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So, the night of the accident, I get home at 4am from the ER.. hands bandaged BIG TIME.. I open the door.. the guy my mom married says, "What happened to you?" I reply, "I dunno.. was just playing guitar (at the show) and it had some electrical malfunction and blew up!"
He gave me the funniest look I've ever seen because he TAUGHT electronics in school and KNEW electric guitars don't have actual electricity going through them.. I never did tell them it was a pyro accident..
So, that was a Friday night.. We also were playing the same club TWO shows on Saturday: one at noon for the underage kids in town and a regular full show at 9pm for the adults.. So, literally 8 hours after I got home from the ER, I'm back at the club, in full stage gear, trying to figure out how to play with one inch tall blisters across all four fingers on my left hand and on my right thumb and index finger.. on my left hand, which took the brunt of the explosion, the blisters were all the way from the hand to the finger tip on all 4 fingers - across both knuckles on all four fingers..
So, I can't bend my fingers o my left hand AT ALL.. we're in the dressing room, total sold out show for the kids who idolized us, and one of the guys says, "go tell Dave (manager of the club) that we can't play.. He can't play with that BS"..
So, not wanting to disappoint the kids, I made a decision.. I told everyone but the singer to leave the dressing room.. JD, the singer, was a heartless b*astard , so I figured he'd be the best guy to do what I decided to do.. I told JD, "take my left hand and force it into a fist.. I don't care how much I yell and scream or whether I kick you in the nads - WHATEVER - just force my hand into a fist.."
So JD takes my left hand and slowly forces it into a fist.. absolutely excruciating.. I didn't yell, but had tears in my eyes, it hurt so bad.. But in doing that, it gave me enough flexibility to be able to play - as long as it didn't stiffen up during the show.. We did the show.. it wasn't easy.. it hurt sooooo bad, but we did it and did it well..
About 7 hours later we were back at the club for the night show.. I made JD do the same thing to my left hand.. I think I punched the wall with my right hand when he did it, but he did it, and I was able to do the night show.. Those two shows that day were something I've been proud of ever since.. I don't think very many people would have done those two shows, literally 12 hours after sustaining second degree burns..
So, 3 days later I have a follow up appointment at the hospital.. the nurse says, "stick your hand through this curtain and DON'T look".. all of sudden my left hand is ON FIRE with severe pain.. I stupidly peek through the curtain to see the nurse, with a scalpel, scraping all the dead skin off my fingers.. I recommend that you definitely wanna stay AWAY from fire.. burns are the WORST..
Less than a month later I did the same act at another show.. Set my hair on fire that time.. I continued to do the act, once during every engagement (normally 3 nights) and finally got it down perfect - no problems..
Unfortunately, years later, the band Great White killed over 100 people in a pyro accident during a show, so pyro was outlawed indoors, so the blowing up guitar trick was dead.. initially I did it because I couldn't figure out how to make my guitar SMOKE like Ace Frehley of Kiss.. So, I set out to learn how to make my guitar smoke and, after consulting his former guitar roadie, figured a good way to do it.. I started doing the smoking guitar act 18 years ago, at every show, without incident.. Technically, it IS an act of pyro.. So... shhhhhhh.. lol
So, here's the only shot I know of, of the exploding guitar trick.. How about all those little bits of fire lol:
..and there are TONS of smoking guitar photos, but this one shows it fairly well..
Friendship is like peeing your pants.. Everybody can see it, but only you can feel the warmth..
He gave me the funniest look I've ever seen because he TAUGHT electronics in school and KNEW electric guitars don't have actual electricity going through them.. I never did tell them it was a pyro accident..
So, that was a Friday night.. We also were playing the same club TWO shows on Saturday: one at noon for the underage kids in town and a regular full show at 9pm for the adults.. So, literally 8 hours after I got home from the ER, I'm back at the club, in full stage gear, trying to figure out how to play with one inch tall blisters across all four fingers on my left hand and on my right thumb and index finger.. on my left hand, which took the brunt of the explosion, the blisters were all the way from the hand to the finger tip on all 4 fingers - across both knuckles on all four fingers..
So, I can't bend my fingers o my left hand AT ALL.. we're in the dressing room, total sold out show for the kids who idolized us, and one of the guys says, "go tell Dave (manager of the club) that we can't play.. He can't play with that BS"..
So, not wanting to disappoint the kids, I made a decision.. I told everyone but the singer to leave the dressing room.. JD, the singer, was a heartless b*astard , so I figured he'd be the best guy to do what I decided to do.. I told JD, "take my left hand and force it into a fist.. I don't care how much I yell and scream or whether I kick you in the nads - WHATEVER - just force my hand into a fist.."
So JD takes my left hand and slowly forces it into a fist.. absolutely excruciating.. I didn't yell, but had tears in my eyes, it hurt so bad.. But in doing that, it gave me enough flexibility to be able to play - as long as it didn't stiffen up during the show.. We did the show.. it wasn't easy.. it hurt sooooo bad, but we did it and did it well..
About 7 hours later we were back at the club for the night show.. I made JD do the same thing to my left hand.. I think I punched the wall with my right hand when he did it, but he did it, and I was able to do the night show.. Those two shows that day were something I've been proud of ever since.. I don't think very many people would have done those two shows, literally 12 hours after sustaining second degree burns..
So, 3 days later I have a follow up appointment at the hospital.. the nurse says, "stick your hand through this curtain and DON'T look".. all of sudden my left hand is ON FIRE with severe pain.. I stupidly peek through the curtain to see the nurse, with a scalpel, scraping all the dead skin off my fingers.. I recommend that you definitely wanna stay AWAY from fire.. burns are the WORST..
Less than a month later I did the same act at another show.. Set my hair on fire that time.. I continued to do the act, once during every engagement (normally 3 nights) and finally got it down perfect - no problems..
Unfortunately, years later, the band Great White killed over 100 people in a pyro accident during a show, so pyro was outlawed indoors, so the blowing up guitar trick was dead.. initially I did it because I couldn't figure out how to make my guitar SMOKE like Ace Frehley of Kiss.. So, I set out to learn how to make my guitar smoke and, after consulting his former guitar roadie, figured a good way to do it.. I started doing the smoking guitar act 18 years ago, at every show, without incident.. Technically, it IS an act of pyro.. So... shhhhhhh.. lol
So, here's the only shot I know of, of the exploding guitar trick.. How about all those little bits of fire lol:
..and there are TONS of smoking guitar photos, but this one shows it fairly well..
Friendship is like peeing your pants.. Everybody can see it, but only you can feel the warmth..
