Neil Perry hits back at his sister over the Band Perry breakup

Neil Perry has publicly rebuked his sister Kimberly Perry over her account of how the Band Perry changed, in a series of Instagram posts on August 12 that Taste of Country covered the next day. He says he was fired from the family band and has since lost both his financial stake and access to the fanbase he spent his 20s helping build.

The Band Perry debuted with 'Hip To My Heart' in 2009 as siblings Kimberly, Reid and Neil Perry, quickly becoming ACM and CMA Top New Artist winners and Grammy nominees in country music, with 'If I Die Young' regularly ranked among the best country songs of its era. Their first two albums, the self-titled debut and Pioneer, were widely praised, but a stylistic turn on the unreleased album Heart + Beat and its lead single 'Live Forever' failed at country radio and preceded a split from their record label.

Later releases moved toward pop, including 2016's 'Comeback Kid' and the certified pop song 'Stay In the Dark,' before the trio quietly went on hiatus during the pandemic. Kimberly Perry launched a solo career in 2023 with her album Superbloom, and by May 2024, Neil says, none of the siblings were consistently on speaking terms and Reid had stopped engaging in band matters.

Neil says he was terminated from the band on July 24, 2024, after Kimberly proposed reforming the Band Perry with her husband Johnny Costello in the lineup, a move he says he explicitly opposed. In July 2025, the Band Perry, now Kimberly and Costello, signed with Nashville Harbor Records and Entertainment, part of the Big Machine Label Group, with Reid Perry taking part in that announcement before leaving again that fall.

Neil says he told his sister not to represent his support for the current version of the band, contradicting a comment she made to the Rolling Stone Nashville Now podcast suggesting her brothers backed the reunion. Neither Reid, Kimberly nor the Band Perry has responded to Neil's posts, and Costello has stayed quiet as well. Neil made a related claim about his 2024 termination in an earlier round of posts.