HOW COOL IS THIS? MACHINE HEAD FANS BUY ROBB FLYNN’S SON A NEW GUITAR
Weird to say about a dude whose most famous tracks are about hate, clenched fists, shotgun blasts, and burning in hell, but Robb Flynn seems like a legitimately good guy, and he’s certainly proven time and time again that he’s a man of the people. And I’m not really a very strong believer in the whole notion of “karma” — remember, Dio is dead but Durst continues to thrive — but Flynn’s life is now making a pretty strong argument that I may be wrong.
So. As you probably know, Flynn’s home was burglarized last month. Among the items stolen were a mini Flying V he had bought his son, Zander, for Christmas, and Zander was so traumatized by the break-in that he was apparently scared the thieves might return again in the middle of the night and murder him. And his younger son, Wyatt, apparently isn’t doing much better. Did you get all that? Are you now openly weeping? I wouldn’t blame you if you were. That’s the kind of lily-white-innocence-ripped-apart story that makes you wanna go all Death Wish on some people’s ass.
But Flynn’s fans are more reasonable than I am, so they didn’t Bronson anyone — instead, a bunch of them from Machine Head’s official message board, “The Frontlines,” chipped in and bought Zander Flynn a new guitar (above, in the most awesomest picture ever)! Here’s an accompanying message from a user who posts under the handle “Desmadre”:
Robb,
When I heard what happened to you and your family on the 7th of September I was disgusted… Then when i heard that they stole your son’s flying V, I was absolutely fucken pissed.. To come home at such a young age and see the shit that happened is traumatizing… asking if the robbers would return at nite to kill him… I didn’t know what to say, but i knew what I could do…
Over the years You’ve been more than generous to a shit load of us from the Frontlines Board.. Taking us backstage even taking the time to shoot the shit with us.. you’ve helped us go through our own problems like Sadness, sorrow, death or just merely getting us pumped for a football game or getting us through a drag-ass day at work. Nowadays, who the fuck does that? You know who…No One !
I’ve heard the frontlines refered to as a community, as a fun place to fuck around on the internet but i see it as more.. Its more like a family. And what do families do in times like this? They help each other out. So from the bottom of our Rotten Blackened hearts, Robb we hope you accept this gesture. It may not replace what was taken from your home but hopefully it will help starting with the most important thing in your life, your kids… Thank you for your years of help.
Thank You,
Desmadre and The Frontlines
Besides posting the photo that accompanies this article (as well as the second most awesomest picture ever, which you can see below), Flynn also, of course, responded to the letter and gift invia the message board:
On behalf of my wife and and kids, I want to sincerely thank Desmadre and everyone who contributed to the guitar fund. It was an incredible and thoughtful gesture, one that my family and I were / are blown away by. It practically moved my wife to tears (christ, she almost posted a thanks on the Board!?) and Zander is totally stoked! Great choice of guitars, Zander actually likes it better than his other one! I would also like to take this time to thank the other Frontliners who have gone out of their way to help our family out, either financially, with gift certificates, scouring eBay for the guitars, or just sending the good vibes our way.
We decided to just give the one guitar to Zander for now, to make it more special for him, as he lost it and not Wyatt. But we will give the other to Wyatt later, and we will let him know it’s from you guys and not us.
It’s been a rough month, we have no leads and police haven’t recovered anything. Our stuff is gone and were just trying to move on. It’s been hard on the kids. We have a top of the line security system now, thanks to some more of our good friends, and we let the kids set it at night and when we leave, but still, it’s a huge violation to process even as an adult, let alone a 3 1/2 year old and a 6 year old. We are taking Zander and Wyatt to therapy starting next week, because I / we’ve run out of ways to answer “Dada, are the robbers going to break in and kill me tonight?”
Enough of that though, again, you guys really made a HUGE impact in our lives with your gesture, and we can’t thank you enough for it. Des you rock.
This is just all-around awesome. I’d say Desmadre just won a Machine Head backstage V.I.P. pass for life, wouldn’t you? Awesome, awesome, awesome move.
It’s nice writing happy stories sometimes.
-AR
[via Metal Insider]
