Brian Bell is a musician, singer, and songwriter. He is the current rhythm guitarist for the band Weezer and has been for the past 31 years. He has also worked with numerous other bands, including Carnival Art, Space Twins, and his band, The Relationship.
Bell has had several inappropriate relationships with fans in the past. These relationships have included exploitative relationships with minors, as well as aversive interactions with adult fans. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Bell’s misconduct with fans of all ages has been an open secret for decades, and even at times the target of jokes by fans. Because of this, there are numerous publicly available sources of Bell’s misconduct. We acknowledge that some victims do not want their stories spread, and we respect that fully. This document's content will not contain the entirety of Bell’s interactions with fans, but only those that we have full consent to share, or that have been made public by the victims already. Our foremost priority is to respect the victims’ wishes.
The authors of this document want to emphasize that this is not being done out of malice or spite for the band. The intent of this document is not to besmirch any of the people involved with Weezer, Crush, or any other affiliated parties. As far as we are aware, Brian Bell is the only member responsible. Bottom line: We love Weezer. It is the desire to protect and preserve the community that unites and compels us to raise awareness of Bell’s misconduct. We do not want further generations of Weezer fans, many of whom are young, to have to experience what the victims have described. We also hope this document can inspire any other victims of Bell to come forward and that it can let them know that they are not alone.
We simply want the truth to prevail, the victims to receive the peace they deserve, and most importantly for this not to happen again. Nobody else should be taken advantage of by Bell.
Victim A
Victim A’s Statement
In 2022, Rivers Cuomo via his official discord server got in contact with multiple pre-teen and teenage girls who were making memes about Weezer. He encouraged them to get in contact with Bell, who at the time was taking a larger role in running Weezer’s Instagram account.
Bell, 53 at the time, started talking with Victim A in late 2022. During these initial conversations, they primarily discussed the creation of memes that would be shared on Weezer’s social media pages.
Bell was made aware of Victim A’s age early on. Her age being 12 was listed in her bio. However, when directly asked, she stated she was the same age as another one of the girls, who was 14. Bell was aware of the implications of a man in his 50s talking to a minor and joked about it often.
Bell would request Victim A create certain memes and would react to and critique them. As time passed, Bell's interactions with the girls became more personal. Bell would rant to them, and express his frustrations, often demeaning, ableist, and misogynist in nature. He would also express issues with his relationships, such as those with his band members and other musicians. In turn, Bell would encourage the girls to talk to him about their problems, as well as encourage the girls to gossip about one another.
Ostensibly as material for the memes being made, Bell would send private (clothed) photos of himself to Victim A. In one instance, he sent more than 70 photos at once. In another, he sent his passport photo.
Throughout their conversations, Bell continuously made comments complimenting Victim A, directly calling her mature for her age on multiple occasions. Bell would also get in contact with Victim A's parents, complimenting them for raising her.
The two eventually got into an argument over Victim A’s work being exploited by Bell and by extension the band. Bell was then separately contacted by Victim A’s parents who expressed similar frustrations, at which point Bell denied any involvement.
By late April of 2023, Bell had stopped contacting Victim A and blocked her soon afterward.
Person B
Person B’s Statement
Person B first met Brian through a social media site after commenting on a post on The Relationship’s official account. Shortly after, the official account sent a message to their profile. This message was directly from Brian and referenced details Person B had posted on their profile, as well as being blatantly sexual. At the time, Person B was happy to receive these messages, being a fan of Brian and Weezer as a whole. The two continued to send messages throughout the next couple of months before finally meeting. Person B and Brian entered into a sexual relationship that continued on and off for years.
In the majority of the times the two were together, Brian did not wear a condom. This made Person B heavily uncomfortable and anxious, as they were worried they would contract an STI as they were aware of Brian’s other sexual relationships.
Person B expressed that they felt pressured into saying yes even when uncomfortable due to their age difference, not being as sexually experienced, and history of sexual abuse.
Brian would occasionally send unsolicited nude photos of himself to Person B alongside continuing to sleep with other women.
After the two stopped sleeping together, they still would occasionally talk. Brian attempted multiple times to get Person B to sleep with him. When they refused, Brian would react rudely and cut off communication.
Lev
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mCEkEoYdNigG7BAEiH1sHzFcP6Wv_suj?usp=sharing
On January 6th, 2024, Lev posted a thread on Twitter. Below is a transcription of the text.
Lev’s Twitter Thread
Transcript:
Lev - 1/6/24-1/7/24
“I don’t like posting “evidence” of anything I’ve been through but I met Weezer at a meet&greet during their 2016 tour and Brian Bell spent the entire 5(?) minutes trying to press his crotch against my back. You can see in the pics I was trying to step away from him. I was 14.
