The Real Reasons Danny Worsnop Left + Came Back to Asking Alexandria

Asking Alexandria's Danny Worsnop has officially cleared the air on the reasons that prompted his departure from the band in 2015 as well as his subsequent return the following year.

Following his initial exit, Worsnop and guitarist Ben Bruce sparred a bit in the press, but the mud-slinging was ultimately a misunderstanding and hindsight later prevailed. "There were a lot of factors that led to this and played into it," the singer began explaining in a recent appearance in an episode of "Offstage With DWP," a Q&A series from festival promoter Danny Wimmer Presents (video below).

"There was a massive, tremendous amount of conflict within our camp, and there was a lot of pressure on us," Worsnop revealed, "But it was pressure being put on us that didn't need to be there. And there were people telling us, basically, 'If you take a break, if you don't go on tour, if you take time off from touring for whatever is going on in your personal life, your career is done; you're gonna disappear.' So we were being controlled and being pushed, and anything that anybody wanted to do that wasn't Asking Alexandria, that was seen as a threat."

At the time, the singer also expressed interest in working on solo music, which he stressed was different to what Asking Alexandria were doing.

"But it got to a point where there was just so much conflict, it wasn't a positive environment to be in," he continued. "We ended up just really sad — we were sad, and we started resenting each other. And it's only in hindsight that we see we weren't actually mad at each other at all. We were mad at the situation, and we were just buckling under the pressure we were under, and we didn't know how to handle it or where to direct that frustration. And because we were just stuck with each other, that's where it went."

Asking Alexandria then hired singer Denis Stoff as Worsnop's replacement. His tenure was short-lived, having only appeared on one album — 2016's The Black — before his bizarre exit that, in part, stemmed from his unwillingness to reply to any form of contact attempted by the band.

Regarding Worsnop's return, the frontman chalked it up to seeing Bruce again, although he said the two were "tricked into seeing each other." He was in Los Angeles auditioning for a Warner Bros. movie while Bruce was in town filming "pick-up stuff" for the American Satan movie. "We hadn't spoken in, like, a year, and we were both tricked into being at the same house," offered Worsnop.

Describing the meeting in greater detail, the singer elaborated, "We hung out that night, and it was cool. No work was brought up at all. And then, I think the seed was planted and people started kind of just posing the question, like, 'Hey, the guys got rid of Denis. And they've got a tour booked. How would you feel about doing the tour?' And I was, like, 'I don't know.' And then it was, 'How do you feel about making some music?' We started slow, and we walked into it [with the attitude] 'Let's just see how it goes. No pressure. No strings. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. If it works, awesome.' And we got to the end of one tour, and it was, like, 'Okay. Yeah.'"

A little over a year later, Asking Alexandria roared back with their self-titled album, which was their fifth overall and first with Worsnop back at the vocal helm since 2013's From Death to Destiny. Their most recent release, Like a House on Fire, came out earlier in 2020 and the band is already working on a follow-up. Meanwhile, Worsnop's solo career continues to flourish and he's even reactivated We Are Harlot.