Matt Farmer, American Idol’s 2013 Timothy Poe





So Matt Farmer, performed on American Idol on Wednesday January 30th, before he did he told his story. He claimed he was on a mission in Ramadi, Iraq and they came across an IED, and the IED exploded. He says the only thing he remembers is waking up in the hospital after the explosion.

He also claims he was diagnosed with a TBI(Traumatic Brain Injury), and the medication prescribed to him for the TBI was supposed to cause him to be sterile.

Here is his audition with the show:


Matt Farmer – Long Beach Audition – American… by IdolxMuzic


Only one problem Mr. Farmer, all of your brothers are saying it did not happen. In fact the stories they are telling us are in fact totally different from what you have claimed on the show?

We are being told by all of them, that you were never hit by an IED. According to them, you were drinking on top of some non-prescription acne meds and it caused you to have a seizure, hence the reason you were sent out of the AO.

Your roommate while you were deployed sent us the following:

Here is the back ground.  I was the sniper section leader attached to his company and lived in the same room with him until he was medevac’d from Ramadi because he got drunk while he was taking accutane, an acne medication.







And here is another statement from a Soldier that served with Matt:

Matt Farmer is a fraud. He is currently auditioning with American idol under false pretenses. I served with this person from Dec 2005 until he prematurely left theatre for using banned substances specifically medication not prescribed and alcohol.


The theatre was Ar Ramadi Iraq 1Bn 26inf blue spaders 1ID attached to 1-77ar 1ID and 2nd marine expeditionary force. His actions endangered the rest of his platoon and company and forced the rest of the company to be searched in what is called a “health and welfare” for illegal substances.

Sgt David Johnson

And the statement’s just keep pouring in:


His story on American idol is all lies. he did deploy with us but never saw combat, never got blown up, never got a TBI and he was kicked out of Iraq because he drank alcohol while he was taking Accutane. I have  pics, soldiers numbers, and his army records and timeline of his age and time in service will tell you it all doesnt line up at all.


So I am not up to speed on what Accutane is, but seems what ever it was it touched off a Health and Welfare inspection. If you do not know what that means, it is when they come and search your tent/belongings for contraband like Alcohol etc.

Here is another statement:

I was stationed with and deployed with Matt Farmer with  B Co 1-26 Infantry. Matt was part of headquarters platoon and I was a part of 3rd PLT. Matt is one of the individuals selected during the long beach auditions. I believe that there are things you need to know!


First Farmer was not sent home from being blown up in an I.E.D explosion. He was sent home because he almost killed himself! He was sent home after they found him in seizures from taking unauthorized acne medication while consuming unauthorized alcohol while in Iraq.


The medication with which he was referring to that “almost made him sterile”  was the acne medication!



This is a statement we got from someone who also went through basic with Matt:


Too whom it may concern


Hello, my name is John F. McManus and I would like to make a statement about something that has been brought to my attention. However, to begin with I’d like to state who I am and what my record very clearly shows. I was active duty Army Infantry from September 14, 2005 to February 6, 2010. Upon completion of Infantry basic training and AIT at Fort. Benning, Georgia, I was assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division in Schweinfurt, Germany and arrived early January 2006.


I deployed to Ramadi, Iraq late due to knee surgery and I was boots on ground on 4 January, 2007, and was a part of the troop surge, unit extensions and Operation Murfeesboro.


That being said, I saw Matt Farmer on American Idol telling stories of being blown up by and IED, getting medevaced out of theater and being discharged due to TBI, or, Traumatic Brain Injury. This is a bold faced lie to put it nicely. Matt Farmer was medevaced from Camp Ramadi, that is true, but the reason he was airlifted out is because of a far different reason. Matt Farmer had an acne problem as young men sometimes do, and his mother was mailing him perscription strength acne medication.


What happened on the night of September 4th, 2007 is the following: Matt Farmer got his hands on some whiskey that another soldier had recieved in the mail.
He proceeded to get drunk throughout the evening and at some point in the night he had a seizure resulting from a reaction between his acne medication and alcohol. He drunkenly gave names of every soldier involved in the incident and even some that weren’t. He was taken from Camp Ramadi that night and wound up back in Germany. He then proceeded to make claims of both PTSD and TBI so that he wouldn’t have to redeploy back to Iraq to face both the concequences of him drinking in theater and also the soldiers that felt betrayed by him.


He spend the remainder of his days in the WTU (Warrior Transition Unit) and was eventually medically discharged for the ailments he claimed, effectively ending his military service somewhere between November ’07 and January ’08. I can not give you a better time frame for his discharge as I was home on 45 day block leave beginning December 7th, 2007.


