Falling in Reverse frontman Ronnie Radke has revealed that he misplaced his defamation lawsuit in opposition to music critic Anthony Fantano, however insists he knew he had no likelihood to win from the beginning.
Fantano, who runs the favored YouTube channel The Needle Drop, was sued by Radke final 12 months after he posted a take-down video of the singer titled “This Man Sucks” in 2023. Within the video, Fantano gave a breakdown of Radke’s numerous authorized points, identified the rocker’s controversial remarks, blasted his “shitty music,” and referred to as him “fairly probably the most important residing piece of trash on this planet of rock music proper now.”
On Thursday (August seventh), Radke uploaded a video to his personal YouTube channel titled, “I LOST MY LAWSUIT WITH ANTHONY FANTANO,” which was edited like a response piece to Fantano’s unique clip. In his video, Radke admits he had no likelihood of successful the lawsuit, however actually simply needed an apology, all whereas mentioning some accusations which have been levied at Fantano.
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As transcribed by ThePRP, Radke provided the next commentary:
“I went into this lawsuit suing you due to this video and all these items… I went into this lawsuit, and my legal professionals like, ‘you’re not gonna win this.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t care.’ And it’s all for this, man. So Anthony, I do know you’re watching this. I do know you’re most likely getting a whole lot of shit for being racist, or no matter they’re saying you might be. And I’m gonna inform you proper now, I don’t assume Anthony‘s racist. I don’t. I feel Anthony Fantano stated a bunch of bizarre, silly shit, similar to me. And I don’t assume Anthony is a gang rapist. I don’t assume Anthony is a home violence individual. I don’t assume Anthony is all these issues. You understand, what I do assume Anthony is? I feel Anthony is a pretentious, insecure little child that makes use of folks for cash so he pays his lease in a unfavorable means. That’s what I feel. And that’s what his YouTube has turn out to be. It’s a type of issues.”
The Falling in Reverse singer continued:
“The one means I can reply is to be humorous to those folks. The stuff that you just don’t see me speak about, if I’m not responding, these are the issues which can be making me mad. This video actually pissed me off as a result of — and it pissed off lots of people — It implies to the folks which can be watching this, the NPCs that comply with Anthony Fantano and watch for him to present them their opinion on what they like, they’re not going to go do their analysis. They’re simply going to go, ‘Wow, he actually gang raped any individual.’ ‘Wow, he actually is transphobic.’ ‘Wow, he’s a racist.’
Because of this I sued him, and that is the purpose that I’m making. I knew I used to be going to lose the lawsuit. It’s not a giant deal. It’s only a defamation go well with. The rationale I did that is so I can put this out, so I can put one thing out and say my piece earlier than Anthony does. As a result of you understand, Anthony goes to place some video collectively so he can achieve views to pay his lease.
I needed to place this out and say my piece. So in case you’re watching this and also you’re not a fan and also you hate my guts, I actually hope that even in case you’re not a fan, you’ll be able to actually perceive the place I’m coming from, as a result of it’s actually fucked up, and I don’t assume anyone ought to ever do this. I might by no means make a video about how Anthony Fantano was racist, allegedly, you understand what I imply I might by no means do this.”
Radke tying Fantano to racism stems from not too long ago resurfaced clips wherein the music critic is heard quoting the N-word and seemingly mocking the dying of Trayvon Martin. Fantano has addressed these accusations in a video titled “Taking Accountability,” which together with Radke’s video and the unique “This Man Sucks” video, may be seen under.
Taking accountability: pic.twitter.com/EaKFDHdfOL
— Anthony Fantano from TheNeedleDrop (@theneedledrop) August 1, 2025