Bullet for My Valentine’s Matt Tuck: ‘It Was Just Impossible’ for Former Bassist To Stay In Band

Bullet for My Valentine's album Venom will be released Aug. 21, and will be their first effort with new bassist Jamie Mathias. He takes over for Jay James, whose exit from the band was announced earlier this year. In a new interview with Revolver, frontman Matt Tuck talks more about the lineup change.

“Parting ways with Jay was the most difficult thing we’ve ever had to do,” Tuck says, “and not just in the band or in our careers, but in our lives, personally. It was awful. Losing a long-term member — and our best friend, which was much more important to us — was a very powerful moment that we’d never been through before, and it was a decision that we deliberated over for, like, three months; we kept fighting and fighting to find valid reasons for him to stay, but eventually it was just impossible."

Tuck continues, “I’m not going to go into detail, but it was in Jay’s best interest personally, more than ours, that he was not in the band. People can read into that what they want, which they will anyway; but it was just stuff going on that was jeopardizing the band’s career, and it had to stop. And, unfortunately, it came to the point where enough was enough, and we just had to make that call.”

As to how Mathias came to join the band, Tuck says he was working at a car dealership in Wales when he auditioned. “His audition tape was flawless, so we thought, ‘Okay, this guy’s really good!’” Tuck reveals. “But then he came in and just completely smashed it. He wasn’t fazed by anything — we were actually filming it for a documentary, so there were camera people there — and he was just awesome."

“We invited him back two weeks later for a second audition, and it was the same thing; it was just like he’d always been there," adds Tuck. "And he’s from Wales, just 20 minutes down the road from where we’re all from, so we’re on the same wavelength on every single level — our sense of humor, our accents, our upbringing. He slides straight in, and he can just be himself. It’s very cool, and it seems like it was all meant to be!”

Bullet for My Valentine will be touring in support of the new record as part of the 2015 Summer’s Last Stand Tour with Slipknot, Lamb of God and Motionless in White that kicks off on Friday (July 24) in West Palm Beach, Fla.