Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne's zany antics have pissed people off before, but never a whole airport. Earlier this month, Coyne seemingly topped himself by bringing a grenade, or at least something that looked a whole lot like one, into Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, prompting a temporary shut-down.
According to a report from Oklahoma City blog the Lost Ogle [via Stereogum], the incident on November 10 caused many to miss their flights and lose money, and though Coyne tweeted an apology, saying, "Sorry Sorry Sorry!! Everyone that was inconvenienced because of my grenade at OKC airport!!", many weren't satisfied. As the Lost Ogle writes:
This weekend (November 10th) I was flying out to Vegas. Wayne Coyne's (fake?) grenade caused TSA to lockdown the airport. I was stuck near the food court, wasn't able to cross the airport to get to my gate. Flight left without me, all because of Wayne Coyne. Frontier didn't have another flight available to Vegas unto Monday, I got back Tuesday. Only option was to shell out $500 bucks for 2 literally last minute tickets on Southwest. I think Wayne Coyne should reimburse me, at a minimum I want to drop acid with him and Yoko Ono. Can you help me out to let Wayne know that his music is fucking weird and I could use that $1000 ASAP. Thanks.
This was further backed by an official police report obtained by Fuse, who posted it here. Apparently, Coyne's luggage trigged an alarm, and when asked about the grenade by a security officer, the Lips singer said it "was given to him at a party in Arkansas on November 4, 2012. He advised it was a grenade but said it was dead and was painted."
A bomb specialist was then called, who "came in and cleared the grenade. It was not live and had a whole [sic] in the bottom. The grenade was painted gold," according to the police report.
Coyne was apparently on his way to preview the new Yoshimi musical in Los Angeles. Next time, Wayne: bring tomatoes.
UPDATE: In an interview with Pitchfork, Coyne shed some more light on the incident, confirming he indeed had a "non-explodable" grenade that was, yes, painted gold.
Speaking of security's reaction to finding the device, he said, "They all believed what I was saying; they all believed it was just a dumb accident. The bomb squad guy came out, and once he comes out, there's two weeks of paperwork that has to be filled out. Everybody could immediately tell what it was. But it's too late — the merry-go-round had to go its whole way around before you could get off."
He also addressed the fact that other people at the airport apparently lost money and time over the incident, saying, "I would agree that it was stupid of me, but I don't feel wholly responsible if people missed their flights. I'm not making the rules. It's not illegal for me to have that grenade with me."
According to a report from Oklahoma City blog the Lost Ogle [via Stereogum], the incident on November 10 caused many to miss their flights and lose money, and though Coyne tweeted an apology, saying, "Sorry Sorry Sorry!! Everyone that was inconvenienced because of my grenade at OKC airport!!", many weren't satisfied. As the Lost Ogle writes:
This weekend (November 10th) I was flying out to Vegas. Wayne Coyne's (fake?) grenade caused TSA to lockdown the airport. I was stuck near the food court, wasn't able to cross the airport to get to my gate. Flight left without me, all because of Wayne Coyne. Frontier didn't have another flight available to Vegas unto Monday, I got back Tuesday. Only option was to shell out $500 bucks for 2 literally last minute tickets on Southwest. I think Wayne Coyne should reimburse me, at a minimum I want to drop acid with him and Yoko Ono. Can you help me out to let Wayne know that his music is fucking weird and I could use that $1000 ASAP. Thanks.
This was further backed by an official police report obtained by Fuse, who posted it here. Apparently, Coyne's luggage trigged an alarm, and when asked about the grenade by a security officer, the Lips singer said it "was given to him at a party in Arkansas on November 4, 2012. He advised it was a grenade but said it was dead and was painted."
A bomb specialist was then called, who "came in and cleared the grenade. It was not live and had a whole [sic] in the bottom. The grenade was painted gold," according to the police report.
Coyne was apparently on his way to preview the new Yoshimi musical in Los Angeles. Next time, Wayne: bring tomatoes.
UPDATE: In an interview with Pitchfork, Coyne shed some more light on the incident, confirming he indeed had a "non-explodable" grenade that was, yes, painted gold.
Speaking of security's reaction to finding the device, he said, "They all believed what I was saying; they all believed it was just a dumb accident. The bomb squad guy came out, and once he comes out, there's two weeks of paperwork that has to be filled out. Everybody could immediately tell what it was. But it's too late — the merry-go-round had to go its whole way around before you could get off."
He also addressed the fact that other people at the airport apparently lost money and time over the incident, saying, "I would agree that it was stupid of me, but I don't feel wholly responsible if people missed their flights. I'm not making the rules. It's not illegal for me to have that grenade with me."