Matt Farmer is no war hero. Matt Farmer is a pathological liar that has used the blood, sweat and tears of real, hard working, tough, brave and honorable Infantry soldiers to paint himself as somone he most certainly is not. He doesn’t deserve to be placed in the same category as the centuries of American Infantrymen who fought for and in some cases died for this great land. The truth will come out and Matt Farmer will regret the day he lied to America.

John F. McManus


Team Leader
United States Army


We have several other statements from other Soldiers of the unit as well, we reached out to Matt to get his version of what happened and he responded and wanted to make the following statement:

I wanted to contact you directly and let you know that American Idol took certain things i said out of context.  3 pictures that were shown were not ones provided by myslef but stock photos THEY used.

I at NO time gained any monitary values about my story that was used on American Idol and want it to also be known that i am no longer apart of the show (which teqnically i am not suppose to divulge) BUT as i know that there are people upset i also want to let you know that certain things that were said are true.


I did drink and overdose on pills. Was Medevaced to Al Asad where i was there fro several days (Not sure how many as most of it was in a drug induced blur) than sent to Laundstill Germany.  There they did lots of psyhc evals where they told me i had PTSD and anxiety disorder.  I was then transfered Back to my unit in Schweinfurt Germany.  I was never KICKED out of iraq.  I was told that i needed to go back to my unit to undergo further evaluations.


EVerything was medical and Psyc.  I wasnt kicked out of iraq or the army.  After getting back to my unit i was there for a few months at my unit and had several bouts with 3-4 day sleep deprivation. After this the Psycologist in Schweinfurt Germany and CMHS referred me to the Warrior Transition Unit.  I was in Germany in the WTU for a portion of time.  After that i was transfered (and escorted due to mental issues) to Ft. Sill, Ok where i was there at the WTU there for a year (maybe a little less).  After being there i was put up for a med board for retirement due to PTSD and Anxiety Disorder.  I did my med board and was put on TDRL in 2010 i recieved my permanat retirement at E4.



While in the care of CMHS i was out on TONS of medication that indeed side effects were that I had asked american idol to not talk about anything but my daughter and i.  i wanted no “claim to fame” for anything that was in my military carrer.  I do have a memorial tribute tatto and there is nothing on there that has any medals or anything else.

In no way do i want to erase the memory of anyone who served nor am i wanting to be anything that isnt me.  I was suppose to continue care with the VA CMHS and have NOT….since coming off meds and leaving the care of the military i have found myself spiriling out of control.  I take responsibility for my actions but threts against MY life and the life of my family is something that i dont feel is warranted.  I am not trying to disgrace anyone that has served and have sent american idol an email saying that they chopped my story up.  MY FOCUS was on my daughter….thats what i wanted to be shown and they use your words to pad viewership.


The people making the claims indeed are correct…i did overdose.  that is why i was sent from country.  but as in my 1sg Hekinin email he stated that he just thought i went back to germany and was medically released for tbi or ptsd.  i stayed in longer than that and that was the last that the people in my unit knew.  that i left germany.  i dont know what rumors traveled at the unit from there but i went to Ft. Sill WTU.  I realize that honor is most of what we base the “brotherhood:” on.  I am destraught over the threts to myself and my family, not to mention dealing with the day to day life that is being unmedicated and lving with a dises.  In your previous email you had  mentioned that the comments are that the meds i overdosed on made me steril which in fact is not the case.


When i arrived back in germany i was put through a riggorus regiment of drugs to try and find out what actually would work.  it was in that process that continued all the way to Ft Sill that i even had an issue that required me to be put on Viagra also.  I was told the pills in essance NUKE your system due to how many different meds i was put on and switched too.


I know you have sworn statements from these people and in fact the porition of is correct after that these people know nothing.  There are comments on FB that i played xbox the whole time? i was on every guard shift and patrols that others were untill i left country which was 2 months prior to the rest of the unit returning home.


I am also in the process of trying to get ahold of someone from VA to try and get in to some care facility to get meds and try and get things realigned.


Furthermore, there are several people that are in this chain of threats and accusations (although the OD part is correct) has spent several YEARS trying to cause me and my family pain.  C**** S*** has taken it apron himself latterly since the day of the accident to make rude comments on Facebook, send disheartening messages on faebook, and latterly seek and destroy me.


