Ex-Offspring drummer Pete Parada recently spoke on the Try That In a Small Town Podcast about his departure from the band after refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
Parada explained that he has been living with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a condition that causes temporary paralysis, making him hesitant to get vaccinated. He shared a phone call he had with The Offspring’s manager, describing it as abusive and threatening. “He was new with the band he’d only been with them since Covid hit,” he said of the manager. “So I didn’t have a lot of history with this guy. He chose to come at me like a flamethrower. I’ve gotten crappy phone calls before, this was the most abusive and threatening call I’ve ever had in my entire career.”
He continued, “He just basically laid it out. I tried to say, ‘Oh, you know, I’ve got a medical assumption.’ ‘I don’t care about your medical assumption.’ Just yelling, cutting me off. It wasn’t a conversation, trying to tell me that for the greater good, everyone’s got to do this. I’m just like, ‘That’s not a good enough reason for me, you’re not making an argument, you’re just making threats and yelling at me.’ He made it clear that I was either to get vaccinated or I’d be replaced.”
Parada then reached out to the band members to explain the situation. “The phone call was so shocking. So I wrote to the two guys in the band that were my boss. I laid out the phone call and how I didn’t appreciate it and [said], ‘Here’s all the reasons why I don’t want to do this and why I’m not able to do this.’ It didn’t matter. I tried to talk to them about him and I said, ‘You might fire me over this but you should know, this guy is not representing you well and if he’s treating me like this, he’s treating your crew even worse.'”
But the drummer soon found out that he had been replaced after his flight to rehearsal was canceled. “I was told, ‘That’s not the concern right now, he’s not the concern, your refusal to do this is the concern.’ So things deteriorated pretty rapidly after that and less than a week later I found all communication stopped. I had a flight in a hotel and stuff on hold to go to rehearsal, and a week later, I checked my Southwest app and that’s how I found out I was replaced because my flight was canceled,” he added.
He was fired from the band in August 2021 due to his decision not to get vaccinated, as the band considered him unsafe to be around in the studio and on tour.
In his statement about his departure, Parada acknowledged that the band made the decision for health and safety reasons but emphasized that his medical condition made it impossible for him to comply with the vaccine requirement. He also wished the band well and held no hard feelings.
“Given my personal medical history and the side-effect profile of these jabs, my doctor has advised me not to get a shot at this time. I caught the virus over a year ago, it was mild for me – so I am confident I’d be able to handle it again, but I’m not so certain I’d survive another post-vaccination round of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, which dates back to my childhood and has evolved to be progressively worse over my lifetime. Unfortunately for me, (and my family – who is hoping to keep me around a bit longer) the risks far outweigh the benefits.”
“Since I am unable to comply with what is increasingly becoming an industry mandate – it has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio, and on tour. I mention this because you won’t be seeing me at these upcoming shows,” the rocker added.
Josh Freese briefly replaced Parada, but later, Brandon Pertzborn became the band’s new drummer after Freese’s commitments with the Foo Fighters.
