Fans of The Dillinger Escape Plan have been bummed since the band broke up and performed their final tour in December 2017. Recently, singer Greg Puciato opened up about surviving a terrible bus accident in Poland and then learning that Soundgarden‘s Chris Cornell had commit suicide. The Dillinger Escape Plan had been opening for Soundgarden around the time of Cornell’s death.
Puciato revealed details on his mental health in a recent Revolver interview. Greg shared, “I was not in the right mindset to be playing shows when we did the last Dillinger tour. I was having a lot of anxiety, panic attacks, hypochondria — all these weird things that I’ve never experienced before. The band was ending and then things just kept happening. I didn’t even think we were gonna get through it.”
Puciato describes the awful injuries he sustained from the bus accident in Poland. He says, “I tore a quadriceps. I waited too long to have it fixed, because it basically needs to be sewn back to your kneecap right away. By the time I got home from Poland, I didn’t want to have surgery right away. I was having all these anxiety attacks and I wanted to be left alone. I got home from the bus accident and was like a leaf in the wind. I got prescribed Lexapro and Xanax because of the level of panic and anxiety.”
He later found out about Chris Cornell’s tragic death. “We went out with Soundgarden and things were going well. Then we had like three days off in the middle of nowhere because we were switching off shows with The Pretty Reckless, so I flew home. I went straight to some bar downtown, grabbed a drink and then got a text from a buddy of mine that said, “Cornell?”
Puciato recalls the news, “It made me think something had happened, but then I was like, “Couldn’t be. I saw that guy yesterday.” Puciato went home and woke up the next day. He turned on the TV and let reality sink in. He reflects, “It was the weight of everything — the band ending, the record, plus the outlook for people with mental illness obviously being fucking terrible, seeing as how a guy who seemingly has it all had to hit eject by himself in a fucking hotel room in Detroit.”
Puciato further reflects on Cornell’s life and addiction. He says, “It’s horrible. He was an addict. He went through it, you know? But I think it’s incorrect when people say addiction is a disease. I think it’s a symptom of trying to cope with something else. Here’s this guy with a beautiful family; he has his band back together, he has a solo career on the side, he looks great, he sounds great — he went through some shit and came out on the other side.”
He continues, “I looked at him on that tour and thought he’d made it over the hump, you know? But then that happened and you realize nothing is as it seems, and this is gonna end poorly for all of us. We’re all gonna be miserable forever or fighting something forever until it gets the best of us. That’s what shook me — not the loss of the rest of the Soundgarden shows.”
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
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