Do you think people don't understand "Fashionably late" rather than actively disliking it?
"A lot of the greatest, most creative people that the world has ever know were hated first. Look at Eminem, for example: Everybody hated him and within a few years he was being called a legend. You can even apply that to someone like Elvis, or Shakespeare if you go way back. People fear what is different, and they fear what they cannot comprehend. This album fits into those categories because it is completely different, particularly in term of what people are used to me doing. That breeds fear."
As an introduction, when it came to releasing the video for 'Alone' you didn't hold back?
"I essentially made a list of all the things I'm not supposed to do and decided to do them all in one go. I was like 'Why don't I ghost-ride a Ferrari, tell everybody to go fuck themselves and talk about how much money i have?' I remember the first time my label heard that song - the first thing anybody did was freak out! I had to go with it, both visually and sonically, and it worked. Tell me that song and that video didn't and I'll call you a liar."
What was going through your mind in the days prior the launch?
" Honestly, I was expecting more negative feedback than there was, and that probably says a lot. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of hate, but a lot of that hate came from people who are indeed washing dishes for a living. Those people were mad because I was ghost-riding a Ferrari when in their minds I had no right to be doing that. I didn't want to stand in a room like every other fucking emo band or whatever you want to call them, tea-bagging the floor like some kind of crabcore asshole. I don't want to be there with my hair swooped in front of my face and star make-up all over my eyes. I don't want to go the same way that everybody else is going, whether it's in relation to the music itself or the videos that go with it. I would rather fail on my own terms than try to do what everybody else is doing. I'd rather die alone than fade away with the rest."
Were you expecting the level of attention that you received on the back of that video?
"One million views in four days, man. I mean - Wow that shit is insane to me. I knew that I was going to get hate, but I didn't know that I'd get that many views. When our first video came out from our first album, it got about 100,00 views a day, so this video was getting more than double that. Right now, the 'Alone' video has more than 3.1million views and it's been up for maybe six weeks [as I goes to press it's currently at 4.490.294 views and has been up for 3 month], and for the first two weeks after that video dropped the song was the most shared song on Spotify in the UK, even above bands like Daft Punk. Here you had a song so many people seemed to hate, yet in a country I've never once set foot in- and still am not allowed to set foot in, by they way - it's doing that. It was very confusing time [but] I was extremely stoked."
Does the scrutiny ever go beyond baiting?
"It most definitely does. Jesus Christ, dude some of the stuff that gets thrown my way is unreal, and it takes a strong person to handle it. There are a couple of points I'd like to make about this, actually. There's a certain person - I'm not going to name them- But they made an internet site that revolved around posting naked pictures. To me, that's person who needs to be arrested and taken to jail. When you put things into context, am I really that bad of a human being? Then again, I've done my fair share of bullying in the past, so I know what it's like and maybe in some weird way this stuff is karma. I truly believe that everybody gets what they deserve and I've bullied people in my life, so maybe it's coming back around. I'm not going to shy away from owing up my mistakes."
Not many people are watched by that many people. What's it like?
"It's a situation that certainly makes me stronger and thick-skinned, and it's allowed me to be able to handle stuff at an earlier age than most. I've learned to accept it, because if I can't accept it then I can never move on. Some people say the craziest things and I'll never be able to control that, but I try to counter that by counting my blessings, and believe me when I say I have a lot better stuff going for me now than I ever did before."
What's the most difficult part about being you?
" Dealing with the rumours, probably, because there are so many that simply are not true. Some of the stuff that I see is so, so ridiculous. I never beat my girlfriend, and I'm not even going to get into some of the other things because I'm not supposed to, but it can be a struggle. It's not a nice thing to see so many lies being created about you and taken as a fact. It's something that can leave a person feeling extremely helpless."
Have you ever read soemthings online that has gone too far?
"The most difficult thing to stomach has been seeing people bullying my newborn baby. It was beyond mere shit-talking, and it pushed me so far toward the pinnacle of my anger that when it got to the top it all disappeared. In the end I just started laughing. I was reading all these things and thinking, 'Are you honestly going to make fun of and insult a newborn baby, yet still have nerve to call me a terrible person?' Once you say those things you can't take it back: the second you put something like that out there it gets retweeted or shared or posted somewhere else, and the moment that happens you've lost control. That's the problem these days - everything is so impulsive. It's a case of acting now and thinking later, and I see it happening to the point where some kid tweets that I've fired my entire band and stolen their money, and the next thing you know it's worldwide news because there are a bunch of gullible people who don't know me. They're like, 'He beat up his girlfriend and he kicked this band of tour, and then he spit on someone and hit somebody with a mic stand, so he must have done this too."
And did you do those things?
"If you want to know the truth, the fact of the matter is that I didn't intentionally hit anybody with a mic stand. I didn't kick a band off my tour because of this; I did it because of this. I didn't spit in a kid's face; I spit in the face of somebody who tried to punch me. That's the real situation, but the internet takes things to another level that isn't always truthful."
One thing that a lot of people don't know is that you do a lot of work with charities, particularly involving children with terminal illness. Does it frustrate you that those things never get mentioned?
"I don't want people to know about that stuff - Why would I want people to think that I'm a good person?! People will see and hear what they want and leave the rest, but the kids who are terminal are closest to my heart. I don't cry - ever - But aside from the birth of my child the only thing that ever brings me to tears are those kids who aren't going to live to see adulthood. Just last night I played a show and I brought a girl with cystic fibrosis up onstage to sing a song with me, and things like that warm my heart. If you're a child and you're about to die, and I make you happier than you've ever been in your life, then you better believe that I'm going to try my hardest to do that. Throughout all of the bullshit, that's my main goal."
'Fashionably late' In Ronnie's own words
By now you've heard it, and it's one of the maddest records of the year. But what's Ronnie's take on it?
"How would I describe it? It's fucking bold. It's essentially a collection of everything that I've ever loved, and it's bold in the sense that you've got a Japanese, electro-pop song like 'Bad girls club' next to an extremely heavy song with a surprise hip-hop element like 'Champion', which mixes real hip-hop with an almost death metal breakdown. That takes some balls, you know? A lot of people have reacted by saying, 'Who the fuck do you think you are? You're not allowed to do that!' For me, though, it was about wanting to take it to another level of being different. I think that in doing so we've pretty much started our own genre. Some people are calling it everythingcore, but I would like to call it Falling in reverse. It's funny because I see a lot of people saying things like 'They haven't found their sound yet', but our sound is what this record is. It's a collection of everything, put together."
'Fashionably late' is out now on Epitaph.
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