When we went up to meet them, he gestured me over & said he wanted me right next to him. He got uncomfortably close with me. At the end of the m&g, he rubbed my back/shoulders & told me he would “see me tonight.” I was a super big fan & didn’t see anything weird abt this until later. My heart breaks a lot for my younger self bc how did this just keep happening to me 😭😭. I wish I still had the drive link to all the m&g pictures so I could see if he did this to anyone else. If anyone can find it it was the Holmdel, NJ date of the Weezer/Panic! at the Disco tour in 2016.
Also at the time I was in a group chat (I think it was called the Weezer offense club) where other girls my age reported similar instances with him. And yes I saw the video of the girls who were 17 and 19 talking about him.** That’s what sparked the whole thing in the chat.
If this gets crossposted to Reddit then I [sic] freak out bc I don’t want this becoming discourse I just want it out there 🙏🙏
I wasn’t expecting to post this tonight but I figured this was the right time bc there was an existing convo about him. I’m not claiming to be a victim or anything and I don’t want to get in trouble. Just sharing something that I experienced that I think is relevant to the convo.
This made it to Reddit but the discourse isn’t as bad as I expected. It’s very weird to have this out in the open though. I had these pics on my main Insta for years before realizing he did anything wrong. It was crazy how I’d tell the story like “& then he rubbed my back 😍”
For most of the m&g I wasn’t outwardly uncomfortable bc I was 14 & such a big fan but what I remember most clearly is how it was so hot out & I could feel him on me & kept trying to inch away & he kept moving closer until I finally tried to step all the way out in the second pic.
The big reddit post about this thread has been deleted? or maybe hidden? idk how reddit works? Which is both relieving and annoying bc I did a huge explainer in the comments about it. Here’s my comment [see Lev’s Reddit Explanation]
There were a lot of comments saying “They were just posing” “He clearly stepped back in the second pic” etc & I get being skeptical of a stranger on the internet but in what UNIVERSE do you get that close to a CHILD & then rub their back/shoulders at the end of the interaction.
Anyway that’s it. That’s all I have. I rly don’t want to talk about this anymore. If you have an experience to share, contact @ExposeBrianBell bc they’re compiling a document with a lot of this stuff.”
Lev’s Reddit Explanation
The following day, after her initial thread was crossposted onto Reddit, Lev posted a comment going into more depth on the subject.
Transcript:
Lev - 1/7/2024
Hello everyone! This is my post! I just wanted to say:
1. I don’t have anything else on Brian or on Weezer; I’m no longer in the fandom and this was my only experience with him. Go read my Twitter thread for everything I have on him but it doesn’t go any deeper than this interaction
2. In my thread I said I’d “freak out” when this post got crossposted to Reddit, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want it here, it’s just that it gets freaky when your content/your experience leaves your control. I knew that, and I’d been wanting to bring this up for a while but didn’t have the right moment until I saw people talking about him this week. I have a bit of a following on Twitter and my content is very slice-of-life, so I figured my followers would get that that addition was a bit of a nervous laugh from me bc Reddit can be critical and your content leaving your scope is always freaky.
3. At the time of the m&g, I was a super big fan and although I had a “flash” of being uncomfortable (my clearest memory from the m&g was feeling him on me, me inching closer to my friend/trying to step away, and then him pressing against me again) I didn’t outwardly express any discomfort and didn’t even realize this was weird at all until two years later, when I was 16. At the end of the interaction, Brian rubbed my back/shoulders which I always “flexed” to friends in the Weezer fandom bc again, I was a child and didn’t see anything wrong with this interaction until later!
I’d watched the video of the girls talking about spending a night with him after a show (now deleted but you know what I’m talking about), talked about it with some friends my age in a group chat, and realized that “Brian Bell rubbed my back at a m&g!” was not a flex and it was not ok of him to do. As a teenager, a lot of stuff went over my head in general, especially anything sexual or predatory. When you’re a kid, things don’t really make sense to you, and something like this can feel like “special attention” from someone you look up to. Be kind to people coming forward.
4. When we got the pics from the m&g, they were sent in a drive with all of the pics from that tour date. I’d like to find this and see if there are any other instances of Brian pressing up against young women. If anyone has the link to a Weezer m&g pic drive or has a pic of their own, feel free to share if you’d like.
