Metal Drama: Dino Cazares Assaulted By Tommy Vext At L.A. Mayhem Fest Show

You know whenever a person get’s fired from a band there is always going to be some kind of drama afterwards. Tommy Vext being fired from Divine Heresy is no exception. I honestly don’t know who’s side I would take here if I had to. In the post published by Headbangers Blog, both give pretty good accounts of what happened at the L.A. stop of Mayhem Fest. Although I’m not 100% sure that Tommy Cummings story is legit. Dino Cazares doesn’t seem like a violent person to me, while Tommy is a big intimidating looking dude. Younger and a lot more energy than 41 year old Dino. And I find it hard to believe that they just happened to be in the same place at the same time. Here are a few snippets from Headbangers Blog. You can go to myspace and read about it at Dino’s wife’s myspace blog if you like. You read the full story at the link at the bottom.

Statement by Dino Cazares:
Obviously, everybody knows that Tommy assaulted me in Poughkeepsie, New York at a show. We’ve known Tommy for a couple years now and he does have a very violent history and I definitely feared he was going to react that way again. So whenever I do public appearances he could possibly be at, I hire security. Well, in San Bernardino everybody was having a great time and we didn’t see him at all, so I assumed he wasn’t there. So, 20 minutes before the incident happened I told security there wasn’t going to be any problem. It was between 11:30 and midnight and Slipknot were on their last couple songs. I said, “Me and my wife are gonna go home. You guys can go home and we’ll walk ourselves out.”

Who steps right behind us? Tommy Vext.

I had about a second to react and all I could think was, “Oh, my f—ing god, I’m done.” The guy’s, like, six-foot-three, weights 250 pounds of muscle, is well known for working out constantly. And he hit me. No words were said, nothing. He hit me, and the one thing I could do was cover myself up to protect myself. I didn’t go down or nothin’, I just put my hands up and he kept swinging at me. And he grabbed my hair and pulled me down. He was giving me uppercuts and I was trying to get away but I couldn’t.

I don’t know why he’s so pissed off at me, but I have gotten a lot more threats since the Tommy video came out on [MetalInjection.net]. That’s when I first hired security. Look, I’m 41 years old. I’m fucking fat. I can’t fight. And he’s 25 years old, he’s in great shape. The guy works out. I don’t want to get killed. I don’t want to get beat up. So I try to protect myself. Ever since the whole Dimebag Darrell thing, it’s really scary because you don’t know what people are gonna do. And people could react to what they read on the Internet or to somebody else’s story. They can react violently. And I know that’s how Tommy reacts, and that’s why I try to protect myself.

Dino and I were both crossing the VIP section at the same time. We hadn’t seen each other since the incident in Poughkeepsie when I left the band. We bumped into each other. We were face to face. A few words were said. It was like:
Cazares: “Get the f— out of my way.”
Cummings: “No, you get the f— out of my way.”
Cazares: “You’re a f—ing p—y.”

Then pushing ensued and a couple punches were thrown. I got hit in the back of the head and then we both rolled down to the ground. Some tables and chairs got pushed down. And then Live Nation security came in and a couple bruises and scrapes were the result of everyone being pulled off.

At this point, this is just shameful and embarrassing and it’s sad that two grown men had to lower themselves to this level. I just want to be through with Dino. I don’t ever want to have anything to do with him again. He’s called and threatened the Snot shows to [Snot guitarist] Mikey Doling and other members of my new band. And, basically, he told me he was going to make sure I would never work in this town again a long time ago and he’s making good on his attempt to preclude my existence. It’s just really a shame. They’re trying to make me out to look like a monster and they want me to be hurt. I know he does. He told me so, and it’s sad.

Dino was thrown out of Fear Factory. He’s been thrown out of every band he’s done. Then he started a new band with a bunch of young kids and he still can’t keep the people in his band. And just so you know, I quit Divine Heresy, I wasn’t fired. Dino is the violent one. He’s assaulted [Divine Heresy drummer] Tim Yeung. The first night I met Tim, Dino got drunk at the Rainbow and beat him up outside of his car on the way back to his house. I thought the band was going to be broken up.

Read the entire report at Headbangers Blog…