Wackerman surprised fans with his recent departure from BAD RELIGION but the reason for the slit was explained when he along with Shadows appeared on the Talk Is Jericho podcast hosted by Chris Jericho this week.

Shadows explained that the band has considered bringing in Wackerman since the tragic death of Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan. He told the podcast (via Loudwire), "To be honest, Brooks' name has always been in the mix. It was one of the names we were throwing around when Jimmy passed away in terms of who was going to step up for Nightmare.

 

"We felt Mike [Portnoy] was the right choice and we still feel that way. Mike just destroyed on the record. He was perfect. But at the time, our tour manager brought up Brooks' name as well. But at the time he was also busy with Bad Religion and it was also … people were going to look at it differently because he was a punk drummer at this point."

 

The frontman also explained why the band decided to part ways with drummer Arin Ilejay. "It just became increasingly difficult to be on the same page, not only touring, but with writing and just where we want to take things.

 

"We're just a bunch of guys who are all over the place and we have a bunch of different influences and we need somebody who can instantly … who can sit there and say, 'Yeah, I've got that influence too or I understand why we're gonna go here. I understand why we're going to do that.'"

 

He goes on to explain, "It just got to the point where after Mayhem Festival last year, we had just decided to fire on all cylinders the way we want to, we needed to make a change. And we all had our little talk. We said, 'Listen, we can ride this thing out the way it is right now and we'll be fine or we can shake the nest a little bit and we want to fire on all cylinders again. We want to be the baddest band on the planet. We want to just dominate onstage. And I came up with the idea that I really want to talk to Brooks and see if there's any chance and see where he's at in his life right now."