Daniel Johns has opened up about a devastating tragedy that happened in 1995 that saw a 16 year old boy commit a triple murder, claiming he was inspired by Silverchair.
Brian Bassett, who was aided by his friend, killed his parents and little brother. An in-depth report by Spin magazine which was published in 1996, said that Bassett pulled a cassette, with Silverchair’s debut album Frogstomp on it, out of his father’s hands after he shot him. The same report says the two murderers kicked the blood-soaked bodies of Bassett’s parents as the song played.
“It’s pretty devastating to write a song when you’re a teenager and then have lives taken because apparently it influenced the people to murder someone — that’s too much,” Johns told American radio personality Megan Holiday on his new docuseries In The Mind of Daniel Johns.
He added, “It affected me, but I had to act like it didn’t. I couldn’t acknowledge it, I guess that was part of the patterns.
“Talk about having blinders on. It was like that is f—ed up and that is going to f— me in the future. But for now, I’ve got this to do,” he said.
“I didn’t realise that would happen for a very long time, and I would continue to just focus on the music.”
Johns added that he want fans or listeners to take direction from the music he makes.
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“I don’t like that people look to me for guidance in the songs. I don’t like it,” he said.
“I don’t even know where this ship is going. I know where it’s been, and I write about it, and then I make predictions.
“A lot of the time they happen, but I don’t know I’m making a prediction.”
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