I was in a bus to an airport with a lot of people, among them Stu Hamm, multiple Garmmy winner Brandino, Weather Report's Alphonso Johnson, Steve Bailey, Dave Roe of Johnny Cash, guitarist Kenny Vaughn, Mudvayne's Ryan Martinie, the legendary Jerrry Jemmott, Divinity Roxx of Beyoncé, Scott Reeder of Kyuss, Victor Wooten, his son, and his brother Regi, Adam Nitti, Genesis-drummer Chester Thompson. Just to name a few.
It was a nightly trip and Dave Ellefson saw the driver having trouble to stay awake. Alarmed by that he took a seat more at the front. I was in between sleeping and being awake when I saw Ellefson running, screaming to the driver and grabbing the wheel. When he started screaming the whole bus started screaming, something I will never forget. The bus was going with 60 miles an hour in the direction of the guiding rail with some accidented terrain behind it and you can only imagine what would happen. Would the guiding rail have saved us? Would the bus have been flipped over? I just don't want to think of it. In the worst but very realistic case some very famous players would have been killed.
So Ellefson screamed the driver awake and steered the bus on the right lane. We forced the driver to stop at the nearest gas station and we force feeded him espresso (forced drinked?). After a break we went on to he airfield, everybody silent and heavily shaken. Because of our stop at the gas station one person missed his flight: Ellefson. Ironic.
We ordered the bus driver to have a break, but we saw him drive away. This all was reported to the police and I don't know exactly what happened afterwards. I think police made work out of it.
Fast forward to a year later. I came in the hotel and I saw Dave, with his back to me. He saw me, turned around and showed me his t-shirt with a big grin. It read: Fear The Crash. (*) We now all laugh about it, but it was one of those moments I'll never forget. Not because of the famous players, but because it was one of the more scary moments in my life. Every year someone will start about it or post the passenger list online.
I always say: Metal saved my life! \,,/
And it's true, haha!
(*) Dave was attending a gig of a small US metal band with 232 followers (number made up, just small) on facebook, called Fear The Crash and he needed to buy the tee, haha!
