Ex-Flaming Lips Musician Steven Drozd Explains Split From Band

A little over a month ago, former Flaming Lips multi-instrumentalist commented that he was “moving on” now that his bandmates were “done with [him].” He broke his silence, somewhat, on the matter on Thursday in an interview with Tulsa’s local Fox station. Toward the end of 2024, a “personal crisis,” which he did not detail, prompted his exit from touring life.

Drozd told Fox, though, that he hoped to remain a band member even though he didn’t go on the road. His hope was that he would continue to work with the group in the studio. “Wayne [Coyne] and I disagreed on what I should do moving forward, so we just kind of agreed that I would step back,” he said. “Then stepping back turned into not coming back.”

Drozd cited the Beach Boys as an example of a band that kept a member who didn’t tour. Brian Wilson had co-founded that band in 1961 but ceased touring between 1964 and 1976, returning only intermittently in the early Eighties and Nineties before solidifying his exit in 1996. “But we’re not the Beach Boys,” Drozd eventually conceded. “That just seemed like an odd fit. After 33 years, moving on felt kind of right.”

A rep for the Flaming Lips and Wayne Coyne declined to comment.

Drozd first addressed his exit on Threads in December, responding to a fan who asked if he was “officially done” with the Lips. At that point, he’d not performed live with the group since Oct. 12, 2024. In January 2025, the band had replaced Drozd live with A.J. Slaughter.

After deleting the comment, Drozd joked about the gaffe of speaking publicly. “What do you call it when a Gen Xer makes a Boomer mistake?” he wrote. “That’s what I did yesterday here on threads lol.”

Drozd had joined the Lips in 1991, playing every standard rock-band instrument at some point or another during his decades with the band. As a group member, he co-wrote the group’s mainstream breakthrough, “She Don’t Use Jelly,” as well as celebrated albums like The Soft Bulletin (1999) and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002). The group, whose last album, American Head, came out in 2020 have yet to record an album without him.