If you’ve got a song in your soul and you literally cannot move from the stage you’re mounted on, a musician’s career can go on indefinitely, which is why the retirement of Chuck E. Cheese’s Munch’s Make Believe Band has come as such a surprise to fans. According to CBS News, the animatronic house band will be phased out of several Chuck E. Cheese locations with the redesign of the chain’s restaurants. “It’s the biggest thing we’ve done for the look and feel of Chuck E. Cheese for two decades,†CEC chief executive Tom Leverton told them earlier this week. “The kids stopped looking at the animatronics years and years ago, and they would wait for the live Chuck E. to come out.â€
No one was more devastated by the news than singer/songwriter Father John Misty, who wrote a heartfelt farewell to the group, specifically their front man Chuck Entertainment Cheese. “Having been a professional musician for a few years now, I can appreciate firsthand not only the strain of trying to sustain a flow of creativity for so long but the rigorous, pretty unexotic feat of physical endurance just getting through a few hundred shows a year, plus all the travel, is,†the Pure Comedy singer passionately posted on Facebook. “When I consider that this motherfucker was playing up to 5 sets a night all over the country simultaneously i am reminded that, yes, it can be done, and that just by getting on that stage every night and leaving everything up there, I am part of lineage, of a collective imagination that spans the generations.†The singer concludes his piece, which you can read in its entirety below, with an emotional good-bye. Writes Misty, “This man introduced me to music. Though the world may have moved on, the music remains.â€Â It’s enough to bring a tear to your eye, which, if you’re a robotic children’s band member, will probably end in your immediate short circuit and fiery demise.