Taken from somewhere else on the web:
I recently did the southern run of the recent cheese tour. I wrote show reviews for Louisville, Roanoke, and the first night of Asheville for Livecheese downloads and my critiques were posted on the sight. In the reviews, I took a preetty critical eye to the boys and knew something was seriously amiss with our bearded hero. No stranger to substance abuse, it was not hard to see that Bill was doing too much of whatever he was doing. His playing was highly erratic in Louisville and i pulled no punches in my review. The band seemed highly annoyed with him, with little to no eye contact for a while, and essentially turned backs by the end. the next night in Roanake Bill was ineven worse shape and the band did the best thye could to hide him. I'll spare you all the details, but the tension was palpable for anyone watching closely. The other band members would grin ear to ear when Bill appeared to be OK to only shudder in near horror as he spazzed his way through the show. During one trancy jam, Bill wandered in circles, not sure even what instrument to play. he eventually decided on a cowbell, of which he proceeded to clank out of rhythm with the music being played, culminating in him completely whiffing the bell on several occasions. Frankly, it became very disturbing to watch, as my girlfriend and i both welled up with tears watching Bill struggle so badly. If you have the tapes of the show, you will here Bill talk out to the audience twice, once saying "what's with all the chatter out here tonight" and another comment somewhat similar about blabbering or something. Bill was not referring to the audience, he was talking to the band who were constantly chatting on the monitors about Bill and how to protect him. I felt my reviews were thoughtful intellectual excerpts on what i was witnessing. Much to my chagrin, later in the afternoon, my reviews were deleted from the website. After a rather heated missive to the website, they told me they were not interested in my "intellectual critiques". The moral of the story, is either Bill is having a difficult time with his substances(highly likely), and the band has had enough. Bill's leaving has nothing to do with "other musical projects". This is an interpersonal decision made by the band who have either had enough, or don't feel they can grow musically or professionally with his inconsistency. Lets be frank, when Bill is on, the boys rock, when he's off, its flagrantly obvious and brings the whole crew with him. Stay tuned as this unfolds, the truth will slowly leak out as microphone after microphone get shoved in their faces over the holiday runs. The band's generic announcement is unsatisfactory and downright insulting and if they think they can holod back bdeeper inquiries into whats really going down, their kidding themselves. I love the Cheese with all my heart and can not thank them enough for all the joy they brought me. Night 2 in Asheville was beyond special. Its sad to see it end this way."
:( 
