A recent promo shot of VersaEmerge has been released, but someone is missing.

At the beginning of the year VersaEmerge had five band members, but sometime after Warped Tour their old drummer, Anthony Martone, was 'kicked out' (and is now in the band Initials). His leaving didn't cause much of an outrage, and the band carried on with a stand in drummer from Hidden In Plain View. Yesterday (the 21st) a promo shot for Versa was posted on Brian Folchetti Flikr minus rhythm guitarist Jerry Pierce. Before this little had been said about Pierce leaving, so when people started talking about their only being three of them in the comments, Brian said:

"Their other guitarist, Jerry, is on his last tour and refused to be a part of the promos. They're getting a new drummer and staying a four-piece, from what they told me anyway"

Once news broke the tumblr and twitter community went nuts. News got back to Pierce, he tweeted this.

During warped tour and VersaEmerge's recent tour he has been selling his solo EPs and (I'm guessing) he will continue with that.

Later in the day VersaEmerge released a blog addressing the issue:

Everyone, we understand that the word is out about Jerry and you all would like to know what’s going on. We are just kids who play music for you, This is not a soap opera filled with drama. We would never try to disrespect anyone purposely and we ask the same from all of you.

Jerry is choosing to leave the band. There are some family things going on and he’s decided it’s best to address them from home. Touring is a hard way to live and in order to decide if you want to live that way you need to experience it. There are absolutely no hard feelings and we will remain best friends forever and always. And for those of you that know him and watch our videos, youve seen how damn clever and hilarious he is. And yes it’s sad to see him go but we support his plans and know that he will make a kick ass lawyer, scientist, stripper or whatever he chooses to do.

Also I’m sure you guys think the band is in a weird place right now after we’ve kicked out Anthony and now Jerry is leaving, but this is a great learning proccess for us. We don’t even have a full length record out yet, our career as a band hasn’t even begun! We are just getting started and have a long way to go. Our music will still be Versaemerge and that’s what matters in the long run. We are just asking you guys to support us the way you have been since the beginning. It’s such a good feeling to know that there are people who love us and our music. Thank you all so much for being cool.

I can't wait to see and hear how things go for VersaEmerge and Pierce.