Falling in Reverse frontman Ronnie Radke recently claimed that Spiritbox frontwoman Courtney LaPlante caved to “parasocial fans” when her band withdrew from the Popular Monstour, addressing the fallout and “Softspine” rumors in an interview with Rock Feed.
Spiritbox withdrew from six scheduled dates on Falling In Reverse’s Popular Monstour in March 2023 after backlash tied to Radke. At the time, the band issued a brief statement: “We have withdrawn from the 6 shows we were scheduled to perform on the Popular Monstour.”
During the recent interview, Radke was asked whether there are bands that are afraid to tour with him because they are worried about a small number of their fans complaining.
“Yeah. Spiritbox,” Radke said. “Spiritbox is a prime example. A lot of there’s like a bunch of fans that are like, ‘Softspine is about you.’ It’s like, ‘Actually, b*tch Softspine’s about you and your parasocial fan behavior.’ And there’s no way in hell that it’s about me. I mean, their manager said it wasn’t about, I wanted to know.”
LaPlante has publicly described “Soft Spine” as an expression of intense, internal feelings toward certain people in the music industry she sees as abusing their power, framing the song as a “fantasy” of rising above them without naming anyone directly.
Radke then recalled a positive interaction with Spiritbox at a festival in Milwaukee in 2018, where he helped them by lending them his equipment when they had technical issues.
“Here’s a funny story about Spirit Box 2018 Summerfest whatever the f*ck it’s called Milwaukee,” Radke continued. “Spiritbox is opening for me, we’re headlining. It’s like rainy. There’s not that many people there, because of how cold it is. But there’s a good amount, but it’s not like crazy. Before they go on stage they, Spiritbox, comes into my room, 2018 remember that, they come into my room and they’re like, ‘What’s up? How you doing?’ You know, so sweet. Canadian sweet. They’re genuinely sweet. They’re sweet. And they go on stage, they have all these issues. So what do I do? I leap into action and give them all of my equipment. In the middle of the thing and it helps them. And they got to play two or three songs and they got paid from the promoter because of it. They weren’t, you know, they still got their check or whatever. And it was unfortunate for them.”
He then explained how things changed two years later when they announced a tour together, and fans began complaining online.
“But then flash forward two years later when we do a tour with them, you know, they announce the tour, we announce a tour and they’re on it and you have a bunch of parasocial fans that can’t afford to get into the show anyways talking sh*t because you ever notice when everybody puts any tour out, everybody’s complaining about something about how someone’s a bad person, right?” Radke said. “It’s like the whole new norm. But it’s getting bad, but people are so numb to it now. They’re like, ‘F*ck you.’ But this was before that. This was like in the in the middle of it.”
Radke expressed his frustration with how the cancellation was handled, noting that LaPlante had her manager communicate the decision instead of calling him directly. He also referenced his well-documented legal past, which includes a 2006 case tied to a deadly fight near a Las Vegas high school in which he pleaded guilty to battery with substantial bodily harm and carrying brass knuckles, as well as a 2012 domestic violence arrest.
“This is why I lost respect and got mad is because she instead of calling me direct, she had her manager that they can’t do the tour,” Radke explained. “And what that did was it separated the fans but she knew the whole time about my criminal history. She knew everything about me. I’ve been the same person. She’s known all about me. It’s not like she was like, ‘Oh, really? That happened? Oh, I can’t tour the tour.'”
He concluded by sharing his thoughts on why Spiritbox ultimately dropped off the tour and how it relates to their song “Softspine.”
“The only reason she didn’t do the tour is because 20 of her parasocial weirdo fans coffee barista weirdos with no septum piercings was mad at her,” Radke said. “And from that point on, I felt like control the her whole narrative. And I think that’s really f*cking whack. And I think that’s the reason why she wrote Softspine. So you can’t write Softspine about somebody like me when your spine is soft for dropping off a tour because 20 of your fans are mad at you.”
This comment sheds light on the behind-the-scenes tension surrounding Spiritbox’s withdrawal from the tour. Neither Courtney LaPlante nor Spiritbox has publicly responded to Radke’s latest comments.