5. I don’t want to get in any trouble with Brian or with Weezer. I don’t want to cancel anyone or be involved in a larger scandal or anything.*** This is 1000% getting deleted and I’m shutting up forever if he says anything. I just wanted to post this to show anyone who has had an uncomfortable experience with him that it’s not an isolated incident, it’s not their fault, and they’re not alone. Thanks for reading and thanks for believing me :’)
Public Accounts
Facebook Meet and Greet post
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OFGIxn4bLczajG2U7Cb_qSVk9ZLg4SF3?usp=sharing
In 2016 a post was made to the Weezer Fan Club Facebook group of a fan’s interaction with Bell at a meet and greet. They recounted that Bell put his head on the fan’s shoulder awkwardly and forcefully. This made the poster uncomfortable.
Using the Official Weezer Instagram for personal use
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qLjCCmNyuObnVKwf3ZHAbYLGYaVacs5z/view?usp=sharing
Transcript:
“[Twitter Post]
tbt… weezer… thank u so much
[Screenshot of an Instagram DM]
Hey [name redacted] my name is Brian. I see you work with Mary (I had to click on you). She’s rad! For what it’s worth, I think you’re stunning, and obviously, you’re brilliant if you’re working with Mary so I [sic] like to be you [sic] friend regardless”
The victim went on to talk about the incident on a podcast. This audio is edited down from the hour-and-a-half-long show.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/188IIymeMh2ZF3Ik3s7Fm_rnRgMlj6GSa/view?usp=sharing
Transcript of clip (not of whole podcast):
Victim: On March 7th, 2019, I was simply minding my own business. I look at my phone and it says, “Weezer checkmark wants to send you a message on Instagram”. I was like, “This is weird”. And then I looked. Sure enough, there was a message that said, “Hey [name redacted], my name is Brian. I see you work with Mary Kobiashi. (I had to click on you.) She's rad. For what it's worth, I think you're stunning. And obviously, you're brilliant if you're working with Mary, so I like to be you friend regardless.” I said, “Weezer. Thank you so much.” And so I went to do the show that day or whenever, the next day. I don't know what day of the week it was. I saw Mary, and I was like, “Mary, how do you know Weezer?” She's like, “Oh, my God. I dated that guy.” I was like, “What? For real?” She's like, “Oh, my God. Yes”. I was like, “That makes it way fucking weirder.” His entry point into talking to me is because his ex-girlfriend works with me, and he doesn't mention that? But also talks about you so much that it should be mentioned? I don't know. It's just very weird.
Podcaster 1: It's like, imagine that that went how he wanted it to, and you're like, “Oh, yeah, the rhythm guitarist from Weezer? Cool.” And then how are you never going to find out that she dated him? You know what I mean? At some point, you would find out.
Victim: Yeah, “I see you work with Mary Kobayashi. I'm sure you'll be seeing her again soon. Ask her what she thinks of me.”
Podcaster 2: I wonder if he had a game plan for that in his back pocket, or if he was just like, “I'm going to go for this. I just don't care.”
Victim: I'll get to that. So Mary said that he would still send her videos of him just lifting weights, asking her if she thought he was hot. I was like,” That's cool”. I responded again because, at the time, I was also working three or four times a week at [location redacted] which is where I would direct anybody who is thirst DMing me. So he was like, “Oh, actually, I'm on tour right now, but maybe at the end of April.” And I never heard from him ever again, which whatever. I was like, I don't care.
Podcaster 1: Probably for the better.
Podcaster 2: I think it's cool to be like, “You know what? My ex-girlfriend is rad, but you know who I really want to talk to? My ex-girlfriend's decade younger friend.” Dude, imagine how many fucking people... It can't be just him, right? It can't just be Brian. It has to be all the dudes who probably aren't Rivers, I guess.
Podcaster 1: On that Weezer account, in the DMs.
Podcaster 2: Yeah, I mean, part of the deal of being in Weezer is you get to use the account to DM girls, right?
Podcaster 3: Yeah, you get to access.
Podcaster 1: Also, because they're on a major label, I wouldn't be surprised if someone at the label also has access to just post promotional photos. What do they think when they log in there and they see the DMs? It's just like 20 different DMs to girls.
Podcaster 2: It's part of the contract for everybody.
Podcaster 3: That's absolutely right.
Podcaster 3: Everybody gets to get on there.
Podcaster 2: I've never been a creative person, so I don't know what that's like. But apparently, the goal of creative products is to have an account from which you can DM women.
Podcaster 3: Yeah, collectively, especially if there's more than one person with access to that account.
Victim: So my other friend, she got caught wind of this DM that I had received, and she hit me up and was like, “Oh, my God. It's Brian, isn't it?” I was like, “What? Has he gone to you, too?” And she's like, “Yeah.” And she said that he has a pattern of inviting girls out to get coffee or lunch somewhere. And then when it comes time to pay the bill, he pretends like he doesn't have his wallet so that the girl has to pay for both of them.
Podcaster 3: The perfect crime.
