Modest Mouse guitarist Simon O’Connor will no longer be joining the indie rock band on their upcoming tour after he was accused of sending inappropriate messages to an underage fan.
The band announced the decision in an Instagram post Friday, stating: “Simon O’Connor will not be accompanying us on the upcoming tour.”
Instead, guitarist Seth Jabour from Les Savy Fav will replace the guitarist on their tour, which kicks off Tuesday.
The Independent has reached out to Modest Mouse for further comment.
It’s not immediately clear if the decision was caused by the recent controversy surrounding O’Connor — who joined the band in 2021 — after a Reddit post accused him of sending inappropriate memes and messages to a teenager on Instagram.
In a post shared July 26 on a discussion thread dedicated to Modest Mouse, a Reddit user who said she was 17 shared screenshots from an interaction with O’Connor, who is in his 40s, that allegedly happened when she was 16.
“Late at night I checked stories and I spam liked whatever it was Simon had put on his story,” she wrote. “He came into my DMs and sent me an erotic image (to say the least) while giving me the excuse he had been partying or whatever, continuing to message me. My age is the first thing in my bio. I reached out to several people within the indie music fandom and nobody with a platform cared. I think more people should know about this. I’m hesitant to put screenshots here but I do have them!”
O’Connor shared a statement addressing the accusation on Reddit the next day and claimed that he had mistaken the Instagram user for someone else.
“Hey, Simon here. I would just like to address some of the conversation on this thread that has come to my attention. 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 began.
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“Throughout my 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,” he said. “This person creates multiple social media accounts and deletes them… but always posts similar photos that I often recognize from previous accounts. After a long night, I picked my phone up to discover that a similar profile had been interacting (‘likes’ to be specific) with some of my instagram posts and stories.”
He continued: “I assumed that this was the same person I had dealt with before and, with poor judgement, I 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.”’After a few minutes, I realized that I had made a mistake and this was not the person who I had dealt with before. I unsent the messages and immediately ceased communication.”
O’Connor then apologized, saying, “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.
“I know some people will choose not to believe me, and I understand that. I can’t change what’s happened. All I can do is tell the truth, take responsibility for my mistake, and apologize,” he concluded.
Modest Mouse’s upcoming tour starts August 4 in Ojai, California, and concludes October 23 in Sacramento, California, according to the band’s website.