Ex-Offspring drummer Pete Parada recently sat down for an interview with the podcast “Try That In a Small Town,” during which he recalled his 2021 exit from the band after he refused to get vaccinated.
Parada previously revealed he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome as a child and says that his doctor advised against getting the shot because of his condition, which he claims causes him problems like temporary paralysis.
Recalling a phone call he had with The Offspring’s manager about how his time with the band came to an end, Parada said:
“He was new with the band. He’d only been with them since Covid hit. 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 just basically laid it out. I tried to say, ‘Oh, you know, I’ve got a medical exemption.’ ‘I don’t care about your medical exemption.’ 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.”
“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.’”
“…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 and 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.”
In August 2021, when The Offspring announced his departure after being with the band for nearly 15 years, Parada posted a statement to Instagram:
“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.”
