Brian Wheat is not going to be friends with former Tesla bandmate Tommy Skeoch
Brian Wheat is not going to be friends with former Tesla bandmate Tommy Skeoch
Tesla bassist Brian Wheat was interviewed by Chuck Shute for The Chuck Shute Podcast. Wheat was promoting his autobiography Son of A Milkman: My Crazy Life with Tesla, which was co-written with Chris Epting and was released via Post Hill Press on December 15, 2020.
Tesla released arguably their best known albums Mechanical Resonance (1986), The Great Radio Controversy (1989) and Psychotic Supper (1991) with guitarist Tommy Skeoch in the line-up. Skeoch battled substance abuse issues and was eventually permanently replaced in the band by Dave Rude in 2006.
Shute asked Wheat when did Skeoch cross the line to the point where he couldn’t make up with him to which the bassist replied (as provided by The Chuck Shute Podcast with slight edits):
“…. Me? I just man that you know that… I really rather not rap about that, man. But yeah, we’re not gonna be friends. I mean, he’s not gonna call me and say, “Hey, how you doing?” And I’m not gonna call him and say, “Hey, how you doing?” The one thing we had in common was Tesla. And he’s not been in Tesla for 16 years now. So I mean, if I saw him on the street, I’d probably say hello, and ask him how he was. And who knows how he would react? He might tell me to go fuck myself. And then, who knows what would happen? I’d probably just go fuck myself. Or maybe I’d slap him. I don’t know. I mean, he was in the band, and he got several chances to stay in the band. And he chose not to, and then he went around saying some not nice things about me. So why he singled me out, I don’t know. But he chose to, he didn’t say bad things about other people in the band. He just wanted to use me as this target, probably because I was the one that was most vocal and honest about his shenanigans, you know? So, being that as it may, I don’t have a desire to call him up and say…”
Wheat added: “[If he called] me and said, ‘Hey, man, you know, I’d like to clear the air and just’…. I would accept it. Okay, you know, and I’m not saying he has to call me. I’m not gonna call him. Cuz you know, what, I know of him he’d probably tell me to to fuck off. So I’m not gonna call him. But it’s not like I had this deep desire to become friends with him, like, something missing in my life. But is it weird? Is it weird knowing… Look I don’t wish him any ill will. I don’t have the voodoo doll of Tommy and poking with the pen. I wish him all the best. I mean, I heard one of his songs the other day from his new band. I thought it was really good. I was like, great. Fantastic. That’s the Tommy Skeoch I know. That’s the kind of work I’m used to doing. After saying that he calls Tesla… he says that music we do now is lounge music. So every time I start to feel something for him, he opens his mouth and says something negative about the band or us and then I just figured, well, then again, he hasn’t grown up. I don’t know, okay, honestly, I don’t.. The only time I ever really talk or think about him is when people like you bring it up. Okay.”
You can listen to the interview with Brian Wheat on the The Chuck Shute Podcast below: