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Certain System of a Down members have been vocal about the band potentially moving on without Serj Tankian, and during a new interview on the Broken Record podcast the singer addressed those remarks.
When asked if he would be okay with SOAD continuing with a new frontperson, Tankian said, “Absolutely. I’ve offered them that opportunity and been very supportive of it many years."
“If they wanted to do that, if they wanted to continue in a way that I didn’t – for example, if they wanted to tour a lot and I just want to do a couple of shows here and there, because I’m not into touring a lot, to be fair to them, if they wanted to do that, I’m totally open to it, still. I’m not sure they want to do that,” he continued. “They haven’t until now, and I think it would take something away from the prestige and legacy of the band itself, but as friends and as someone who cares very much about my partners, I would be OK with it.”
Tankian has been open about his opposition to long tours. “I love performing, but especially the long [tours]… I think when you do a long tour, it’s not just physically exhausting, but it’s artistically redundant after a while, repeating the same thing,” he admitted in an interview earlier this year. “That’s why we’re really enjoying doing these one-offs. They’re special events, special occasions. We can’t do them everywhere. We can’t do them all the time. But performing becomes fun again in a way.”
Speaking of special one-off events, SOAD is prepping a "once in a lifetime" show with Deftones at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park next month. Listen to his full Broken Record interview above.