Fake fans? Doctored videos? Former Missouri man accused of pulling off rock band scam
Music websites are calling it “one of the most bizarre stories” of the year: The leader of a Los Angeles-based rock band is said to have created fake fans for the band on Facebook and used that make-believe fan base to land a very real European tour.
But then the band got to Europe - and no one showed up to the shows. Band members who say they didn’t know about the alleged dupe quit the group in Ireland last week.
Entertainment website The A.V. Club described the band named Threatin as a group “that nobody had ever heard of despite the fact that it had tens of thousands of fans on Facebook.”
According to reporting by the Metal Sucks music website, the man at the center of the alleged scam, Jared Threatin, was formerly known as Jared Eames, originally from Moberly, Missouri.
On Wednesday, Threatin added a twist to the fast-developing story by tweeting that the fake-out was intentional, suggesting it was some type of mega mind game.
“What is Fake News?” he tweeted from the Twitter account of the band. “I turned an empty room into an international headline. If you are reading this, you are part of the illusion.”
He added a string of hashtags, including #Marketing, #Psychology, #Social Media, #MusicIndustry and #BreakingTheWorld, the name of the band’s European tour.
Louder Sound music website referred to this as “one of the most bizarre music stories of the year.”
Here’s what Threatin is accused of doing, in a nutshell crafted by the Metal Sucks website.
“The internet has been riveted since last Friday by the story of ‘Jered Threatin,’ a Los Angeles-based musician who employed a complex scheme involving several completely made-up companies — including a record label, booking agency, press outlet and web design firm — doctored live videos, and purchased social media likes and views to book a European tour for which no one showed up,” wrote Metal Sucks. “This wasn’t quite how Jered intended to enrapture hundreds of thousands of people ... as the story has unfolded over the last several days, a number of storylines have developed, including a self-made, since deleted Wikipedia page ...”
People aren’t buying Threatin’s tweeted explanation. Music fans have been tweeting about and mocking the band for days. Threatin has not spoken publicly, other than his tweet.
“Oh my lord ... If people still had even a shred of respect for you even after what you pulled, this has destroyed it. Go home to LA and think about your life,” metal fan “Chris F” tweeted at Threatin.
“Just own it. ‘I tried to blag my way to fame, it backfired on me. I know I look like an a***ole, and I’m sorry to everyone I screwed over. I went about it the wrong way. All I wanted to do was share my music with people” <- this would be the start of an apology.”
“Clearly, his attempt at twisting the story is not working,” the Metal Injection music website wrote on Wednesday. “As we mentioned previously, despite all the publicity, we have seen no significant gains in Threatin’s social media followings or their streaming numbers (which were already fakely inflated). All Jered has gained is a bad rep and a ton of debt.”
Metal Sucks, which investigated the band leader’s social media history, reported that the 29-year-old Threatin is “from Moberly, Missouri, a small town in the middle of the state about 40 miles from Columbia with a population of just under 14,000.”
Metal Injection reported that Threatin used to be in a black/death metal band with his brother, who told the website in a statement that the two haven’t spoken since 2012.
“All I can say is I’m disappointed in the choices my brother has made. With the current news shedding light on his real identity and our relation, and that we did have a band together in the past, I have to actively disassociate myself with his current actions,” Scott Eames said in his statement. “It is my opinion that with the same amount of effort and money, of which I’m sure he’s borrowed a lot, there’s no doubt in my mind, with his talent, he could have done something in a legitimate and respectable manner.”
Touring drummer Dane Davis told Louder Sound that he joined the band earlier this year for the tour, and that he and guitarist Joe Prunera and bassist Gavin Carney quit the band last week when they were in Ireland when people began texting them stories about Eames’ alleged scam.
Davis said at the band’s first show in London, it struck him as odd that the two opening bands had hardly more than eight people in the audience. “It only really got weird when we played and there was no one there. Three people, max.” he told Louder Sound.
“The whole time as the show went on, Jered kept saying, ‘This is sort of strange. I’m used to more people being here.’”
“He was playing it off as something weird going on. He mentioned that the promotions company was supposed to promote this, and the venues were supposed to promote this and stuff like that ... As everything was going on it became more and more defeating. I knew every show, no one was going to be there.”
By the time they got to Ireland, Davis told Louder Sound, media reports from back home started reaching them and the band members quit. He said he hasn’t talked to Threatin since. “As far as I know Jered is being pretty quiet with everyone,” said Davis.