Dillinger Escape Plan Frontman Greg Puciato Hospitalized After Using Shrooms
Dillinger Escape Plan Frontman Greg Puciato was recently hospitalized over the weekend following a trip with psychedelic mushrooms. According to his personal website:
I would like to thank the six police officers, fully staffed fire truck, and the several EMTs(thanks Brian Vanina for writing to me afterwards) that showed up over the weekend…to witness/enjoy what surely must have been a beyond hysterical/bizarre/confusing sight to them. Without going into too much detail…let me just say that it was ENTIRELY worthwhile to eat enough(way too much) of something(I won’t go into what but I’m sure your assumptions are probably accurate) to induce a total near death experience, have full blown entirely realistic hallucinations(including fake people that I had conversations with), have no ability to tell what time/age period of my life I was in(12, 17, 22, 29….all seemed simultaneous) and run around almost naked both in and outside singing, screaming, and asking the police if I was dead and whether or not Ben Weinman, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Liam, and various other people in my personal life, were in fact real people or part of a dream that I had while part of a separate larger reality. When I look back on being on a stretcher outside at 3am, frantically telling police that I was already dead and insisting that they tell me the truth, while accusing them of not being real either, and my girlfriend (porn star Jenna Haze) crying and being terrified that I had gone “too far” and would be permanently insane from that point forward…..it all seems obvious what you should tell kids about drugs. “Just say…maybe.”There is no “twelve” after “eleven”. It goes straight to “thirteen”. It’s dark if you go there. So if you’re ever at eleven and wanna go further…just be forewarned and remember that eleven jumps to thirteen and it gets fucking dark RIGHT AWAY. But it is, in hindsight, a wholly worthwhile place to visit now and then. For the record…all I gave a fuck about when I was out of my mind and convinced I was dead, was four or five people, and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Crazy.
I’ve never felt more psyched to play some fucking shows. LA tomorrow. Orange County Thursday. LET’S FUCKING DO THIS.
Accordign to guitarist Ben Weinman, drugs are not a part of the band's writing process.
"I actually talked to him last night. He was like, "wow there was a lot of press about that…that's crazy." I said 'look, you gotta realize, I might be in Jersey in my basement writing the record and you're out in Hollywood hanging out and experimenting and figuring out what you want to do with your life and how you want to do it and exploring your creativity and that's great. But you've got to realize you're the front man and you're the image of what this band is, not me in the basement working my ass off on riffs with a pot of coffee with a lot of fucking excitement and passion without any care for what's around me. You gotta realize if you put a fucking Mercedes in a shitty fucking Pinto shell, everyone is just going to see a shitty Pinto shell. They are not going to see the core of what went into that fucking machine.'"
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21 Comments on "Dillinger Escape Plan Frontman Hospitalized"
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Member
Mushrooms changed my life. I stared into the face of God for three hours. Takes my breath away whenever I think about it.
Dillinger Escape Plan rules. Writing that stuff can't be easy. Way to hold it together, Ben, while your vocalist goes out and suffers from LSD (Lead Singer's Disease). Keep it together. I can't wait to listen to whatever you've been writing while Greg is out of his brain on mushrooms.
Member
Only a true moron would end up in the hospital due to drugs and then come out advocating the experience. Publicly advocating pot is one thing, but encouraging the use of a drug that can kill you is an entirely different story. This guy would've been fired immediately had it been my band.
You want to have some fun and almost get yourself killed? Fine. Learn from the experience and move on. But don't go out and encourage a bunch of people not smart enough to make their own decisions to go out and try it for themselves. a$$hole.
Coldiem, feel free to have your opinions but please get facts straight before commenting. Mushrooms will not kill you. Never has a person been killed by psylocybin mushrooms. The toxicity levels mean you would have to consume 17kg for this to happen and eating that much is practically impossible. Granted, some people have killed themselves on Shrooms but that is their fault and their fault only. As Doug Stanhope days, the only people that are anti-drugs are those who've never done them, and those that suck at doing them. Which are you?
Member
To be clear, I am not calling him a moron for doing drugs. I am calling him a moron for publicly bragging about it when he is in a position of moderate notoriety, meaning that people will listen to him just because. Remember, the general population is pretty gullible and large number of the fans of their band are young, sponge-like minds.
Sure, the toxicity of psilocybin is extremely low but we're talking about a hallucinogen here. In high enough doses it doesn't matter how lethal the drug itself is as the user is much more lethal to themselves and possibly others in an extremely altered state. This guy had a near-death experience and ended up in the hospital over the ordeal. That should be viewed as a serious consequence, not a laughing matter.
Mushrooms can be fine in low doses and sporadic use, but prolonged regular use will lead to long-term side effects. Regardless of what scientific studies are saying about possible positive long-term side effects, from my personal experience and also lots of second hand experience those findings are not exactly giving you the whole picture. Many of these studies are intentionally skewed to arrive at the desired results.
As far as implying that I am anti-drug, you couldn't be farther from the truth. And citing a comedian as reference is simply laughable (Yes, the pun was intended. Har Har). The joke is funny, nonetheless.
The choice to experiment with recreational drugs should be a decision made by an individual's personal reasons, not those of the people they look up to. Hell, even the band's guitar player called him out over it.
P.S.
If I am so wrong about people being killed by mushrooms, then why do you admit that people have killed themselves while on them? What the hell is the difference? The overdose argument is a terribly weak one. I'm pretty sure what are considered alcohol-related deaths are not limited to alcohol poisoning only.
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Ha ha ha! Genius story dude! Shrooms are fvcking hardcore fun but ya gotta respect them or they will mess your head up big time! Glad all is well now and I look forward to seeing D.E.P. next time you're in the UK.