Cannibal Corpse’s Corpsegrinder on Guitarist Pat O’Brien: “We Love Him. We Want Him Back.”
One of the more bizarre and unsettling incidents of 2018 saw Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O’Brien charged with a litany of crimes after his firearms-filled home exploded and he broke into a neighbor’s house before being subdued by police and arrested. Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal) has been filling in for O’Brien at the band’s live dates since.
Cannibal Corpse themselves have been mostly quiet on the issue, offering only a brief statement shortly after O’Brien’s arrest saying that “Pat is getting the help he needs.” A crowdfunding campaign launched by Deana Mazurkiewicz, wife of drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz, has raised over $26,000 to support Pat.
Now Cannibal Corpse vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher has shared his thoughts on the situation on Jamey Jasta’s podcast. The general tenor of his comments, consistent with what little we’ve seen already, is that the band members were completely shocked by Pat’s behavior and have no explanation for it, but they wish their longtime brother the best and support him to that end. In other words: they were just as surprised and confused as all of us.
On O’Brien’s arrest, Corpsegrinder offered:
“I don’t wanna speculate about what could have happened that night, but it could have been way worse — for him.When people were seeing [TV reports about] it — I think on the Tampa news, they were pretty good with him,” he continued. “They just said he was one of the best guitar players in death metal in America, and in the world, and he’s highly respected. And they didn’t really trash him at all. And they showed him on TV.”
On O’Brien’s eventual return to Cannibal Corpse, he said:
“We love him. We want him back. But when I saw him in the court with the vest, dude, I cried. Because we just got home from tour… We wish the best for him, and we’re just waiting to see [what happens]. He’s got a road ahead of him still with legal issues, and that’s out of our hands. We support him 100 percent; we’re behind him 100 percent.”
Sounds like O’Brien won’t be returning to the stage any time soon, but once his legal (and mental) issues are behind him we can expect to see him back in Corpse… if he wants to be, that is. We’ll keep you posted.
[via Blabbermouth]
