a mutual friend?” The remainder of the post was a profanity-heavy criticism of Danzig, his security team and the stage manager.
Has Glenn Danzig responded?
No. He has not commented on the incident, and he has historically not responded to stories of this kind.
Who is Frankie Palmeri?
The vocalist and only constant member of the American deathcore band Emmure, which he has fronted since 2003. The band are among the most commercially successful and most divisive acts in the genre.
A revoked laminate, a misspelled name twice over, and a man who’d played the same stage that afternoon. Was Palmeri out of line, or was he just saying hello? Tell me below. And keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream — follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.
The post Glenn Danzig Had Emmure’s Frankie Palmeri Kicked Out And Stripped Of His Passes At Louder Than Life For Trying To Ask Him A Question appeared first on Loaded Radio.
