Steven Drozd Explains His Departure from The Flaming Lips

Steven Drozd opened up about his split from The Flaming Lips during a recent appearance on FOX 23’s One More Thing.

Expanding on his decision publicly for the first time, Drozd said that following a “personal crisis” at the end of The Flaming Lips’ outing in 2024, he decided he no longer wanted to tour, but had hoped to remain an active member of the band as a studio contributor. However, “Wayne [Coyne] and I disagreed on what I should do moving forward, so we just kind of agreed that I would step back. Then stepping back turned into not coming back,” Drozd explained.

“Part of me hoped I could just be like a guy that doesn’t tour but is still in the band,” he added. “I think that can work for some bands — I guess it worked for The Beach Boys — but we’re not The Beach Boys. That just seemed like an odd fit. After 33 years, moving on felt kind of right.”

Drozd initially announced his departure from the band in a reply to a fan on Threads back in December, a decision he described as a “blundering mistake” because he thought the message was private. “Before I knew it, it was on the timeline,” Drozd recounted. “Someone screenshotted it and ran with it. I wish it had been handled differently, like an official statement, before I blundered with that post.”

As such, Drozd admitted that the current status of his relationship with Coyne is rocky. “On hold, I guess,” is how Drozd described it. “We’re just taking a break for now.” For his part, Coyne said the reason Drozd left the band was “sad and infuriating,” adding that “it is HIS responsibility to tell everyone what happened.”

As for the possibility of a reunion with Coyne down the road, Drozd said, “If that were the case, it would be a long time from now. Everyone is resigned to moving on. I’m working on a solo record that will probably come out in the summer. It won’t be The Flaming Lips.”

Watch Drozd’s full interview below.