August 26, 2006 – Just one week after being announced as support for Skillet’s upcoming COMATOSE 20 Years: Still Screaming Tour, Bad Wolves are officially off the bill and according to new frontwoman Sara “KILLBOY” Skinner, the sudden change came after members of Skillet’s fanbase began digging into her personal life.
Skillet announced on August 18 that Bad Wolves and Escape The Fate would join the fall run celebrating the 20th anniversary of Comatose. The tour is scheduled to begin September 30 in Schenectady, New York, and continue through November 10 in Orlando, Florida with a stop in Omaha, Nebraska that I was going to cover.
For Bad Wolves, the run carried additional significance: it was expected to mark Skinner’s live debut as the band’s new vocalist and the beginning of a dramatically different era for the group. Seven days after the announcement, those plans were changed.
On August 25, Skinner posted a video on her personal Instagram account, and Bad Wolves’ Instagram account announcing that Bad Wolves would no longer be joining the tour, while making it clear that she wasn’t interested in quietly allowing speculation to fill in the blanks.
“I have gathered you all here today to inform you that Bad Wolves will no longer be joining Skillet on their upcoming tour. Now, Skillet’s camp did not want me to say anything, but apparently a statement has to be made. And I’m not someone who’s ever hidden who the fuck I am, so let’s not leave you to speculate, okay?”
According to Skinner, the trouble began almost immediately after Bad Wolves were announced for the tour. She said members of Skillet’s fanbase began researching her background, ultimately focusing on claims surrounding both her gender identity and her presence on OnlyFans.
Skinner addressed the situation with characteristic bluntness:
“Here’s the truth. Skillet announced us on their tour, and their fans had a field day doing very extensive research that their booking agents and management did not do. Upon their findings, I am a trans, OnlyFans, bitch. Now unfortunately, only one of those things is true. Have fun finding out and we will see you on the next tour.”
The comment was deliberately sarcastic, but it addressed a wave of online speculation that followed the tour announcement.
Reports and social media discussion have identified Skinner’s OnlyFans presence as genuine while the claim that she is transgender appears to be false. More importantly, however, Skinner and Bad Wolves made it clear that their objection wasn’t simply about whether the rumors were accurate, it was about the hostility directed toward sex workers, transgender people and the broader LGBTQ community in the first place.
Bad Wolves followed Skinner’s statement with an unmistakable message of solidarity: “love our sw trans and lgbtq family.”
A Tour That Was Supposed to Introduce a New Bad Wolves
The timing makes the removal particularly significant for Bad Wolves. Skinner officially joined the band earlier this summer, replacing Daniel “DL” Laskiewicz and becoming the third lead vocalist in Bad Wolves’ history following Laskiewicz and original frontman Tommy Vext. But Skinner wasn’t entirely new to the Bad Wolves universe. She previously appeared on “It’s You (2 Months)” from the band’s 2023 album Die About It, giving listeners an early glimpse of the chemistry that would eventually lead to her joining the group full-time. Her formal introduction arrived in June with “Paint It Red,” the first Bad Wolves single featuring Skinner as lead vocalist.
The move represented more than another singer change. Skinner brought a very different musical background to Bad Wolves. As KILLBOY, she had already established herself as a singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist whose solo work pulls from alternative pop, electronic music, punk, trap and heavier influences.
Bad Wolves founding drummer John Boecklin said when announcing her addition that the band wasn’t looking for someone simply to fill an empty position. They wanted a vocalist capable of taking Bad Wolves somewhere new.
The upcoming Skillet dates were supposed to be the public unveiling of that new chapter. When the tour was announced, Skinner expressed her excitement about finally bringing the lineup to the stage.
“I’m stoked that our first tour together will be with Skillet and Escape The Fate.”
Instead, Bad Wolves’ first tour with Skinner will now happen somewhere else.
What We Know And What We Don’t
There is an important distinction amid the rapidly spreading headlines surrounding the situation. Skinner has publicly given her account of why Bad Wolves are no longer on the tour, linking the decision to the scrutiny and backlash that followed Skillet’s announcement.
As of today, August 26, however, Skillet has not publicly issued its own explanation for Bad Wolves’ removal. Loudwire reported that it reached out to a Skillet representative for comment and had not received a response at the time of publication.
That means claims that Bad Wolves were specifically removed because Skinner has an OnlyFans account, because some fans believed she was transgender, or because of objections to her personal life remain based primarily on Skinner’s account and the circumstances surrounding the band’s departure rather than an explanation directly from Skillet.
What isn’t disputed is the remarkably short timeline.
August 18: Bad Wolves are announced alongside Escape The Fate as support for Skillet.
August 25: Skinner announces that Bad Wolves are no longer participating.
Seven days.
And a tour that was supposed to introduce the newest incarnation of Bad Wolves instead became the center of an entirely different conversation, one involving religion, sexuality, gender identity, sex work, fan culture and how much influence an audience should have over who gets invited onto a concert stage.
For Skinner, though, there doesn’t appear to be much interest in apologizing for who she is in order to get back onto that stage. Her message was considerably simpler: “Have fun finding out and we will see you on the next tour.”
