Ex-CHILDREN OF BODOM Keyboardist Remembers ALEXI LAIHO’s Final Years

The end Children Of Bodom was sadly premature, as there was supposedly one final farewell album and world tour in the works. Unfortunately frontman Alexi Laiho quit the band and passed away shortly thereafter, making any potential reunion impossible. Though according to keyboardist Janne “Warman” Wirman in a recent interview with Blabbermouth the end of Laiho‘s life was tragically forecasted years beforehand.

“Alexi‘s downfall started in 2016,” Janne said. “I don’t know what caused him to do that. He told me but didn’t tell anyone else in the band. He made sure no one else was in the room. He said: ‘Dude, from now on, I’m going to drink until I die.’ My reaction was: ‘Fuck, man. You can’t say that to me.’ In 2018, he repeated it again. I was aware that was what he was doing because he wouldn’t accept any help for his health problems. He just continued drinking. That is what he did, which is just insane.”

“A lot of people who haven’t had a family friend or work buddy or someone who is sick with alcoholism, a lot of people don’t understand you cannot help the person who doesn’t want help,” Wirmen said. “He had decided he didn’t want help and would keep drinking until he died. That’s what he did.”

The keyboardist also remembered the last years of the band, which he says were often tragically marred by Laiho‘s substance abuse problems.

“The last years were pretty bad,” Wirmen recalled. “There was a lot of bullshit. It’s so crazy because he was in such a good place a couple of years before. He was happy about being sober and on tour, and the shows were good. I don’t know what happened to him. Something pushed him over the edge where he decided, ‘Fuck it. I’m going to keep drinking.'”

Laiho died in 2020 due to degeneration of the liver and pancreas due to alcohol abuse. Laiho‘s final release came in early 2021 with his new band Bodom After Midnight and their EP Paint The Sky With Blood.