The Darkness lead singer Justin Hawkins spoke to Louder Sound and talked about the band’s breakup. Also, Hawkins unveiled how they got rid of the problems between each other.
In 2006, Hawkins was struggling with serious alcohol and drug addiction problems, so he was checked into a rehabilitation clinic. After that, it’s rumored that the frontman would leave the band and was going to be replaced by Richie Edwards who was The Darkness’ bassist back then.
Dan Hawkins, Richie Edwards, and Ed Graham released a statement to apologize to their fans for learning about the departure from the newspaper. They emphasized that they didn’t think Hawkins would actually leave the band. So, the remaining members decided not to continue without him.
Almost five years after the breakup, the original members reunited but they went through several line-up changes. During his interview, Justin Hawkins stated that ego could lead to serious issues even though musicians need it to pursue their careers. However, they have learned from past experiences and have a new approach now.
Hawkins stated in his interview that:
“If you don’t have an ego, you’re not doing it right but that can lead to problems, as we found out in the past. We saw it all explode once before, and the situations that could potentially lead to that still happen, but we’ve learned to avoid it exploding again. It just takes a little bit of understanding of each other, and of yourself as well.
Communication is way better in The Darkness this time around. There’s less grudge-holding, less stewing on things, less sulking. We don’t pretend everything’s okay then have a massive fall-out anymore. Maybe it’s age, but I think it’s really a case of once bitten, twice shy.”
The Darkness frontman highlighted that they give importance to understanding each other through communication. They decided to talk about their problems instead of pretending that everything is okay especially after what they went through which is a situation defined as ‘a case of once bitten, twice shy’ by Hawkins.
