Numerous musicians have shared their 9/11 stories today, which if you haven’t noticed is the tenth anniversary of the tragic event. You can find some reflections on that infamous day back in 2001 from the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan‘s Greg Puciato, Lamb Of God‘s Randy Blythe and Anthrax‘s Scott Ian below:
Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan, etc.) (via Gregpuciato.com):
“So strange. A full decade. I remember my friend and our manager at the time Tom Apostolopoulos calling me and telling me to “wake the fuck up now and turn on the television”. I was supposed to drive up to Ben’s house that day, so that we could play CMJ festival the next day in New York, in what was going to be my first show with The Dillinger Escape Plan.
Tom had a habit of calling me and waking me up in whatever offensive manner that he found to be the most hilarious, so really I wasn’t expecting anything serious. I asked him what channel, and he responded with “it doesn’t fucking matter dude”, which immediately made me take him a little more seriously this time. Still, I assumed that at the most someone famous had died, but I never expected what I was about to see.
I turned on the television and in immediately faded the image of one of the World Trade Center towers on fire, Tom narrating through my shitty Nokia phone that a plane had hit it, and instantly my first thought was that some asshole with a private plane had lost control of it, perhaps had a heart attack and crashed….something to that effect.
That thought had barely finished going through my head when the second plane went through the other tower. Our immediate simultaneous “HOLY SHIT” was followed by a stretch of hand-over-mouth silence, and an immediate fear, a fear which would continue to rise throughout the morning, particularly with my close proximity to Washington, DC.
Our show was cancelled and rescheduled for a few weeks later(a show, tellingly enough, that I remember far less clearly than that phone call), but the lives of the people lost that day and the innocence, naivity, and carefree attitude that our country possessed would be gone forever. Ten years later, years that have included the Iraq War, a worldwide financial meltdown, Hurricane Katrina, a U.S. housing market collapse, massive unemployment, debt spiraling out of control, the war in Afghanistan, and now almost three nearly worthless presidential terms, it’s hard to believe that at that time our most recent pressing concerns as a nation were things like whether Clinton had gotten a blowjob from his intern, whether all of our computers and appliances would stop working when the year 2000 came, or whether paper votes had been miscounted.
There are a million related ideas or tangents we could go on related to 9-11, nearly all worthy of way more discussion than for which there is even enough time in the world. None of those discussions would change the fact that 9-11 was our generation’s Kennedy assassination, in that there hasn’t been since, nor was there before, a single isolated event that’s happened in my lifetime that just about EVERYONE my age can all relate to by way of being able to remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news of it.
This post has no large agenda, no message, no patriotic rally call and no skeptical conspiracy theory pushing criticism. I just wanted to share what I was doing at that instant on that day, and if anything, by doing so, contribute my small insignificant memory to the collective massive significance of the moment.”
Randy Blythe (Lamb Of God) (via Twitter):
“10 years ago today I woke up late as usual, drank some coffee, & walked to my cooking job at Avalon restaraunt in RVA. I was in a good mood. I came in & saw my buddy Steve (born & raised in NYC) & said “Wassup man” & he said “I guess we’re at war again man”. I looked up & the TV. I saw the planes fly into the towers again & again. I didn’t really understand it at first. Didn’t open the restaurant that day. We watched. As the day wore on, I watched the tv, it sank in what had happened to all those people & I remember thinking “Things will never be the same”
Finally at some point in the day it REALLY sunk in & I began to cry. NYC, the Pentagon, the passengers on 93 who fought them TO THE GROUND. I wanted the images to stop, & at some point I stopped watching tv. But the images wouldn’t stop, & have shaped my life since in many ways. A lot of ugly things happened after 9/11 but for a brief time there was a spirit of unity amongst my people, OUR people, the American people.
Today I think should be a solemn day of reflection, not just on those lost & their kin, but on the meaning of what it is to be one of us. I have been literally around the world several times, & I remain convinced that the United States of America is THE GREATEST NATION ON EARTH. We are ONE nation made up of MANY people. Let us remember that, & try to act accordingly. It should not take a tragedy to remind us if that.
Ten years later, I’m in NYC having my coffee, then I’ll go to work just like in 2001. But first I’ll stop by Ground Zero to pay my respects. So it’s a sad day, but it’s good for me to be here. New York City still stands tall, as does DC near my Virginian home. We ain’t going away & we WONT go away as long as we remain UNITED. THINK about it, & be good to each other. Im off to Ground Zero. Have a good day. #NEVERFORGET”
Meanwhile, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian kept it short and sweet, speaking on the Anthrax mailing scandal that followed soon after 9/11 and September 14th, 2011 being designated as “Anthrax Day” in the Bronx, he offered:
“10 years ago they wanted us to change our name. Now we get our own day in the Bronx. You just have to laugh. Peace to everyone today.”
