Road Story

[motorhead_6]

I have a road story. I must admit that if somebody else told this story I probably wouldnt believe it but here goes. In about 1982 we were playing in Killeen Texas. Killeen has like the largest Army base in the world. Most Army bases are the home of a single division or sometimes even less but Fort Hood is the home of 2 complete divisions, the 1st Calvary division and the 4th Infantry division. There are 2 rock bars there. One is a regular indoor bar and the other is an indoor bar with a huge backyard section and the stage is outdoors. The names of them change all the time. We were playing at the outdoor one but I dont remember what the name was at that time. The stage had a roof on it. It was like a lot of houses. A thick wooden shingle roof with a little attic space and a drywalled ceiling. We were playing a song called "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath and all of a sudden the roof exploded. It completely destroyed the roof. The roof was gone. We got showered with pieces of wooden shingles. 2 of us were wounded. To us the roof suddenly exploded that is. We had a ghetto blaster out front recording and on the tape you could hear a shell wistling in and then exploding. We didnt hear it comming at the time. Whatever it was it had to be a high trajectory device like a mortar or something or it wouldnt have wistled comming in like it did. Im not sure if it was a coincidence or not that it happened while we were playing War Pigs. We had played there several times before and done War Pigs. You kind of have to wonder though. I think it was probably a practice mortar round that would explode but didnt have a bunch of schrapnel. Im not sure though.

[poppedje]

Now, that sure is a tall story... To me, it seems more likely that the explosion was caused by a shortcircuit in your amp, somehow exploding near the roof and the whistling by the crowd booing, or the whole story being made up, But I'll take your word...

[Sharky]

Great story Motorhead,
sounds like a mortar round to me.
How bad were the guys injured?
Did you finish the gig, or did you run for cover?

[Weak as Hate]

Who fired a mortar at you? Firing upon a giant military base in Texas? Takes some cajones

[crowbarr]

i've heard of blue on blue but never blue on band :)

[0.1 watts]

ouch

[t_shirtsnjeans]

I'm sure there are those who'd love to blow a round my way when playing :D

[b3n]

Who fired a mortar at you? Firing upon a giant military base in Texas? Takes some cajones

I can imagine a base that size would have more than a few disgruntled neighbours...

[BASSMAN]

I live near Ft Sill artillery base, and on occaision a shell goes errant and lands in a farmers field. It can happen. Especially since these guys are learning.

[supercobra]

Wow.

[Martyr's Prayer]

lol wow, remind me never to stay by an Army base for any longer than 5 minutes.

[motorhead_6]

Well Popedji I have to admit that if somebody else told that story I probably wouldnt believe it.

{Great story Motorhead,
sounds like a mortar round to me.
How bad were the guys injured?
Did you finish the gig, or did you run for cover?}

Of course I ran for cover. I wasnt paying attention to what anybody else did. I was a junior member of the band at that time so I did what I was told and we finished the gig.

We werent on the Army base but right next to it. On a different night we played there myself and our singer were drunk as monkeys driving from the bar back to our hotel and all of a sudden we were pulled over by military police. We were on the base. I have no idea how we got on the base. We didnt go through any gates. They just escorted us off the base. Fortunately neither one of us are of middle eastern decent.