Steven Drozd joined the Flaming Lips in 1991. At that point, the long-running Oklahoma City psych-rock band had already been around for eight years. Drozd started out as their drummer. Over the years, he assumed other duties in the band. Drozd played guitar, bass, keyboard, and percussion in the group. He also sang backup and co-wrote tons of music. Until very recently, Drozd and frontman Wayne Coyne seemed to be the only permanent members of the Flaming Lips, but apparently Drozd wasn't that permanent. He appears to be out of the band now.
Yesterday, Drozd posted on Threads about how excited he was to acquire an Akai drum machine. In the replies, a fan asked him, "Are you officially done with the FLips?" In a reply that he later deleted, Drozd wrote, "They're done with me — but we're not talking about it. So yes I'm moving on. Just keep it to yourself for now. Ok?" It's possible that Drozd didn't realize that his Threads replies were public. Before Drozd deleted that reply, someone posted a screengrab on Reddit.
The "you've been Ivined" thing is a reference to Flaming Lips bassist and multi-instrumentalist Michael Ivins, one of the group's co-founding members. In 2021, the Flaming Lips parted was with Ivins and with keyboardist Jake Ingalls, also of Spaceface, who'd been in the band for eight years.
For a while now, Steven Drozd has been absent from the Flaming Lips' live show. They played what appears to be their final gig with Steven Drozd on Oct. 9 of last year, opening for Weezer at San Francisco's Chase Center. AJ Slaughter has served as touring guitarist since then. There had been no comment about Drozd's absence until yesterday, and Wayne Coyne still hasn't had anything to say.
On Instagram last week, Drozd said that he's trying to get in touch with Stereolab's Lætitia Sadier for a collaboration, so maybe he's working on solo music.
The Flaming Lips will play a New Year's Eve show in Washington, DC, and they've got a bunch of festival gigs lineup for next year.
UPDATE: Drozd shared additional comment on Stereogum’s Instagram…
