Drive-In Studio Destroyed By Lightning
Let's Active Fanclub Digest, Issue #1, Fall '84
Yeah, that's what we thought, too. There were numerous reports late this summer, apparently including a newsflash on MTV, that the Drive-In had been struck by lightning and burned, destroying all equipment, new album tapes, and forcing cancellation of the tour. One of the versions we got sounded like the opening sequences of the movie, "Apoca lypse Now." Well, in knowing what all these rumors were actually based on, as reported by Mitch himself :
"About that storm--well, it WAS pretty bad. It was July Fourth and we had mostly finished our recording but we had done no mixing. I saw the storm coming close, so I unplugged the equipment and went into another room so I could watch the lightning. The storm was a real blaster and lasted much longer than the usual summer thunderstorm. Then a bolt hit in the back yard and literally scared Faye and me right outta' our seats and the electricity went out, too. There was some huge static charge in the air at that moment and it made the TV ( which was unplugged) glow momentarily. So about five hours later the power came back on and I turned on the studio stuff to make sure it was OK. Since most everything had been unplugged, I wasn't too worried. But--lots of things were REALLY screwed up, and in a weird way. For example, there are two very similar tape machines that sit next to each other, and one was severly fouled up and the other was completely fine! My console (mixer), which was unplugged, had about ten integrated circuits killed, but I was able to fix it myself. And lots more got damaged.
"The next day I was where the lightning struck--it hit a phone pole behind the house and knocked a big chunck out of it. The wood was splintered and driven into the ground all around the pole--it had a real devilish look about it. This pole is only about 40 feet or so from the studio so I guess the air was so highly charged for a few milliseconds and that was enough to foul up the solid state devices. The worst thing about the whole mess was that we lost a week of tidying up work that we needed to do. We had to hastily make arrangements to go to Charlotte, N.C. and mix at Reflection Studios--a very good place, but I had really wanted to mix at home."
So there you have it, folks, the actual account of what happened--and once again, truth is stranger than fiction.
