System of a Down Singer Had ‘Embarrassing’ Performance

During a recent interview with Revolver magazine, System of A Down frontman Serj Tankian was asked to name his most embarrassing onstage moment.

Serj Tankian reveals his most embarrassing moment

He replied: “On one of my birthdays, we were in Pittsburgh playing a show. In the early days of System, I’d have a drink or a smoke before going onstage — it would loosen me up and I’d be fine. Then I stopped smoking pot for a long period of time. On that birthday, Daron [Malakian, System of A Down guitarist] called me onto his bus and said, ‘Bro, let’s have a bong hit together before the show.’ He regrets that bong hit forever at this point, because I got really stoned. I got so stoned that I heard all of our music as dance music when we got onstage.”

He continued: “I couldn’t decipher the songs from each other, so therefore I didn’t know the lyrics to any of the songs. It was the f**king most embarrassing show ever. They’d be playing a ballad and I’d be screaming. Then they’d play a heavy song and I’d be mumbling — to the point where the audience were asking me to please not forget the lyrics to the next song. And anytime I would go to one of the guys for help with the lyrics, I’d see them mouthing the lyrics but not hear them — and then I’d just start laughing. But I was so stoned that I didn’t give a shit. Afterward, I felt bad for the band and the crowd. The band had never been so disappointed.”

In July, Serj released the official music video for his solo single “Justice Will Shine On”. The track is taken from Tankian’s upcoming solo EP, “Foundations”, which is due on September 27 via Gibson Records.

The 57-year-old Lebanese-born Armenian-American musician and songwriter, who spent the last few months promoting his autobiography “Down With The System”, told Metal Hammer magazine about the EP:

“The reason I’m putting it out is that archival nature of writing a book made me look into songs from different periods of time. So one of the songs is from early SYSTEM days, for example, that I’ve never put out, that I’d never worked with SYSTEM on. A couple of the songs are from my early 2007-2008 solo record period, but didn’t fit the record [‘Elect The Dead’, released in October 2007].

The first single from “Foundations” , a song called “A.F. Day”, was made available on May 17 digitally everywhere via Gibson Records.

“Down With The System” was released on May 14 via Hachette Books.

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