Trapt frontman Chris Taylor Brown landed the band in hot water last year over his support of Donald Trump, COVID-19 denial and embrace of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys. Brown and his band were later banished from Twitter and Facebook for various offences, and now it seems he's trying to walk back some of the comments he made to redeem himself in the public eye.
In addition to Brown's other transgressions, last year he also tweeted at length about how he thinks sexual encounters between teenage boys and adult women "is not pedophilia." While it's not exactly clear what got Trapt banned from Twitter, their profile went dark shortly after he spouted off about that subject.
Now, Brown has followed up his remarks with a lengthy video titled "Trapt Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction Ep. 1" on YouTube — where the band have inexplicably managed to maintain a presence — in which he claims that his stance on statutory rape was "a total joke."
"Did I defend statutory rape?" Brown says in the clip. "No, I have not defended anybody engaged in any illegal activity, ever."
He adds: "What I did do is make a joke in bad taste. Answering the question, 'Well, what if it was your kid, your 15-year-old?' In the spirit of 'Too Hot for Teacher,' I said, 'Oh, I'd high-five him.' It was a total joke. It was meant to have fun with the other person, trigger them a little bit … I shouldn't have made that joke. I would never do that in real life."
After being booted from the social platforms, Trapt joined the far-right app Parler to whine about cancel culture. Drummer Michael Smith subsequently announced his departure from the band citing "ongoing issues (primarily political)" after performing with the group for just a few years.
Brown concluded his new video, saying, "I think all of us can do with some time off Facebook or Twitter or social media, fighting for what we believe in. I know I've benefitted greatly, just going through a lot of emotion last year, and then having a lot of time on my hands all of a sudden because I'm not engaging online with people, pushing what I care about."
Watch the video and see screenshots of his original tweets below.
In addition to Brown's other transgressions, last year he also tweeted at length about how he thinks sexual encounters between teenage boys and adult women "is not pedophilia." While it's not exactly clear what got Trapt banned from Twitter, their profile went dark shortly after he spouted off about that subject.
Now, Brown has followed up his remarks with a lengthy video titled "Trapt Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction Ep. 1" on YouTube — where the band have inexplicably managed to maintain a presence — in which he claims that his stance on statutory rape was "a total joke."
"Did I defend statutory rape?" Brown says in the clip. "No, I have not defended anybody engaged in any illegal activity, ever."
He adds: "What I did do is make a joke in bad taste. Answering the question, 'Well, what if it was your kid, your 15-year-old?' In the spirit of 'Too Hot for Teacher,' I said, 'Oh, I'd high-five him.' It was a total joke. It was meant to have fun with the other person, trigger them a little bit … I shouldn't have made that joke. I would never do that in real life."
After being booted from the social platforms, Trapt joined the far-right app Parler to whine about cancel culture. Drummer Michael Smith subsequently announced his departure from the band citing "ongoing issues (primarily political)" after performing with the group for just a few years.
Brown concluded his new video, saying, "I think all of us can do with some time off Facebook or Twitter or social media, fighting for what we believe in. I know I've benefitted greatly, just going through a lot of emotion last year, and then having a lot of time on my hands all of a sudden because I'm not engaging online with people, pushing what I care about."
Watch the video and see screenshots of his original tweets below.