MUDVAYNE singer Chad Gray says that he is “still hurting” from falling off stage during the band’s concert in Tampa, Florida Tuesday night (July 26).
On Thursday, Gray posted a video message on his Instagram in which he shared “the whole truth” behind the incident, which took place while he and his bandmates were performing the song “Not Falling” at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre as part of MUDVAYNE‘s co-headlining U.S. tour with ROB ZOMBIE, dubbed “Freaks On Parade”.
Chad said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It seems everybody’s talking about my spill the other night. I’ve been getting a lot of love from a lot of people.
“I’m okay. I’m still fuckin’ hurtin’. But a lot of people have reached out to me personally; a lot of people sending me well wishes online. I appreciate it very much.
“I just want you to know that it’s not like I walked out there and fuckin’ slipped on a banana peel or something and fell into the crowd,” the 50-year-old explained. “It was absolutely my intention to get out there and get down in your face and lay on ya and lean into ya and scream and have you scream back at me. It’s probably one of my favorite parts of any show that I ever play, is getting that close with you guys.
“What happened was… So I basically walk to the down stage edge of the stage, and I step across and I put my foot on top of the barricade. When I’m on the stage, there’s about five feet underneath me from where my feet are at to the ground, so I’m even higher, my head and shit. So, yeah, it’s probably four or five feet. So what happened was I stepped out, the crowd surged forward, pushed my foot off backwards, so my foot went straight fuckin’ down. My left foot was still on the stage — I hadn’t stepped across yet — and my whole fucking body just went ‘wham!’ like that, right on top of the barricade, right here, right across my sternum. I thought I was gonna piss my pants; it hurt so fuckin’ bad. We were ironically in the course of ‘Not Falling’, which is amazing, so I just started singing that. And I was able to sing. So I just pushed through the shit.
“It was fucking brutal,” Gray admitted. “But we did it, and I got through it. I’m on day two now. I’m hoping this is the worst of it. I hope it’s kind of like lifting weights where you get sore for a couple of days. But the good news is I didn’t break a rib. Otherwise this tour could be over and I would be absolutely fuckin’ devastated because all I wanted to do for the last two and a half years is get back out here and be with my fuckin’ heavy metal family around the country and hopefully soon around the world.”
Produced by Live Nation, the 21-city “Freaks On Parade” tour kicked off on July 20 at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, making stops across the U.S. in Tampa, Holmdel, Tinley Park, and more before wrapping up in The Woodlands at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on August 21. Support on the trek is coming from STATIC-X and POWERMAN 5000.
MUDVAYNE formed in 1996 and has sold over six million records worldwide, earning gold certification for three albums (“L.D. 50”, “The End Of All Things To Come”, “Lost And Found”). The band is known for its sonic experimentation, innovative album art, face and body paint, masks and uniforms. MUDVAYNE is Gray, Greg Tribbett (guitar, backing vocals),Matthew McDonough (drums, synthesizer) and Ryan Martinie (bass).
Gray has spent the past 16 years fronting HELLYEAH, which released its sixth studio album, “Welcome Home”, in September 2019 via Eleven Seven Music. The disc marked the group’s final effort with drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, who passed away more than four years ago.
MUDVAYNE did not tour behind its fifth album, which was barely promoted and sold weakly upon release.