When Jeremy Spencer announced his departure from Five Finger Death Punch as the band was about to tour, everyone wondered what would happen. The band quickly announced a touring drummer who was selected by Jeremy Spencer as the suggested fill in. Now, the band has confirmed that Charlie “The Engine” Engen is the drummer for the upcoming album.
In Day 7 of Five Finger Death Punch’s touring and studio diary (see below), they discussed the finding and announcing of Charlie. In the video, Jason explains that it was Jeremy who introduced the band to Charlie:
“It was actually Jeremy that found Charlie. Jeremy had reached out to him through Instagram.”
Charlie then explains that he and Jeremy had been drum buddies for a while and had developed a relationship for about a year and a half before FFDP reached out to him about replacing Jeremy. Jason then continues explaining what the band decided once Jeremy began discussing retirement:
“And so when Jeremy told us that he was thinking about hanging it up… he had gone through a couple of different surgeries and really thought that he wasn’t gonna be able to play drums up to his standards… we understood. ‘But the good news is I found the guy.’ He said, ‘Well, it’s this fellow on Instagram named Charlie.’ I immediately went and started checking out the videos online, and I was, like, ‘Holy fuck! This guy’s a beast!’ And I think I reached out to him.”
Zoltan explains later in the video that when Jeremy first brought Charlie’s name up, Zoltan already knew who he was:
“The funny thing was that Jeremy kind of found him, but I followed him, so when he said who it is, I’m, like, ‘Oh, yeah! That kid is fucking amazing.’ So I already knew about him. So that was pretty cool. So I guess you can say that Jeremy handed down the torch.”
No word yet if Charlie is the official new member or if he will stay on as a hired musician.
If you saw Five Finger Death Punch with Breaking Benjamin at the Resch Center in November of 2018, then you saw one of Charlie’s first shows with the band. We’ll see them again on July 18th as they are the closing artist for day one of Rock USA.
