There appears to be some bad blood among the past and current members of family country group The Band Perry.
The trio launched in 2010 as a sibling trio, consisting of Kimberly, Reid and Neil Perry, and earned hits including “If I Die Young” (a Hot Country Songs and Adult Contemporary No. 1) and “Better Dig Two” (No. 1 on Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay). The group went on hiatus in 2023, and Kimberly launched a brief solo career, before The Band Perry regrouped with Kimberly, brother Reid and Kimberly’s husband, Johnny Costello. Soon, Reid left the band and it transitioned to a duo with Kimberly and her husband, who released singles including “Psychological.”
Now, Neil Perry is telling his side of the story behind how the group’s lineup shifted.
On Aug. 11, Neil Perry released a series of posts on Instagram, promoting music under a new moniker called Wolves of June. The first video joined the recent “Netflix doc” online trend, as Perry was seen sitting in a chair in front of shelves of awards that The Band Perry had previously won, and the clip is emblazoned with the words, “Preparing for my Netflix documentary about how The Band Perry went from three siblings to my sister and her husband.” The post included the caption: “June 2024 took the old life. Wolves of June is what came next…”
Another Instagram post from Neil Perry gave more details, as he wrote, “June 2024 took something from me. Something I had spent my entire life building. A band. A business. A family. A name. My sister wanted her husband to become a member of the band, taking my brother’s place. I made it equally clear that I was not okay with that…weeks later, I was terminated. The day after my birthday…Then I watched a story emerge that didn’t resemble the one I lived.”
That post from Neil Perry included a scene from the series Succession, as well as clips from two interviews that Kimberly Perry and Costello did to promote The Band Perry as a duo, in which she appears to say that her brothers supported her continuing on with the group. Neil Perry wrote: “I explicitly asked my sister not to misrepresent my support for the current version of the band.”
He went on to add, “By May 2024, none of us were consistently on speaking terms, and Reid had stopped engaging in both personal and business matters. Kimberly came to me about bringing the band out of hiatus, and we initially agreed that moving forward with Reid was not something we were prepared to do. Kimberly reached out to him, and he confirmed he was not interested. I was then presented with three options: move forward as a duo, hold auditions or have her husband step in. I was fine with the first two, but soon understood Kimberly wanted to move forward with the third. We ultimately decided not to proceed.”
Those plans quickly shifted, however. Neil Perry’s statement continued, “A few weeks later, Reid rejoined the band through conversations I was not part of, and I was given three days to decide whether I would continue under those circumstances. At the end of that three-day window, I asked for a conversation the following week, and was told I was out of time. I was approached again a month later, but I could not move forward under those circumstances. At that point, I understood that continuing to tour was no longer realistically an option for me and I would soon be forced out by the 2/3 partnership agreement. What I did not agree to was losing my financial interest and access to the resources and business I had spent my life helping to build.
“Shortly after the band signed a label deal, my brother left the band. What remained is my sister and her husband.”
The Band Perry’s 2010 self-titled album reached platinum status from the Recording Industry Association of America, thanks to hit singles including “You Lie” and “If I Die Young.” Their follow-up album, 2013’s Pioneer, included hit singles “Better Dig Two” and “DONE.” They issued the pop-leaning album Coordinates in 2018 before announcing their hiatus in 2023.
Neil Perry also launched a new Instagram page for Wolves of June, which includes his performances of his new alt-pop song “TNT.”
Multiple reps for The Band Perry had not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment by press time.
