Asking Alexandria’s Ben Bruce Says He Wrote Spiteful Lyrics Directed at Danny Worsnop

After the exit of frontman Danny Worsnop earlier this year, Asking Alexandria guitarist Ben Bruce was not happy. In a new interview with Metal Hammer that you can watch above, he talks about his feelings that were reflected in the initial lyrics for the band's upcoming album.

"I've written a lot of the lyrics for the record, and a lot of them, to begin with, were about Danny. I mean, I was f--king pissed off, man. The guy was my best friend, and he just kind of turned his back on me and f--king bailed. And I was angry — I was really angry — and I was upset, so a lot of the lyrics were written towards Danny and a lot of them were quite spiteful and lot of them were quite upsetting."

Bruce continues, "And I sat down one day, and Denis (Shaforostov, the new vocalist) actually sat down and was like, 'You don't want this album to be about Danny. Danny is in the past now. You need to move on. You need to look forward to your future.' And I was, like, 'You're right. You're right.' And I sat down and I re-wrote most of the record, lyrically anyway, with Denis."

"It was hard to, sort of, switch off, 'cause I was still angry and stuff," Bruce reveals. "Every now and again, there might be something about Danny, obviously, because, being a musician and an artist, I write about what's fueling me and how I'm feeling at the time. But a lot of how I'm feeling is excitement, and I am happy, and I am extremely grateful to still be going, so I just had to concentrate more on that for writing the new record than use my energy, in hindsight, in a negative way, which it completely would have been had Denis not called me out and said, 'Stop being a p--sy,' which is cool."

Worsnop is now a member of We Are Harlot, and recently posted a positive message about Asking Alexandria's new single "I Won't Give In" that said, “Very happy to hear s–t’s still going strong.”

You can see Asking Alexandria this summer on the Vans Warped Tour.