Ronnie Radke opened up about his most talked-about controversies and Twitter persona in a chat with Rock Feed last May. The Falling In Reverse vocalist explained his reasons for posting the way he does on social media:
“I might act real, a fool on Twitter and stuff ‘cuz it’s fun. People are so confused. They think that they upset me, but they don’t realize that it’s all fun. When I beef with people, you’re just helping me. You’re helping me, dude! And even if you’re a no-name band, you’re still helping me because all people were doing was talking crap.”
He noted:
“Here’s a good example of why this works. People are gonna watch this and completely forget that I said this and still engage with me on Twitter and still get mad.”
Being The ‘Bad Guy’ Is His Job, Radke Says
Radke also gave an example of his approach by referencing Elon Musk’s Cybertruck:
“Elon Musk put out the Cybertruck before the Cybertruck came out. Cybertruck kinda sucks now, I guess. But before it came out, it was exciting, right? So, Elon said, he implied that when he threw the ball at the window saying it was bulletproof and it broke, he did that on purpose because all the people that hate him, all they did was talk about it, and it raised his stock. His stock shot up, brother.”
He added:
“You know what I mean? It’s just you gotta play into it. It’s like a WWE Heel. I’m a heel, dude. I’m the bad guy. I’m NWO, brother…”
The singer stressed that his role as ‘the villain’ was part of his job to entertain the audience:
“I’m a lead singer, dude. You guys want all your lead singers to be normal people like you so you can spend all your money to go see someone that looks just like you and acts just like you. Not the other way around… You’re paying money to go see somebody that might throw a mic stand in the crowd, bro. You’re not paying to go see somebody to chill.”
Reactions To His Social Media Presence Affects His Career
On the other hand, social media reactions affected Ronnie Radke’s real-life relationships with other artists and bands in the past. Spiritbox stepped down from Falling In Reverse’s 2023 headlining tour because of backlash over their clashing values.
The singer commented on the band and their decision:
“They are nice people, but I don’t have any respect for them because they know me. They know what person I am to a degree. They don’t know me personally, but they know all the stuff they’ve seen online before they agreed to the tour. They know about my Twitter. They know about everything. Their manager knows about everything, and they agreed to the tour, and then they backed out because a couple of fans got mad at them, fans that probably couldn’t even afford to go and were mad. They backed out with no word. It just really upset me. I have no respect for that. They’re bowing to the mob, and I think that that’s messed up.”
He continued:
“It’s like, what are you doing? I can’t respect that. I’m sorry. I hate to offend anybody else that thinks that it’s okay, but you are mistaken if you think they backed out because they realized I was a bad person. No, they know everything. They agreed months in advance. They backed out because they felt the heat and they didn’t like how they… They’re not built for the heat. That’s what comes down. They’re not built for it. You know what I mean?”
You can watch Radke’s full interview in the video below.