Falling in Reverse’s Ronnie Radke Loses Defamation Lawsuit Against Music Critic Anthony Fantano

3 weeks ago 13

Falling in Reverse frontman Ronnie Radke has revealed that he lost his defamation lawsuit against music critic Anthony Fantano, but insists he knew he had no chance to win from the start.

Fantano, who runs the popular YouTube channel The Needle Drop, was sued by Radke last year after he posted a take-down video of the singer titled “This Guy Sucks” in 2023. In the video, Fantano gave a breakdown of Radke’s various legal issues, blasted his “shitty music,” and called him “quite possibly the biggest living piece of trash in the world of rock music right now.”

On Thursday (August 8th), Radke uploaded a video to his own YouTube channel titled, “I LOST MY LAWSUIT WITH ANTHONY FANTANO,” which was edited like a reaction piece to Fantano’s original clip. In his video, Radke admits he had no chance of winning the lawsuit, but really just wanted an apology, all while brining up some accusations that have been levied at Fantano.

As transcribed by ThePRP, Radke offered the following commentary:

“I went into this lawsuit suing you because of this video and all this stuff… I went into this lawsuit, and my lawyers like, ‘you’re not gonna win this.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t care.’ And it’s all for this, man. So Anthony, I know you’re watching this. I know you’re probably getting a lot of shit for being racist, or whatever they’re saying you are. And I’m gonna tell you right now, I don’t think Anthony‘s racist. I don’t. I think Anthony Fantano said a bunch of weird, stupid shit, just like me. And I don’t think Anthony is a gang rapist. I don’t think Anthony is a domestic violence person. I don’t think Anthony is all those things. You know, what I do think Anthony is? I think Anthony is a pretentious, insecure little baby that utilizes people for money so he can pay his rent in a negative way. That’s what I think. And that’s what his YouTube has become. It’s one of those things.”

The Falling in Reverse singer continued:

“The only way I can respond is to be funny to these people. The stuff that you don’t see me talk about, if I’m not responding, those are the things that are making me mad. This video really pissed me off because — and it pissed off a lot of people — It implies to the people that are watching this, the NPCs that follow Anthony Fantano and wait for him to give them their opinion on what they like, they’re not going to go do their research. They’re just going to go, ‘Wow, he really gang raped somebody.’ ‘Wow, he really is transphobic.’ ‘Wow, he is a racist.’

This is why I sued him, and this is the point that I’m making. I knew I was going to lose the lawsuit. It’s not a big deal. It’s just a defamation suit. The reason I did this is so I can put this out, so I can put something out and say my piece before Anthony does. Because you know, Anthony is going to put some video together so he can gain views to pay his rent.

I wanted to put this out and say my piece. So if you’re watching this and you’re not a fan and you hate my guts, I really hope that even if you’re not a fan, you can really understand where I’m coming from, because it’s really fucked up, and I don’t think anybody should ever do that. I would never make a video about how Anthony Fantano was racist, allegedly, you know what I mean I would never do that.”

Radke tying Fantano to racism stems from recently resurfaced clips in which the music critic is heard quoting the N-word and seemingly mocking the death of Trayvon Martin. Fantano has addressed those accusations in a video titled “Taking Accountability,” which along with Radke’s video and the original “This Guy Sucks” video, can be seen below.