Josh Freese Quits A Perfect Circle Pre-Soundwave

He's widely considered to be one of contemporary rock'n'roll's finest drummers and stints with bands as varied as Devo, Weezer, The Vandals, Nine Inch Nails, Paramore and Sting have gone to prove Josh Freese's great versatility.

But one of the few bands he is committed to as a regular member, rock supergroup A Perfect Circle, have just lost the drum guru for good.

After 13 years, I've decided to leave @aperfectcircle with no plans of returning. Apologies to those inquiring about the upcoming shows.

— Josh Freese (@joshfreese) October 2, 2012

While not technically a founding member of the group, Freese has been with A Perfect Circle pretty much from the start, joining in 1999 and playing on the majority of the tracks on the band's 2000 debut Mer de Noms.

The band went on hiatus after 2004's eMOTIVe album but returned to the live scene in 2010 with Freese playing drums, but are still yet to release a new album since that aforementioned release.

As evidenced by the tweet that announced his departure, Freese isn't giving too much away as to the reasons for his departure. The band haven't commented on any possible replacement as yet, but given they completed some touring with session drummer Jeff Friedl last year after Freese became unavailable due to commitments with Weezer, one wonders if they might look to him to fill the gap.

We hope things are okay between Freese and the rest of the band as A Perfect Circle will be in Australia for the Soundwave festival early next year, as will Freese's pop-punk band The Vandals and we don't want any awkwardness now. Freese will also be in Australia with Devo in December.