Dear Lorin, 

It's time to talk about the Bassdrop. You've protected this symbol ruthlessly, with your team sending cease and desist letters to countless small artists who used the symbol to create art which they shared internationally and with thousands of fans. Your fans persisted because for us, the Bassnectar experience was more than just a following for Lorin Ashton. It was the shows. The friendships we gained, the travel experiences, the volunteer projects and the growth we made as many of us transitioned from teens to adults. From young adults to middle aged people with families and "bass babies." We grew with The Bassnectar Project. And we were devastated when we were told we couldn't use a symbol that we had BEEN using, because Lorin Ashton wanted to keep the money made from using it for himself.

You said that you didn't want your symbol to be used in ways that could embarrass it. You wanted control over it so that it wouldn't be disrespected, abused or otherwise made low. 

We largely ignored you. We continued to make really great art with bassdrops on it, and we took our chances at your ire. We tattooed it on our bodies. We made jerseys and we made pins, and we made one another happy as we expressed the fact that we were part of not "Lorin Ashton's fanbase" but THE BASSNECTAR COMMUNITY.

And then... you brought it low. You've embarrassed the bassdrop. Your actions, and yours alone, caused you to withdraw from your music career in disgrace. Your choices made it so that now there's a raging discussion over whether all that art is now trash.

And this petition is to let you know that it's not. You made a bad decision when you decided to send those cease and desist letters trying to keep the community from using the bassdrop, and now we'd like you to give it to us. Because the Bassnectar Community is bigger than you. Much, much bigger. We're the folks handing out water bottles at shows, gathering by the hundreds to clean beaches and organizing narcan training.   We're supporting up and coming artists, and we're making sure that people stranded after a show get home. We're making art. A ton of it. And we shouldn't have to stop just because you're taking your bass and going home. 

What this petition calls for is for you to make a public statement granting use of the bassdrop to anyone in this community with your acknowledgment that it's bigger than you, that it's valuable, and that you let us down. Because you did. 

If you don't want to make music anymore, fine. Your music was excellent. You let the spotlight give you a big head and made some very "inappropriate" decisions.
You're being held accountable.

Quit if you need to. Take a hiatus and come back in a year if you want to. Make it right with the young women you hurt, and make it up to the community with monetary and time donations to causes which create change if you want to be welcomed to the stage again. 

But we're taking the bassdrop. And we're keeping it. We're not covering up our tattoos. We're not ripping and burning our jerseys. We're gonna keep making art and we're gonna keep loving each other. Stop sending cease and desist letters. Stop trying to hoard Bassnectar for just one person and turn it into what it was supposed to be to begin with... a collaborative music project, not a person.

Let someone else take the reigns for a while. 

Because it's not about you, Lorin Ashton. 

It never really was.