Ash Costello to Chris Hansen: BOTDF’s Dahvie Vanity Almost Choked Me to Death
New Years Day frontwoman Ash Costello and guitarist Nikki Misery joined Have a Seat with Chris Hansen to discuss Blood on the Dance Floor's Dahvie Vanity with the former To Catch a Predator host. During the chat, Costello shared a story of when a masked figure she believes was Dahvie Vanity, choked her so hard that she thought we was going to die.
Dahvie Vanity has been accused of sexual assault by 21 women, some underage, including allegations of forced oral sex, molestation and rape. Two of the accusers were reportedly 13 years old at the time.
In the early 2010s, Blood on the Dance Floor and New Years Day were on the same tour, where Costello alleges Vanity attacked her before a Halloween show.
“It’s Halloween night, I’ve already played. I think Blood on the Dance Floor is about to play and we’re playing a venue in Milwaukee called the Rave. And the way the backstage area works at the Rave is it’s one big backstage that’s divided by curtains. So with me being the female, everyone just knew, kind of to give me my space, or if I say I’m changing don’t cross the curtain and I would have a guy stand there and kind of watch out.”
“So Nikki and my guitar player at the time Jake Jones were standing at the door, but I guess they weren’t paying attention or it was the wrong door or they were talking or whatever. I’m rummaging through my suitcase, I’m backstage alone, it’s kind of dark. It’s not a very brightly lit dressing room as I remember and I hear a sound, so I stand up and I’m going through my suitcase. I turn around and there’s a figure standing like, you know [crosses arms across her chest], like this with a cloak. They’re wearing a bunny mask and they’re just there looking at me.”
“Now, the reason I believe this is Dahvie is because, one, I could see his hair sticking out from behind the mask. It was his height because he’s quite short and it’s one of the costumes he wears on stage during that tour. So he’s not saying anything, he’s not moving and I’m like kind of playing it off like, ‘Haha you got me. You startled me, good job,’ and out of nowhere, he leapt over all of the suitcases and tumbled me to the ground and started choking me.”
“I’ll remember this part until the day I die; He was choking me so to the point where I couldn’t even let out a scream or let out the word ‘stop’ or ‘you’re hurting me.’ I remember thinking, ‘This man knows what he’s doing,’ because his thumbs… I specifically remember his thumbs being perfectly in my airway. It was perfectly placed to cut off my breathing.”
When asked by Hansen if she’s sure Dahvie was behind the mask, she replied, “At the time, 100-percent yes. We had a talk with him, eventually, about it when he eventually did apologize … I remember thinking, ‘This is it. This is where I actually get choked to death.’”
New Years Day guitarist Nikki Misery also believes it was Dahvie, as he saw the cloaked figure’s hair and tattoos, which allegedly matched the Blood on the Dance Floor frontman.
“The boys were going to beat the shit out of him,” Costello adds. “They were going to go onstage, drag him off and go after him. I’m the one who told them to stop.”
Costello says she never saw Vanity engage in a sexual act with an underage girl, but she remembers a later tour where she’d often see underage girls backstage. She also spoke to parents backstage asking where their kids were, only for Blood on the Dance Floor crew members to joke that their daughters were having sex with Vanity.
As for why she stayed quiet for so long, Costello explains, "I wanted to prove to my record label that I could handle it. I wasn’t going to cry like a little girl or act like a baby or complain every time someone wasn’t sweet to me. I felt like it wouldn’t have looked good for me. At the same time, my team — who is not my team any longer — pressured me to stick it out on the tour and not say anything."
Costello did eventually speak up, and NYD left the tour, which she shed light on in a Loudwire Nights interview last year.
Watch the full interview below.
Have A Seat With Chris Hansen ft. Ash Costello, Nikki Misery, Mal Levy
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