Danny Worsnop Breaks Silence on Asking Alexandria’s Warped Tour Set: “I Don’t Lose Sleep Over It”

Danny Worsnop has opened up about tech issues, fan backlash and his thoughts on Asking Alexandria’s Warped Tour livestream performance.

Asking Alexandria frontman Danny Worsnop has addressed the backlash surrounding the band’s performance at the Vans Warped Tour kickoff in DC, finally offering his take on what went wrong – and what didn’t.

The band’s performance copped flack for what fans said was an unenthusiastic performance from Worsnop, with bassist Sam Bettley issuing a brief apology on Instagram after the set. Worsnop was notably silent on the matter, with some accusing him of deleting negative comments on his own social media pages in the aftermath.

Speaking on the Late For Load In Podcast, Worsnop said the band was hit by a string of technical problems and personnel shake-ups that impacted the show (transcribed by ThePRP). “I feel bad about it, but not for the reason they want me to be. I feel bad because people were given a very, very, very poor representation of the show, and a very inaccurate one, and that it was completely out of our control,” he explained. “In reality, it was a really good show.”

Worsnop says both of Asking Alexandria’s front-of-house and monitor sound staff quit just before the tour, taking key equipment (that was theirs) with them. On stage, he says all the band could hear was a metronome, kick drum and lead vocals – no guitars, bass or anything else. The audience heard a similarly incomplete mix, leading to confusion and criticism, especially around the use of backing tracks.

“There are backing vocals… not lip-syncing the vocal backing tracks,” he said, noting that Ben Bruce used to cover those parts before his retirement from Asking Alexandria. “I only have one mouth. There are harmonies. There are there are lines that overlap the stuff in the backing tracks. I don’t love them, but it’s a necessary evil, and they were way too loud,” Worsnop said. “So I understand people hearing it and going like, ‘well, this is bullshit. It’s all vocal backing tracks.’ Not knowing how that stuff works out, [I would] feel the exact same way.”

“Was it the best show in my life? No. The jumping round and running round — I’m not the most athletic person in the world — It tired me out quick, and then doing some live screams, which fucks my throat up. Yeah, that didn’t help either, and then not being able to hear anything, it was a recipe for disaster, and we did the best we could.”

Asking Alexandria’s performance also went live to streaming platforms, something Worsnop says he didn’t know was happening until just before they went on.

As for the band’s musical direction, Worsnop didn’t shy away from where Asking Alexandria stands today: “I think a lot of it is people who… want to recapture that part of their life back through that music. But the reality is, I’m not that person, and I’m never going to be.”

He added that he was reluctant to comment initially, but chose to speak now because it started bleeding into his other businesses. “Time will tell if this is a good idea or not.”

“I think people…expected us to go in and play a bunch of old [Asking Alexandria] songs and stuff, but it’s not a reality of something that I can reproduce and I’m capable [of.] I’m 34 now, I’m not 17,” he said. “I’ve suffered multiple like, big damages to my voice. And there was a period in time where I tried to do that stuff again, and it was just very damaging. And I’m not willing to risk my voice like that.”

Despite the online noise, Worsnop isn’t rattled. “I don’t lose sleep over it,” he said. “I feel bad they had that experience… but it just felt a lot like the entire thing was blown up really big.”