{"id":262344,"date":"2026-01-24T22:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/262344\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:49:12","slug":"ex-flaming-lips-musician-steven-drozd-explains-split-from-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/262344\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Flaming Lips Musician Steven Drozd Explains Split From Band"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA little over a month ago, former Flaming Lips<\/a> multi-instrumentalist commented that he was \u201cmoving on\u201d<\/a> now that his bandmates were \u201cdone with [him].\u201d He broke his silence, somewhat, on the matter on Thursday in an interview with Tulsa\u2019s local Fox station<\/a>. Toward the end of 2024, a \u201cpersonal crisis,\u201d which he did not detail, prompted his exit from touring life.<\/p>\n

\n\tDrozd told Fox, though, that he hoped to remain a band member even though he didn\u2019t go on the road. His hope was that he would continue to work with the group in the studio. \u201cWayne [Coyne] and I disagreed on what I should do moving forward, so we just kind of agreed that I would step back,\u201d he said. \u201cThen stepping back turned into not coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDrozd cited the Beach Boys as an example of a band that kept a member who didn\u2019t tour. Brian Wilson had co-founded that band in 1961 but ceased touring between 1964 and 1976, returning only intermittently in the early Eighties and Nineties before solidifying his exit in 1996. \u201cBut we\u2019re not the Beach Boys,\u201d Drozd eventually conceded. \u201cThat just seemed like an odd fit. After 33 years, moving on felt kind of right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA rep for the Flaming Lips<\/a> and Wayne Coyne declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tDrozd first addressed his exit on Threads in December, responding to a fan who asked if he was \u201cofficially done\u201d with the Lips. At that point, he\u2019d not performed live with the group since Oct. 12, 2024. In January 2025, the band had replaced Drozd live with A.J. Slaughter.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter deleting the comment, Drozd joked about the gaffe of speaking publicly. \u201cWhat do you call it when a Gen Xer makes a Boomer mistake?\u201d he wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s what I did yesterday here on threads lol.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDrozd had joined the Lips in 1991, playing every standard rock-band instrument at some point or another during his decades with the band. As a group member, he co-wrote the group\u2019s mainstream breakthrough, \u201cShe Don\u2019t Use Jelly,\u201d as well as celebrated albums like The Soft Bulletin (1999) and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002). The group, whose last album, American Head, came out in 2020 have yet to record an album without him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A little over a month ago, former Flaming Lips multi-instrumentalist commented that he was \u201cmoving on\u201d now that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,129722,61,60,278,91801],"class_list":["post-262344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-flaming-lips","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-the-flaming-lips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}