Anton Newcombe doesn’t do quiet, but after The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Australian tour imploded in November 2023 following an onstage brawl, the notoriously outspoken frontman went uncharacteristically silent.
Now, for the first time, he’s opened up about the chaos that ended the tour, a dramatic onstage clash with guitarist Ryan Van Kriedt, and the health scare that almost cost him everything.
The Fight That Stopped the Music
During a show at The Forum in Melbourne, Newcombe’s frustration boiled over as tensions within the band—and with the audience—reached breaking point. Fan-filmed footage captured the moment Newcombe ordered Van Kriedt off the stage, cutting his mic and demanding, “Get to f***. We actually don’t need you. Go.” Van Kriedt shot back with a warning: “You better think about this one, man. Because this is forever.”
Moments later, the argument turned physical. Newcombe struck Van Kriedt with his guitar, and security stepped in to end the gig, drawing boos from the stunned crowd. The rest of the Australian tour was cancelled, and the band flew home without further comment.
Reflecting on the incident nearly a year later, Newcombe pulled no punches: “I’ll tell you the truth, but I don’t want to encourage this. Somebody threw a glass at me. I’m pretty good at dodging that stuff, but then the other guy in the group at the time—he’s no longer in the group—threw another bottle or glass back into the audience.”
His frustration grew as security and management failed to intervene. “I was trying to get security, the promoters, tour managers, anybody just to get this guy off the stage, and nobody paid attention,” he explained.
The confrontation wasn’t Newcombe’s first brush with chaos onstage, but it hit differently. “Ultimately, what happens is the buck stops with me. Some people think, ‘None of this stuff would happen if you just quit playing music.’ I get blamed for everything.”
Health Scares and Hard Choices
Adding to the drama, Newcombe revealed he’d been recovering from major heart surgery in the months after the incident. Earlier this year, he shared a photo of a long scar, hinting at the life-threatening event. Now, he’s opened up about the toll it’s taken.
“I had some kind of heart event and had to have an operation,” he said. “When you do open-heart surgery, that’s pretty much it for the year for you. It takes a long time to bounce back, if you do.” For a man who built a career on reckless abandon, confronting mortality was a wake-up call. “I used to think I was such a young 56… but if you’re 50 and they tell you you could live 20 more years, all of a sudden that’s not long left at all.”
The health scare forced Newcombe to reconsider how he approaches touring. “We’re going to take more days off. For instance, when we’ve toured the whole world in the past it usually took us two years and we were playing three hours a night. That’s not gonna happen anymore.”
Still, he remains committed to giving it all onstage. “We’re still really playing when we’re on stage. That’s not gonna change.”
Touring, Tension, and the Road Ahead
Looking back on the volatile Australian tour, Newcombe acknowledged the challenges of life on the road. “That run was quite difficult because we did like 50 shows in a row. In the past, we’ve done like 160 shows nonstop… but most people just [can’t] do it like that.”
Despite the setbacks, he’s proud of the band’s relentless work ethic. Comparing their grind to Oasis’s upcoming reunion tour, he said, “Yes, they’re playing really big places, but we play a billion more smaller shows. It’s totally different worlds. Most people just [can’t] do it like that.”
Van Kriedt, however, is no longer part of Newcombe’s “revolving cast” of bandmates. “You can’t be [going around] like Pete Doherty, you can’t be throwing stuff into the audience,” Newcombe said, drawing a line in the sand.
On Oasis, Fans, and Moving Forward
When asked about Oasis’s much-hyped reunion, Newcombe offered a typically cutting perspective. “I think it’s good for business. Even if they’re just doing it for money, it’s good that the members and their respective management camps could talk about it before they were too old. Do it while it still means something.”
Still, he was quick to poke fun at the frenzy surrounding the tour. “All of a sudden, they’ve got all these young 19-year-olds like, ‘I gotta be there!’ It was like all these people who couldn’t care less about lions, tigers and elephants were now sitting on their couch going, ‘Oh my god, tomorrow night the circus will be in town.’”
A New Chapter
With a European tour announced for early 2025, Newcombe is ready to move forward—but on his own terms. His brush with mortality has shifted his priorities, but his fire for music remains undimmed. Whether it’s his health, his band, or the ever-looming chaos of the road, Anton Newcombe is still navigating the same unpredictable storm he always has.
And, as ever, he’s doing it his way.
MORE IN Music
