American bass-player Harley Flanagan, founder of harcore punk/thrash crossover band Cro-Mags, has claimed that he was simply ‘defending’ himself when he stabbed his replacement Mike Couls earlier this month - in an incident which saw a backstage brawl erupt at a gig in New York.
The veteran band, who formed back in 1981, were performing in New York’s Webster Hall on July 6th, when previous bass-player Flanagan turned up. Attempting to go backstage to, Flanagan says, ‘make amends’ with the band (seen years ago in the above picture) - whom he left in the early noughties because of their hostile relationship - Flanagan found himself in the midst of a huge fight.
While the story is unclear, the fight, which Flanagan described as an ‘old fashioned bikers brawl’, allegedly ended with three people stabbed - Couls, their friend William Berario, and Flanagan himself - and a number of people bruised and battered. The initial reports of the story tells of how Flanagan was to blame - but now his side of the story has come to light too.
“When I saw that door get pulled shut, I was literally fighting for my life,” Flanagan told NY Natives. “I was afraid these guys were going to kick me half to death, roll me down the back steps, and that no one would see it... and there would be no witnesses and that would be that... And all I could think about was getting home safe to my kids... I wanted to save my life, to protect myself, and these guys were trying to do me in.”
He continued: “I was getting the shit beat out of me. It was like an old fashion biker beat down, like ‘BA BABABABABA BA’, and at that point everybody started screaming and I saw the door of the dressing room open and I started screaming security, security and I saw somebody pull the door shut to keep security out. And in my mind I thought to myself, "fuck, these dudes, their intention is to fuck me up, they don't want no one to see it they're trying to beat the shit out of me... So what I did was defend my life...”
Speaking of his own wound, the result of a stabbing to his leg, Flanagan said: “[It] was just grotesque… the blood was bubbling out of it, the tendons were literally hanging out of my leg. That’s why people started saying that’s a compound fracture. “It wasn’t until I got cleaned up in the ambulance they realized it was more of a stab wound. And that’s when the cops put me on the chair, and they put me in the ambulance.”
While the official story of what happened hasn’t - and may never - hit the surface, it’s definitely an eye-opening story. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
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