Matchbox Twenty's Adam Gaynor spoke to Undercover about September 11th, 2001. Adam recalls an eerie association between last year's terrorist attacks and the assassination of JFK.
Adam says "The strangest thing about my location on 9/11/01 was that I was a few hundred yards from the spot that John F. Kennedy was assassinated at … Dallas, Texas".
I was born exactly 4 days after JFK was killed in 1963 and throughout my entire life have felt some bizarre horrific feelings every time I am near that area.
Being there on 9/11 was a surreal twist of fate for me. I was sleeping in a hotel room. My love was downstairs in a gym working out. We had a rare day off AFTER a show. Usually we leave and have days off BEFORE shows....but this day was different. Man was it ever.
I had woken at some time around 11am-ish and signed onto my America Online account to check in with the world, sports and e-mails. I signed online. The first thing I vividly remember seeing was this really amazing looking special effects photo from some upcoming movie that was coming out. It showed the twin towers on fire with smoke and the caption read: "WTC collapses."
I was kinda not even registering what the WTC meant....and squished my forehead and signed on to read the story....
I just remember my mouth opening wider and my heart starting to race as I realized this was not a movie at all...and that this was happening right now....and then all the "Rumors" of other possible planes being taken over starting taking shape in the form of written words.
I immediately jumped up to turn on the television and to my horror clearly saw that this was all too real.
The next twelve or so hours I sat in my hotel room, like the rest of the nation, the rest of the world and story after story....video clip after clip....tried to soak it all in. I could not soak any of it in. It was all too overwhelming.
I got so emotional at the end of the night....my girl and I just sat there...and felt so helpless and isolated from the rest of the world.
The world DID change that day. Whatever rules we thought COULD apply were no more.
All beings were game. Parents, businessmen, children and industry leaders. Life was meaningless to a sum of human beings and now the earth would never be as safe as we wanted to believe it was.
Ironically after leaving Dallas we were supposed to play in Oklahoma City...the OTHER American Disaster. Kinda crazy.
My life in those next days and weeks was very sad.
I remember about a week later...our first show back in Arkansas...I was standing on an outdoor amphitheater stage just staring out into a blue sky and I saw a plane flying low against the horizon. It was the first plane I had seen in the sky since all the devastation. My heart sunk to my stomach ....horror, sadness, fear and grief all struck me at once. Seconds later I realized they had lifted the airlines ban to fly and this was a routine landing....but to look at a plane against the horizon and feel sick.
That is how an event can change you. That is how people can change you. I do not know how a nation or a people can be so strong. Your survival instincts take over. I think we had to.
We rebuild and rebound so that the people who wish to CHANGE our lives realize that that may stun us for the moment, perhaps make us think about things unpleasant but will never break the spirit of the good in all of us. S
eptember 11th, 2001, mostly showed me how all people from all races and religions can come together, if just for hours or days, weeks or months....it is possible for everyone to exist together. For the good of mankind.
For the families that suffered loss and the lives that were taken I only wish eternal peace. <
Adam Gaynor
Matchbox Twenty"
By Paul Cashmere
Undercover Music