Updated as of 11/2/20: Hall has been removed from his position. Please read our updated article with more information here.
Panic! At The Disco fans are tweeting their support after several women are coming forward with claims of sexual misconduct at the hands of the band’s security manager, Zack Cloud Hall.
Hall, who has worked with Panic! At The Disco since the early 2000s has become a staple in the Panic! fandom. Usually seen mingling in VIP areas, giving a run down of security protocols, or patrolling the crowd prior to showtime, Hall is one of the first things fans recognize when attending shows. His vocal social media presence has allowed fans to connect with the band (and ultimately Brendon Urie), and by being one of the few Panic team members to answer fan Tweets/Instagrams, Hall has become a seeming gateway to all things Panic!, causing him to gain a large following.
However, following a viral post this weekend where Panic! At The Disco’s former bassist Dallon Weekes referred to Hall as “the actual worst person [he’s] ever met,” several fans are digging into Hall’s questionable history and calling for his removal from the team.
CONTENT WARNING: SEXUAL HARASSMENT, MISCONDUCT
In old but recently resurfaced Tweets, fans have found a variety of ableist, sexist, and fat-shaming filled tweets from Hall directed at a variety of people, including Weekes himself.
In an exchange from 2015, Hall repeatedly made comments about Weekes’ body, referring to him as having “mom hips.” Then, after being asked to leave Weekes alone, Hall continued on by saying he could not since Weekes’ initiated the conversation, despite having not participated until Hall insulted him.
Around the same time, Hall also came under fire for tweeting a photo of a fan at a Panic! concert referring to her as their “biggest fan” before making several other pointed comments about the woman’s weight. In response to criticism Hall then tweeted a photo of two malnourished children asking if he can “pick on these people” instead because he didn’t “want to piss off the skinnies.”
Body shaming/fat shaming- On the first one, Brendon made the mistake of retweeting it but then apologized. I also blurred out their eyes out of respect. pic.twitter.com/VCAC520q4W
— #1 K-Pop Hater- #firezackhall (@KatieDoesGames) July 25, 2020
Fans have also begun speculating that Hall may be to blame for Weekes’ departure from the band in 2017, as the bassist has spoken out several times about being “constantly bullied” and treated as less than other members- though never naming who the perpetrator of the bullying was.
Following her husband’s public post, Weekes’ wife Breezy made her own public statement, announcing that during her husband’s time in the band she was subjected to regular sexual harassment at the hands of Hall, sharing a story from one of the many times she was made to feel uncomfortable around the security manager.
“Zack comes over to me and says ‘I’m going to sit next to her. Maybe I can get her to jack me off during the movie!’ then proceeds to sit next to me the whole time making me feel extremely uncomfortable,” Breezy shared. “I was actually really shocked at first and I didn’t know how to react… I felt disgusted and dirty.”
Alongside her text post Breezy also shared a text exchange between Hall and herself in which Hall sent the model a photo of herself in a bikini, cropped to focus on her chest with the caption “My lock screen.” To which Breezy replied “I see the face isn’t important.”
Through sharing their experiences publicly, the Weekes family have also indirectly encouraged others to come forward with similar experiences, including one fan who says Hall dubbed her “the boob girl” after making several inappropriate references to her chest during a concert.
“he made me feel guilty for showing my cleavage at a concert,” the fan (@slowtownwhore on Twitter) shared. “i was feeling confident, and since that, i have felt guilty, and disgusting if i show cleavage.” [sic]
Breezy then tweeted the fan apologizing and sharing that she put up with similar behavior “so that Dallon could keep his job.”
This sparked further reports from fans, including Simone Kelly (@MyChemSimone on Twitter) who shared that Hall gave her the name “blow job girl” when she was 16 after she asked him for a water during a set change.
“I signaled to my mouth and the bottle, he was like, oh, you want a blow job sure! and mimicked a blow job to me.” Kelly shared. “I was absolutely mortified.”
“After the show though I though it was a funny story- a way to show other fans I had an inside joke with the band/management. I was special,” Kelly continued. “Seeing all this other stuff come out today has shocked me and creeped me out. It wasn’t a one-off thing for him. 16 is legal in my country, but he didn’t know/ask my age. i was in school..”
Further evidence of Hall’s sexual misconduct was shared as fans recounted his “nude wallpaper,” which was created after he screenshotted nudes sent to his (now deleted) snapchat account and turned them into a collage before tweeting them out to his followers.
Some have also suggested Hall’s involvement in the sexual misconduct allegations against former guitarist Kenneth Harris, who was removed from the band in 2018 after allegations surfaced that he had been soliciting nudes from minors.
In addition to sexual harassment, fans have also come forward with their own personal stories of Hall’s fat shaming, including one fan who Hall reportedly told they needed to lose weight to look good in photos after denying their request for a photo op.
“I go up to him, ask for a picture and I’m stuttering cause anxiety sucks. Long story short, he refused to take a picture with me because he said I was too heavy and maybe I should lose some weight to look better in a picture” they wrote.
“He laughed at my stutter and said “it’s cute but you, not so much.”
Another fan shared their experience with Hall after he confiscated their friend’s insulin outside of a show in 2016 claiming it “could be heroin.”
“He’s a shitty person and had no empathy.”
Others who have witnessed Hall’s harassment over the years have also come out in support of victims, saying that they hope Urie will take these concerns seriously and remove Hall from the Panic! team.
For more information on Hall and how you can assist in raising the issue to Urie and Panic! At The Disco’s attention, Twitter users @IDKHowie and @SpenceSmiles put together a carrd where you can read more info on Hall’s history, past Tweets and first hand accounts from fans as they come forward with their own stories.
Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know have been impacted by Hall, or any other person in the industry has abused their power, please know that you are not alone. We stand with you and we support you. #FireZackHall
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