Hey all,

Let me just drop some truth real quick...

I was a bit hurt by something I read about me being a "hungover, flaky motherfucker" and the word ill in quotation marks, because of some issues at SXSW this year. I just want to publicly state the following...

Yes, I was late for the Deer Tick set at Todd P's party at Ms. Bea's because I was sick and my throat hurt like crazy. (We did 8 shows in 4 days, 4 of them in one day, and I am no trained singer). I planned on taking the afternoon off cause my pipes were killin' me. But I suppose when you're in certain situations, you end up sacrificing a bit of independence, and even though you feel like shit it's still "in your best interest" to play. Text messages I got that guaranteed my life was going to be a living hell if I didn't play didn't feel to good, either. But all that aside, I'm offended that it was announced at that show that I was a "hungover, flaky motherfucker". I still showed up and put on the best show I could.

Homeslice Pizza was a whole 'nother story though. See, within the Deer Tick camp, lots of people were confused about what time we had to start. I woke up early that morning knowing that I could not possibly sing that day. It hurt to swallow water. Anyways, from my shitty motel room, I called some people who I figured would take care of the matter and get the word out early that we wouldn't be performing. But because of this confusion about our set time, our people contacted their people a half hour after we were supposed to play, because our people thought we were supposed to play in 3 hours. So, yeah, shitty situation, and I don't feel awesome about it at all. I'm sorry for anyone that went out to Homeslice hoping to see us that afternoon, I really am.

I just don't want anyone thinking that any of us are romantically self destructive or anything stupid like that. When we cancel a gig its because our van broke down, or someone is sick (or in my case, has tonsils the size of golf balls), or something really serious has happened.

We always play our asses off, we tour relentlessly, and we're people too. We love playing shows for all of you. And for those of you that haven't seen us live, we can't wait to play for you.

Bottom line is this: We hope that anybody who might be upset with us can understand where we're coming from, and understand the fact that we never intend to upset anybody (Except racists, sexists, homophobes, etc.)

With love,
-John J. McCauley III & Deer Tick.