Like i said. I have received NO money nor will i for anything from american idol…or actually any singing at all.  I PAID to go to idol the countless times that it took to go there.  (which althoug it seems like one day its actually MONTHS on end)


Im currently in the process of trying to talk through things with 1st to try and piece a little more of those first few days together. and would like the opritunity to discuss further with you those things.



We responded to Matt with this as he did not mention the statement concerning the IED: Understood, but our main concern is your claim that you were hit bu an IED, that was not chopped up. You plainly state that your truck was hit by an IED during a convoy?
His response was that American Idol chopped up what he said for ratings:
The transcript is as follows

“I was on a mission in ramadi iraq and we came across an IED and it exploded”
Then an explosion sound and the stock added photos that i DID NOT give American Idol.  you can tell this as the pics of me are far worse quality than those photos.


Than the next part was “I just remember waking up in kuwait” Like i said…this is the magic of television. IM FIRM in the fact that i know i had talked about in over 6 hours of interviews that i discussed certain missions and stuff that we did on a day to day basis…i than mentioned to a producer in an interview that i had an accident while in country and remember “waking up in kuwait”this is where this was all pieced together. I am sure you have watched the american idol clip and can realize that it is chopped up.

Our Response: But I am sure you can see how bad it looks, as it seems you plainly state you were hit by an IED in a Convoy?

No i totally understand how it looks…and this is why i am thankful that you are allowing me to have an open line of communication with you.


i just sat down and watched the clip again and turned on captions and then copied the transcript to you.  they cut audio and than start it again…the pictures i sent them were that low quality stuff that you download off Facebook. and just to let you know i NEVER saw the clip before it airing last night so when they edited it the way they did i was just as surprised.


Actually the first thing that came out of my mouth on the phone with my mother and family was “i didn’t send them those pictures i only sent ones of me and than ones of my daughter” and they agreed that it seems as though they added these stock pictures in to imply what WASNT said.

like i said i take responsibility for how i left country and live with that decision that i made every day of my life…along with everything else up in my head.


Like i said…there won’t be any further stories on me as i ended my journey with them the first day i showed up for hollywood week, which I’m actually glad that happened because i realized that the time they require out of you left little to no time at all for my family (my daughter)


So when asked about the IED, he seems to claim American Idol doctored the video for ratings? Guess we will wait to see what they have to say.

Also here is another video sent to us by one of his unit members, if you fast forward to 25:00 Matt claims to have been a Sniper in Iraq:
The Story: The Battle Begins

UPDATE The video above was removed by the church because they did not want bad publicity. Those that saw the video, including myself, can verify it including Matt making the same claim of the IED. He also claimed in the video that he was a sniper in Afghanistan, although he never deployed to the stan.


UPDATE: Thanks to a fan, we have the audio from the video above that was deleted. Listen as Matt claims his Spec Ops Missions:



UPDATE 20130201 Matt sent us the following statement, in this statement he admits to the lies he told.

Everything you have read is correct. It was ALL lies. I in fact HAVE lied since a younger age and had a problem with it. I am coming out and making a statement (even though I was instructed not to) because i DO want to come clean. Just so everyone knows I’m not reviving any sort of disability for Tbi. Let it also be known that I left country 2.5 months before the rest of the unit came home, I stayed in the army PAST my ETS date and was released from full service (wether active or reserve) in 2009.
I do in fact take FULL responsibility for the actions and words I have said, and know that this will never go away. In NO way was I looking to take from everyone who has served. I started to believe my own lies. And after I believed them… I would catch myself talking like it had happened to me my entire life. To the gentleman above who talked about going to the VA I am doing just that, the “cocktail” u refer to Has been my deterrent for the last couple of years as I feel like when I was medicated while at FT sill and even at Schwinefurt It was never “correct”. Never the less.
The lies end here. I want to base the life I have left on nothing but what is real and genuine and in the here and now. I am EXTREAMLY remorseful and VERY upset that I allowed myself to take from the hard work of the guys that i was deployed with among others. To think that I would go on a national tv show and get away with continuing a lie so big, and so deeply imbedded in my lfe and brain… Is rediculous. Hindsight is always 20/20. The work the blue spader a did overseas was impeccable and I regret that I took from that. To EVERYONE but more importantly the men I served with, I AM DEEPLY REGRETFUL AND SORRY. my road to figuring out how to make a life built on trust starts now. It starts with getting help. And starts with this message.
I was told to keep quiet and not talk to anyone, and I have decided that what’s best for me and my family is to come out and end the insanity. I indeed have many many things to work with and need to get alot of help doing it. Again I appologize to everyone that I have come across and hurt or lied too.

Matt farmer




© Guardian Of Valor