Black County Communion frontman Glenn Hughes says the band “is over” because guitarist Joe Bonamassa has left, and won’t let the remaining members keep using the name.

The classic rock outfit released three acclaimed studio albums before internal tensions boiled over, with Hughes last year revealing he was thinking of quitting because he wanted to play live, and Bonamassa insisted he wasn’t available.

That led to a series of public outbursts in which the two musicians took pot-shots at each other before both said they were ready to “move on.”

They appeared to calm down later and said they were talking to each other again. But Bonamassa continued to insist he’d always said he wouldn’t have time to tour in support of 2012 album Afterglow – while Hughes, drummer Jason Bonham and keyboardist Derek Sherinian suggested they’d been led to believe otherwise before the record was recorded.

Earlier this month the blues axeman said he was “happily not involved any more” and revealed he’d become disillusioned during their 2011 tour because he found it “very tense.”

Now Hughes has had his own say via Twitter.

He reports: “Just so it’s crystal, BCC is over. Joe left and will not allow us to keep the name. Nice, huh?

“Jason, Derek and I will continue when the time is right.”

Meanwhile, he adds: “I have my hands full writing my first solo rock album in five years.” Hughes says he began writing tracks on March 21. And he reflects: “I choose happiness and have nothing but love to offer. Everything is the way it’s meant to be.”