Opeth's Akerfeldt recalls London stage fall

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By ( Louder ) published

Frontman wishes he'd owned the moment instead of pretending it wasn't happening

Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfeldt has recalled his embarrassing stage fall during their headline show at London’s Roundhouse in October.

And he wishes he could have owned up to feeling silly at the time – instead of trying to pretend it hadn’t happened.

The incident took place while the Swedish outfit were touring to support the launch of 11th album Pale Communion.

Akerfeldt tells MusicRadar: “I was going to jump up on the drum riser and then jump off and have the song finish when I land – the classic Pete Townshend type of thing.”

“When I was running up towards the drum riser, there were strobes in my eyes so I misjudged the distance. I didn’t get all the way up. I fell into the drum kit and hurt myself really bad. I was very aware of the situation: I looked like a fool, hoping that no one’s going to see me.”

The frontman explains that human nature took him over in that awkward moment.

He says: “You have a tendency – maybe it’s a human thing – you make a fucking ass of yourself and you want to pretend it didn’t happen. You want to get back on your feet and act like it didn’t happen. And I did that. And I’m ashamed of that. Why couldn’t I have just acted like, ‘Oh my God, how embarrassing.’ I was hurting.”

Akerfeldt says he wasn’t the only one to experience that moment at the Roundhouse. He says: “During the same show, our bass player did the same thing.”

Akerfeldt will have a chance to redeem himself when Opeth returns to the UK for two shows next year. The band will make a special guest appearance at the Bloodstock festival in August followed by a special 25th anniversary concert at the London Palladium in October.

The group will perform their 2005 album Ghost Reveries in its entirety for what the frontman promises will be a “pretty unique evening.”