Now, multi-instrumentalist Al Doyle has taken to Twitter to clarify Murphy's comments and responded to criticism about the group's recent decision to reform, making a distinction between "inspiration" and "motivation."
Doyle explained that Murphy getting pissed at the promoter and spontaneously deciding that the MSG concert would be "our last fucking show" may well have inspired the decision to breakup, but insists that the motivation behind ending the band wasn't just to sell more tickets.
"My theory was, if I make it our last show, we'll sell it out in two weeks," Murphy previously told the New York Times. "It wasn't a total lark, but it was a bit larky. But I like making decisions. I find it easy."
Doyle, meanwhile, denied that they would have "shit on 10 years together and effectively halt at least some of our careers to sell literally a few thousand more tickets for one show," arguing instead that the intention for the MSG finale was to create "something incredible, something singular, strange and unrepeatable" — which he believes the 2011 concert remains to this day.
Doyle also pointed out to people thinking that the show was a money grab that the concert actually "lost A LOT of money."
He went on to addresses conspiracy theorists accusing the band of faking their own death to make a successful comeback, straight up admitting that Murphy isn't enough of a "stone-cold crystal-balled mystical Svengali" to pull that off.
Finally, he said that he also doesn't fully understand the "WHY" behind the band's decision to come out of retirement, but concludes by noting: "I do need y'all to know it wasn't to grub ticket money."
Read his full string of tweets below.
Hoo-kay. Some commentators extrapolating from the @nytimes article that LCD broke up so we could "make more money off ticket sales". Oh boy.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
Few things first… music journalism is mostly about whatever gets you excited & involved. Whatever makes you fired up enough to give a shit.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
So if an angle can be created whereby a credible star can be seen as manipulative money grubber, that's a fucken great angle.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
But it's an angle. It doesn't really matter. It's a tool to sell you something: the story. In this case, a story based on a story.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
Secondly, none of this shit really matters. *Everyone* is selling you something & you're either fundamentally ok with that, or not.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
But thirdly, some of this shit REALLY matters. Because we're humans who are invested in heroes we admire & we care why they do what they do.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
So as a very quick insight into what I think is going on here, we need to draw the distinction between inspiration and motivation...
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
Full disclosure: I didn't know the MSG promoter story, but I was very much around when these decisions were being made.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
If James got pissed at the promoter and said it was the last show, that was an *inspiration* for the decision.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
But once the decision is made, it's a bit of a leap to say the *motivation* behind ending the band is to sell more tickets.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
To shit on 10 years together and effectively halt at least some of our careers to sell literally a few thousand more tickets for one show.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
No; the motivation was to make the show something incredible, something singular, strange and unrepeatable. Which it remains, I think.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
And why would selling more tickets be a motivation anyway? Is it cos folks think we made money on MSG? That show lost A LOT of money.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
If you'd have bought a ticket for a thousand dollars and arrived by helicopter you'd have *made* more money than any of us on that show.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
So then it becomes about whether you think it was a 6 year con to raise our profile down the line after faking our own death.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
That would have been a cool move but... you'd need to be a stone-cold crystal-balled mystical svengali to pull that off. James is not that.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
Plus, we're talking about people's professional livelihoods. That was my job, and it ended. I didn't think I was getting it back.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
I'm glad we did get back together, but I understand the obsession with the "WHY" that hangs over the retirement.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
Even for me, it's not been fully answered, & I don't necessarily need it to be. But I do need y'all to know it wasn't to grub ticket money.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
Whatever the exact reason, LCD Soundsystem are reunited and back with a brand new album called American Dream on September 1. See the band's upcoming tour dates here.
