A Nashville-based artist claims he had to pull the plug on a musical inspired by the 2015 twenty one pilots album Blurryface after receiving a cease and desist demand from reps for the duo.
Matt Wagner unveiled a trailer for Blurryface: The Musical on Jan. 31 and created an Instagram account for the project.
“Launching this project has been a dream come true for me,” he wrote on Instagram on Feb. 2, “and all the encouraging DMs and stories have really made the 4.5 year journey worth it.”
Wagner said Josh Dun of twenty one pilots “liked” the trailer.
But, this week, Wagner said he received a cease and desist letter. “I’ve been told to take the musical’s trailer off the internet and that the project can not continue,” he shared in a post on the project’s since-deleted Instagram account. He did not say if the demand came from twenty one pilots management or the pair's record label.
The trailer can still be viewed on Reddit.
Wagner admitted he was disappointed but knew “this was a possibility from the very beginning.” He added: “Through it all, I still love twenty one pilots. I will always love twenty one pilots. Nothing will ever change that.”
Whether or not Blurryface: The Musical was ever a real project, Wagner is using the publicity it got to draw attention to the release of his song “Geek” on Feb. 21. “So excited to share my first track with the world,” he wrote in an Instagram post.