Buckcherry's lineup is losing a familiar face as the band has announced they have parted ways with longtime bassist Jimmy Ashhurst. The group revealed the news after receiving repeated queries from fans as to why the musician had not been present at recent shows.

In a lengthy Facebook post, the band admitted that the decision was not an easy one to make, but they have decided to move forward. The band also revealed that Kelly Lemieux will be handling bass duties for them for the remainder of the year.

Their post on the lineup change reads as follows:

Recently many of you have been contacting us wondering what exactly is going on with our current line up, our bassist, and generally wondering why we haven't addressed this directly. For the sake of setting the record straight and letting our fans know what's up, here it is:

With heavy hearts and with great difficulty we have decided to part ways with our long time bandmate Jimmy Ashhurst. This was not an easy decision, nor was it a rash decision made in haste. It's not our desire to air dirty laundry or inner band circumstances that brought about this result. Every band has its issues, and while we have gone to great lengths to minimize them and work through them, this band has had its own issues like any other. We in no way wish to put Jimmy in an unfavorable light. Simply put, we felt it was in the best interest of the collective group to find a replacement for Jimmy, for the good of the group as well as the good of Jimmy. This was communicated to him very clearly and with much respect. He was given the opportunity, after many years of freely voicing his extreme level of unhappiness on a daily basis, to step aside. He chose to stay and remain in a situation that not only wasn't working for him, but also was beginning to diminish the collective happiness, creativity, and progress of the band. That, to us, was unacceptable. We feel our fans deserve a band in which all 5 guys you pay your hard earned money to see actually want to be there and are grateful for the opportunity play music. Regardless of half-assed, sideways social media posts to the contrary, that was no longer the case for Jimmy based soley on his actions and daily conversations with him over the past few years. There is no victim here as we have, individually and collectively, attempted to make this a situation that works for all of us. We wish Jimmy the best, he is a great musician. Now, we are moving forward. Any delay in getting this news to our fans was simply due to our focus on finding and rehearsing a suitable replacement for our tour of South America. Please welcome our friend Kelly Lemieux who will be handling bass duties for the remainder of our 2013 touring schedule.

Keith, Josh, Stevie, and Xavier

At present, Buckcherry only have one remaining U.S. show on their itinerary, performing at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass. on Oct. 25. They do however have dates booked for the remainder of the year with shows in Europe and Australia primarily filling up the itinerary. See their full tour schedule at this location.

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