Crowbar Frontman Kirk Windstein Slams Fan's Stage Invasion

Kirk Windstein, the frontman of US sludge metal heavyweights Crowbar, has made an official statement regarding an incident at this week's Maryland Deathfest during which a fan rushed the stage as the band were playing, resulting in Windstein kicking him in the face.

In the statement, posted early this morning (AEST) on Facebook, the influential muso clarifies the band's position on stage invasions, citing the festival's regulations and the fan's disregard thereof, as well as the general stresses of not being an excessively wealthy band who can replace equipment at the drop of a hat, as reasonable explanations for his understandably aggressive manner following the breach.

“I'm rocking out, my eyes are closed and then I guess security tackled the fan into me. I was already on edge having driven 15 hours straight through the night without sleep to play the gig,” he explains in the post.

“We had no back up guitars or techs with us, so if we broke a guitar or even a string, the set would have been seriously delayed or ended.”

You can read it in full below:

The incident in question occurred on Thursday at the US' largest annual metal celebration, and saw a fan breach the barricaded stage while the band were brutalising their way through Planets Collide, only to be tackled by security and kicked in the face by Windstein, who then cuts the song and launches into an incensed, expletive-laced, ever-so-fleetingly homophobic tirade at the audience (it all goes down from about 2:25):

“Stop this fucking song,” Windstein rages in the clip. “I'm so sick of this shit. You've got motherfuckers like Randy Blythe – nicest motherfucking guy in the world. Some asshole goes into his office, fucks his fucking world up, and the guy almost goes to prison in a foreign fucking country. Do I go into your office and fuck your computer up? No. You know why? I respect you and I love you. Thank you. A lot of people think I'm a dick; go suck one, motherfucker. This is about respect. My eyes are closed, I'm playing my goddamn heart out; you could have broken every fucking tooth in my mouth. Thank you, security.”

Blythe, the singer for fellow metal icons Lamb Of God, was charged in 2010 with the manslaughter of a 19-year-old fan who sustained a head injury at a Lamb Of God gig in the Czech Republic. He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.