US artist Frank Iero has given his first interview since last October's near-fatal bus crash in Sydney, which left two of the musician's touring crew seriously injured.
Speaking to MTV, the former guitarist of My Chemical Romance said the incident is "engraved" in his memory, after he and his crew were hit by a bus while unpacking their tour van.
"I can remember every second, every action, every sound," Iero said.
"I had this little briefcase pedal board that I had been carrying around with me. I put that down and I turned around to say to [bandmate Evan Nestor and manager Paul Clegg], 'I think I'm just going to take the tuner out of here.'
"I said, 'I think' — that's all I got out of my mouth."
Iero continues, "Right before high school, a couple of friends [had] this pickup game of football. The only other kids at the park at the time were these really big high school kids who wanted to play us so they could beat the shit out of us. I remember being tackled from behind. That’s exactly what it felt like."
Following the impact, the 35-year-old said he remembered ending up under the bumper of the bus.
"From my vantage point, I could only see Evan, and I could hear Paul," he told MTV.
"I thought whoever I couldn’t see or hear had to be dead, and if they weren’t dead yet, then we all would be soon."
Iero believes that if he wasn't wearing an "enormous rucksack" at the time, he would not have survived the accident.
"There’s no doubt in my mind that it saved me," he said.
"The way I got hit, it hooked on underneath the bumper and lodged me between the curb and the bus."
After being helped out of the wreckage by their publicist, Iero was able to attend to Clegg and Nestor.
"Paul collapsed into the trunk. Evan fell down onto the ground and said, 'I can't feel my legs!' I got out of that rucksack, got my coat, and put it under his head and held him. That's when I saw the puddle of blood coming from Paul's injuries. It was the brightest red I’d ever seen. I couldn't tell where it was coming from."
Iero cancelled the Sydney show that night and and all remaining 2016 gigs while his crew recovered from the injuries.
"I keep going back to the open trunk door, how it accordioned back after the hit and gave their backs and heads room," Iero said.
"It broke that impact. I don’t even know what would’ve happened. It's incredible to me that we’re all still alive. No one that witnessed the accident thought that we would be."
Iero added that his band are planning to embark on a new tour this year.
"In time I will feel more grounded," he said.
"For now, I'm existing. That's something, in that moment, that I didn't know I would be doing."
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