Modest Mouse has removed guitarist Simon O'Connor, 42, from its upcoming tour dates, days after a Reddit user accused him of sending her an explicit photo when she was 17 years old.
The remaining members of the indie rock band announced the change on Instagram on Friday, writing bluntly: "Simon O'Connor will not be accompanying us on the upcoming tour." The post, captioned "Upcoming tour update," said Les Savy Fav guitarist Seth Jabour would be "jumping in to play guitar."
The band did not explicitly state whether O'Connor's removal from the tour was connected to the recent allegations made against him on Reddit.
The allegations on Reddit
In a post dated July 26, a teenager said that after she "spam liked whatever it was Simon had put on his story," O'Connor replied with a direct message containing "an erotic image." She said he later gave her "the excuse he had been partying or whatever" before "continuing to message" her.
The teenager also said the guitarist made inappropriate remarks about her "bikini pics" and later deleted the messages, though she said she had taken screenshots of the exchange before he did.
O'Connor's response
On July 27, O'Connor addressed the allegations in a post on the band's subreddit, saying he believed he had been corresponding with a prankster.
"Firstly, I would like to just state that I unequivocally oppose any sexual behavior towards minors, as a human and a parent it disgusts me," he wrote.
He said that throughout his adult life, "there has been a person who has popped up from time to time with the intention of, for lack of a better term, messing with me," adding that this person "creates multiple social media accounts and deletes them" but "always posts similar photos that I often recognize from previous accounts."
O'Connor said that on the night in question, "after a long night," he noticed that "a similar profile had been interacting ('likes' to be specific) with some of my instagram posts and stories." He said he assumed it was the same person who had targeted him before and, "with poor judgement," decided to reach out with "a tasteless meme, a sticker that read 'Simon calls your bluff,' and an attempt to indicate that I recognized the 'barrage of likes' and similar photo content from the previous profiles... Almost a 'gotcha.'"
He said that after a few minutes he "realized that I had made a mistake and this was not the person who I had dealt with before." O'Connor said, "I unsent the messages and immediately ceased communication. I'm genuinely sorry to the person who received those messages. They didn't deserve to be put in that position, and I'm sorry for the stress and attention this has brought them."
O'Connor added that he knew "some people will choose not to believe" him. "I can't change what's happened," he wrote. "All I can do is tell the truth, take responsibility for my mistake, and apologize."
Modest Mouse's representatives had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
About Modest Mouse
O'Connor has been affiliated with Modest Mouse for the past five years, according to Rolling Stone. He performed on the band's latest album, "An Eraser and a Maze," which was released in June.
Modest Mouse, whose biggest hits include "Float On" and "Ocean Breathes Salty," is set to begin its next tour in support of the new record on Tuesday at the Libbey Bowl in Ojai, California. The U.S. leg of the trek is scheduled to wrap up on October 23 with a show at Channel 24 in Sacramento, California.
