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ROOTS CRASH BUS IN EUROPE: EVERYONE OK
 The Roots |
While cruising the web we learned that The Roots suffered a serious tour bus crash in Paris on the evening of November 19. The double-decker bus, with full lounge, bathroom and sleeping bunks up top crashed hard. Check ?uestlove's email after the accident for the full play-by-play of the experience, including all the frightening details.
"I used to live life, like there was no manana
Now I'm treatin every breath, like it was "your honor"
malik b, 1999 "the spark" from things fall apart
well...since we are sitting on the side of the road. what better way to pass the time while the ambulance comes then to....blog.
--actually i spoke too soon....the above was written an hour ago. now im in a roadside motel trying to make sense of this all. the last things i remember are eating 2 pieces of cold pizza and a bowl of rice krispies and watching will ferrel's nuts dance on top of john c. riley's drumset in step brothers. because it was the ghetto bootleg barbershop version i was more or less wondering when the guy in the theater was going to say "watch....this is the good part" to me as the movie went on.
as usual i fell asleep. now normally i woulda been working overtime in preparing my dj set for my paris afterparty on friday but something actually said "meh leave it alone"--
i don't wanna get all deep like it was an omen but those that know me (look at my twit/facebook/myspace/okayplayer/blip history) know that when not onstage i am glued to my computer, doing some sort of activity like converting music or tv shows. but this was a rare occurrence in which i actually went to sleep.
next thing i knew was the most surreal feeling ever....
was i upside down?
why am i covered in cereal?
oh shit....that coffee pot is coming for my face!!!
in reality the crash was all of about 7 seconds....but to do a 360 on the highway and end up ramped up (the van that crashed into ours was UNDER our double decker bus) in the air....is....well...
a frigging miracle.
my first thought was not move a fucking inch. i always had fear that we would fall off a cliff while in high mountain traveling like denver or switzerland. i couldn't tell where gravity began and ended. i felt like i did 3000 crunches so obviously my side of the bus was now on the ground (the only way i can describe the position was imagine yourself on a bus sitting down.....now postion yourself sitting on the left side of the bus....now overturn the bus so that it tips over and falls to the right side. now on top of all that position the front of the bus to stand smack dab in the middle of the air as if a ramp was holding it up 90 degrees.
now add in my drill sgt of a tour manager keith mcphee being keith (which is basically to say no one does intensity or UBER intensity like he does. i ....was......try....ing......to.....rea....ch....my ....ipod so i can channel him out. its like every word he yelled was making this situation much worse than it was....
"......effrom you alive?!?!?!? (yes).........."frank are you alive!?!?!?".......frank?!!?!?!!?!? FRANK?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!.......---"
it was then i realized the severe nature of the accident and i was NOT in the mood to prep myself on whether or not the remaining 12 people upstairs (i know its a dumb reference but look up the Spiceworld movie on youtube and you can see the type of double decker bus that we were traveling on. i hold court downstairs cause noone can stomach the stench of the urine induced potty in the downstairs lounge. ---after 15 mins you dont notice it all that much)---so i was holding court downstairs and the 12 of them were asleep in the bunks.
i dont do bunks and this day proves why.
i just wanted someone to calmly tell me the weight of my body was NOT going to push us down a mountainside. then i wanted assurance that the bus was NOT going to explode.
Read the rest of this harrowing tale here.
While we're not exactly sure if the tour will just continue, but as of now, The Roots are scheduled to play tonight (11/21) in Lille, France.
The Roots Tour Dates
11.21 Lille, France - Aeronef
11.23 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
11.24 Stockholm, Sweden - Berns
11.26 Hamburg, Germany - Docks
11.27 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle
11.28 Warsaw, Poland - Arena Ursynon
11.29 Skopje, Macedonia - Taksirat 10 Festival
12.01 Nottingham, England - Rock City
12.02 Manchester, England - Academy
12.03 Bristol, England - Academy
12.05 London, England - The Forum
12.06 London, England - The Forum
12.07 Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
12.08 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
12.09 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
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