David Desrosiers
David Phillipe Desroisers is a Canadian former musician best known as the former bassist and backing vocalist of the Canadian rock band Simple Plan as well as the former brief time lead vocalist of the band Reset. Desrosiers joined Simple Plan in 2000 and ascended with the band as they became one of pop-punk’s biggest band. In 2017, Desrosiers took a hiatus from Simple Plan to focus on his battle with depression, eventually returning to the band in 2019.
On July 10, 2020, Desrosiers had announced that he was leaving the band following sexual misconduct allegations from women on social media.
Career
In 1999, Pierre Bouvier left Reset soon after to join Chuck Comeau in Simple Plan. Desrosiers replaced Bouvier in Reset, but he too left the band six months later to join Simple Plan. In 2002, Simple Plan released their debut studio album, No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls, which featured the singles "I'm Just a Kid", "I'd Do Anything", "Addicted", and "Perfect".In 2004, Simple Plan released its second album, Still Not Getting Any... which was produced by Bob Rock and led to the subsequent singles, "Welcome to My Life", "Shut Up", "Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me?)", "Crazy", and "Perfect World".
Desrosiers recorded six albums with the band before May 2017, he had been on hiatus from touring with Simple Plan, while he was at home recovering from depression. During that time, a touring musician named Chady Awad had been performing bass with the band as a touring substitute for more than two years, while Bouvier and Lefebvre had divided Desrosiers' vocal parts. This marks the second time Desrosiers has been absent from the band; the first time was in December 2008, when Lefebvre temporarily switched to bass for 2 weeks during live performances.
On June 8, 2019, the band reunited with Desrosiers in Cleveland, Ohio, marking his official return to the band.
Sexual misconduct allegations
On July 10, 2020, Desrosiers announced in his Instagram account that he is withdrawing from the band after "recent public statements have led me to acknowledge that some of the interactions I have had with women have caused them harm." The sexual misconduct allegations against Desrosiers come from an Instagram account, in which a woman accused Desrosiers of grooming her for sex. The post also said that he "started making inappropriate jokes when I was a minor. Once I became of legal age he started pursuing me for sex." The fan further stated that Desrosiers blackmailed her into staying silent about the incident. Soon after several other women accused Desrosiers of sexual harassment or assault.The Instagram post was added to Reddit, where more people began to come out with sexual misconduct allegations against Desrosiers.
Simple Plan’s official Instagram account also announce the news.
Following recent public statements, David Desrosiers is withdrawing from the band in order to work on his personal issues. We offer our deepest apologies to the women who were hurt by his actions. We are also sorry for all our fans who are disappointed by this regretful situation. We will, as a band, take time to pause, reflect and put in place guidelines to prevent similar situations from happening.
Their touring bassist Chady Awad left the band over sexual allegations five days later. Instead of replacing Desrosiers with a new member, vocalist Pierre Bouvier took up bass guitar and the band continued as a four-piece.