Whether due to the sweeping of these allegations under the rug or rumors that they have been proven "false," I have decided to compile information and evidence as to why I no longer support Will Wood (and The Tapeworms). This is not meant to slander him or convince readers to no longer consume his content, it is simply an explanation piece for anyone curious or unaware. There will be mentions of pedophilia, grooming, sexual abuse, domestic violence, abuse apologism, and possibly more content warnings to be added.
For simplicity, and since his name is often stylized this way, I will refer to him as WW throughout.
ending notes
The allegation which sparked outrage against Will Wood and encouraged a number of people to bring light to other transgressions of his, was one made by a twitter user by the name of Oliver. Oliver's thread, now archived here, goes into detail about the relationship between himself and WW when he was only 18 years old and WW was at least 25. Oliver notes that he had been a fan of WW since he was 16 years old.
"Hi. My name is Oliver, I am a 21-year old transmasc autistic person and l use he/him pronouns. Let me start this by telling you that Will Wood was my absolute favorite musical artist from the ages of 16 to 19. I found him absolutely enchanting, from his lack of clear genre, to his voice, to the subject matter that touched me so deeply I swore he could read my mind. To say I was obsessed was an understatement."
Oliver and WW became acquainted once Oliver turned 18.
"Until I was 18, toward the end of 2018, I was just a fan. Being that Will was a local and niche musician, I added him on Facebook and occasionally we would respond to each others' posts. In early 2019, I ended up seeing him at an Against Me! concert at Asbury Lanes. I greeted him, told him who I was, and that we were friends on Facebook, and later, he liked and responded to some of the posts I made about the concert on Facebook. Fast forward a bit to Summer of 2019, I added him on Snapchat and we began talking in earnest."
After chatting about their interests, the topic of Oliver's sex work at the time came up and WW became intrigued. He admits his attraction to Oliver and eventually brings up how creepy he feels at the thought of buying nudes from him. Entertaining the idea of buying the nudes, he tells Oliver that he would need to keep a transaction a secret, expressing anxiety about the impact "buying nudes from someone who is barely legal and also a fan" would have on his career.
"We talked about all sorts of things, our shared interest in musical theater, music in general, and one night in October, we eventually landed on my profession at the time. In order to make extra money, I was camming and selling NSFW content. He seemed very, very interested in this, asking me all kinds of questions out of feigned "curiosity" After talking about this for hours, he confessed his attraction to me. I'd had a sneaking suspicion, but this confirmed it. He then asked about buying content from me."
"He bought a set of custom photos from me that night. In retrospect, his self-awareness is kind of jarring. He seemed disgusted with himself for finding me, someone almost a decade younger than him, attractive and knew he could get in trouble for it. I was completely starstruck by him. An artist whose music meant so much to me was paying attention to ME! I had no idea these red flags were even there."
"The next night, he offered me money to sext with him, but pulled out of it last minute, and suggesting we don't have any sexual undertone to our friendship. I was totally okay with that, seeing as I viewed him as someone I looked up to and a friend, and a potential client if he wanted that, not a potential sexual partner (my relationship was monogamous at the time, and sex work was just a way to make money)."
WW admits that he "would've thought of [himself] as being a way bigger perv in this situation," the situation, once again, being a sexual encounter with a barely legal fan.
Note: Will Wood has since put out a statement that he will no longer be working with Maisto and that he is banned from all WW events. I will keep this segment in here, as it does not change the fact that he knew that Maisto was actively abusing Gabby Vice and that they both would interact inappropriately with minors at the time.
Another concern to be brought up about WW is his close friend and producer, Jon Maisto. Maisto is a known domestic abuser who has also written music about abusing women in various ways, with WW joining him for their duo project, The Stereosexuals.
Following Oliver's thread about his grooming experience, Gabby Vice released her own thread about her experiences with Maisto and WW.
