Mudvayne's Chad Gray explains what happened with stage fall: "I thought I was gonna p*ss my pants"

Chad Gray on stage
(Image credit: Jeff Hahne/Getty Images)

Mudvayne frontman Chad Gray has opened up on the tumble he took off stage at a show in Tampa, Florida earlier this week. Gray slipped off stage during - ironically - a performance of Mudvayne classic Still Falling, and now, via the singer's official Instagram page (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), he's explained exactly what happened.

"I just want you to know that it's not like I walked out there and fuckin' slipped on a banana peel or something and fell into the crowd," he says. "It was absolutely my intention to get out there and get down in your face and lay on ya and lean into ya and scream and have you scream back at me. It's probably one of my favorite parts of any show that I ever play, is getting that close with you guys."

"I basically walk to the down stage edge of the stage, and I step across and I put my foot on top of the barricade," he explains. "When I'm on the stage, there's about five feet underneath me from where my feet are at to the ground, so I'm even higher, my head and shit. So, yeah, it's probably four or five feet. So what happened was I stepped out, the crowd surged forward, pushed my foot off backwards, so my foot went straight fuckin' down. My left foot was still on the stage — I hadn't stepped across yet — and my whole fucking body just went 'wham!' like that, right on top of the barricade, right here, right across my sternum. I thought I was gonna piss my pants; it hurt so fuckin' bad. We were ironically in the course of Not Falling, which is amazing, so I just started singing that. And I was able to sing. So I just pushed through the shit.

"It was fucking brutal," he adds. "But we did it, and I got through it. I'm on day two now. I'm hoping this is the worst of it. I hope it's kind of like lifting weights where you get sore for a couple of days. But the good news is I didn't break a rib. Otherwise this tour could be over and I would be absolutely fuckin' devastated because all I wanted to do for the last two and a half years is get back out here and be with my fuckin' heavy metal family around the country and hopefully soon around the world."

Mudvayne's much-anticipated comeback continues as the band tour with Rob Zombie across the States.

Merlin Alderslade
Executive Editor, Louder

Merlin moved into his role as Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has previously written for the likes of Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He is also probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.