Glenn Danzig is one of my favorite artists of all time, but he’s gained a sort of Kozelek-ian reputation for on-stage petulance. He’s got a strict (and widely known) “no photos” policy at his shows, and naturally, there’s a handful of Danzig concert attendees who are either ignorant of that policy or eager to test him on it. I think “no photos” policies are dumb, but I also think there’s something to be said for being respectful of the performer’s wishes. Anyway, Danzig played in Montreal on Sunday night, and after the show, one rule-violating concertgoer shared a photo of himself with a bloodied face, and the following accusation:

So I went to Danzig last night. Including the 100 dollars I spent on his merch plus the tickets time [off] work and traveling to Montreal to see him this is the price you pay for taking a photo of Danzig. He called me up on stage got got his pussy security guards to rough me up and held me back me back so he could hit me himself. Cops can’t do fuck all because we’re both not Canadian and they did it off camera and said I fell. Could all my friends please share this because I want the world to know what a pussy the guy is.

His friends DID share it, and the pic/story made the rounds on a bunch of blogs. Soon afterward, other fans who were in attendance at the Montreal show came forward contradicting that account of events. Here’s one such refutation:

Danzig never left the stage, never hit the guy. He called him off after pausing mid song and beckoned the photographer to come onstage so he’d “break his neck”. Naturally the guy never got onstage and the show resumed. The guy lies. If he got beat up it only could have been after the show. A thousand people in the venue could testify to that.

(That’s via Metal Injection, and there are a bunch more like it.)

Once the story had gone viral, the bloodied-face photographer issued a “clarification,” which you can read in full here (and you should, because it contains a bunch of details that I’m leaving out), but this is the key stuff IMO:

When I originally [claimed that Danzig] called me up on stage and his security guards dragged me off, It was 2 separate incidents I was referring to.

1.) Danzig did call me out while he was on stage and said he would ‘break my fucking neck’

2.) When I was dragged off it wasn’t through or up on stage, I was not on stage at all that night. They dragged me out the back way. When I was brought out the side by security and got a beat down by two of his security guards. I returned back to the venue because that’s where my friends were and [I] was in disbelief of what happened, got spotted and brought out the side again for the same treatment but this time Danzig himself came out himself to punch and kick me.

Like I said, I’m a huge Danzig fan, so I’ve got an inherent bias here — and you should definitely take that into account right now — but to me, this seems kinda dubious:

I was brought out the side by security and got a beat down by two of [Danzig’s] security guards. I returned back to the venue because that’s where my friends were and [I] was in disbelief of what happened, got spotted and brought out the side again for the same treatment but this time Danzig himself came out himself to punch and kick me.

First of all, if you got “beat down” by two security guards on the street outside a Danzig concert, wouldn’t you maybe wait outside for your friends, or text them to say, “Hey I just got my ass kicked by security, I’m gonna go to the hospital/police station”? If you were to go back inside the venue — if you were to be allowed back inside the venue — would you really get in range of the same security guards who just kicked your ass? Would you then allow yourself to be “brought out the side again for the same treatment”? And would you then just sit there outside, restrained by security while Danzig finishes his set (and btw, just a thought: Maybe Danzig’s security team should spend more time inside the venue while the show is going on?), only so Danzig can run right outside to “punch and kick” you? A 60-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO JUST FINISHED PLAYING A CONCERT? What the fuck kind of kicks was he throwing?

Anyway, TMZ reports today that “Montreal PD confirms [the photographer] filed a police report later that night, and they’re investigating.” So there you go! The wheels of justice are in motion, and I think we can all look forward to seeing the results of their investigation.