Victim: And he does it every time.
Podcaster 2: He doesn't have money? Do they not pay him in the band?
Victim: I mean, I think I think he has one of those complexes where he's like, “Got to make sure she doesn't just want me for my money.”
Podcaster 2: Oh, you're totally right.
Victim: I don't know. I have one simple rule, and that's if you're a rock star and you're hitting me up on my DMs, you're washed. It's over for you.
Podcaster 1: That's a very good point.
Victim: You shouldn't ever have... You should never come across my profile. And the fact that you have is pathetic.
Reddit Threads
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u_7LK0BVB_Nx4blXlxBgUFhs5pdfDcIw?usp=sharing
In March of 2022, a Reddit user posted a thread on the r/Weezer subreddit entitled, “Have any of y’all met the Weezer members IRL?”
One response recounts having met and hung out with Bell as a 15-year-old, and describes the experience as “awkward.” The poster self-identified as a girl later in the thread.
Another reply contains an account where a fan and his girlfriend incidentally met Bell at a non-Weezer concert. The poster describes it as a "bad experience," further stating that Bell's conduct made his girlfriend uncomfortable. Bell reportedly ignored the poster and focused primarily on his girlfriend, staring inappropriately at her, acting "overly friendly", and becoming "somewhat handsy.”
Facebook Post
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RAx-WHMXcQpqJ13WP-7JXSKpeECw7J3t/view?usp=sharing
Transcript:
When I went to the Weezer show in Phoenix in August of 2016, I got to do the meet n greet and everything because I was in the fan club. This girl (ironically, she might have mad purple hair but I’d have to look at the pictures) who Brian was kinda flirting with. She was talking about she was about to turn 18 or 19, and she was showing off her tattoos to Brian and he was acting super interested in her while ignoring others. I tried to show him my Weezer tattoo and he barely glanced at it, said “oh cool”, and went back to talking to the other (prettier) girl. She was in the fan club group picture with us, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t in the fan club (everything was pretty chaotic because it had started pouring during the m&g). For a few minutes afterward, Brian and Pat stayed to chat with some of us, and I managed to get like one sentence out to Brian before he wanted to continue his convo with the other girl. Afterwards, I tried to say goodbye to Brian and thank him and all that, but he literally just ignored me and continued flirting with the other girl. #BrianBellsOverParty
Defending Woody Allen
In January 2018, Bell made an Instagram post on his personal Instagram account mentioning that he had watched five Woody Allen movies in a row. When comments criticized him for supporting an alleged sexual abuser, he responded on the trelationship account defending Allen’s innocence. The comment was deleted later at an unknown time.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j11CgPKiHN7LLwPto5phl2IU19enlGCp?usp=sharing
Transcript:
Main Post:
A couple of days ago after some 20 odd hrs. Travel time, 3 showers, 6 shots of espresso, 4 Woody Allen movies (actually make that 5), 3 hours of Spanish guitar study, and 7 hours of sleep with a 5 am involuntary wake up time, finally tonight we’re performing at the NIB stadium with an estimated 30,000 Aussies in attendance. Hello Perth!!!
Comment:
I’m happy anyone cares enough about a post to do with numbers and nothing else; it was not meant to offend and sorry if it did, but watching Allen’s ‘70’s comic masterpieces is not condoning child abuse (something he was found wrongly accused of btw). Would listening to Micheal [sic] Jackson cause the same uproar? So please take all the Allen Bashing elsewhere.
Conclusion
For years Brian Bell has been predatory to generations of Weezer fans. This behavior has been able to go unchallenged because of his level of fame, his charisma, and his fanbase. Weezer fans who are aware swept these accounts under the rug, or joked about it. We refuse to let that continue. We hope that sharing all of these accounts as such will convey that Bell has had a pattern of unacceptable behavior.
We give our thanks to everyone who contacted us during the composition of this document. We have reason to believe this is even more widespread than what we currently know about. If you would like to get in contact with us or would like your experiences to be shared in a public and anonymous fashion, please contact us at brianbellevidence@gmail.com.
Some may dismiss this, some may genuinely feel there’s nothing wrong. We hope at the very least that this makes people aware of the allegations. People may now make their own decisions on whether to support Bell or Weezer as a whole. We also hope this document ensures more safety for the next generation of Weezer fans, and that they are protected from having experiences like these.
Thank you to all who supported us and waited for the release. Solidarity means everything in situations like these.
Sincerely,
The Expose Brian Bell Team.
*07/02/2016
**A YouTube video was posted to the forum All Things Weezer where two girls discuss an incident where they lied about their ages and kissed Bell.
***We have explicit permission from the victim to share both their Twitter thread and Reddit post.
****08/02/2016