Soulfly Says Marc Rizzo Was Dismissed for “Personal” Reasons While Ex-Guitarist Claims Band Offered No Financial Support for Bandmembers or Crew During Pandemic

August has already proven to be very eventful for the metal band Soulfly. On August 8th, the band’s founder Max Cavalera announced that longtime guitarist Marc Rizzo is no longer part of the band. According to PRP, the frontman shared the news via his streaming series Max Trax. He also explained that Rizzo would not be part of their upcoming tour, which is set to start in Albuquerque, NM, on August 20th.

“Right now, for the tribe, I wanna address something that is going on with Soulfly. Of course, it’s about Marc Rizzo. He did not leave the band,” the singer says. “We decided to part ways with him due to personal reasons. I wish Marc the best on his career. I wanna thank Marc for the 18 years with Soulfly.”

Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares is going to replace Rizzo during the band’s time on stage.

Fast forward to today, when Rizzo himself gave a few statements about the time that led up to the split. The guitarist explained that during the pandemic in 2020, he allegedly had no contact with his bandmates. He also claimed that the band didn’t do anything that would help the band members financially throughout the pandemic when they couldn’t perform live.

In his interview with Rock Talks, the guitarist said: “Yes, there was years that were good financially, but this year, you know, again, there was no loans, there was no ‘hey let’s do a live video to make money for the band members’ or maybe let’s do a merch… a special merch deal—a lot of my friends are doing special merchandise deals. I mean, if you look on online, Soulfly didn’t do anything for the band members or the crew.”

He further goes on and explains that he had to get a day job, working on houses, to keep himself afloat during the pandemic. According to PRP, Rizzo also claimed that while being with the band for 18 years, he had not enough time with his family.

“So basically like six months into COVID, it was just like, I don’t even want to do this anymore, man,” Rizzo says. “I’d rather just concentrate on my solo project and spend time with my family where I’m happy, where I get credit for everything I do. You know I put 18 years in that’s a long, long time to be in the band.”

Rizzo started a new project with Tony Campos, Hail The Horns.