Pitchfork: Meat Puppets' Cris Kirkwood Shot, Remains Hospitalized

Meat Puppets' Cris Kirkwood Shot, Remains Hospitalized
Experts confirm ex-bassist was, medically speaking, too high to die

[Posted Monday, January 5th, 2004 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Cris Kirkwood, the longhaired ex-bassist and co-founder of the Meat Puppets, was shot by a security guard outside of an Arizona post office on Decmber 26th, according to The Arizona Republic. Although Kirkwood sustained a direct gunshot to the abdomen, he survived emergency surgery and remains in ICU at a local Arizona hospital. The details are more bizarre, if not unintentionally entertaining:

An eyewitness reported that Kirkwood was about to back into a parking space at the downtown Phoenix post office when a woman, Jenny Hom, suddenly took his spot. That bitch! They exchanged horn blasts and angry gestures. Kirkwood found another spot and parked; but it didn't stop there.

The infuriated psych-punk legend confronted Horn on the sidewalk and began his barrage of obscenity and rage, reportedly once gearing up as though about to strike the woman. Hom entered the post office, reported the attack, and a security guard asked Kirkwood to leave. After repeatedly shoving the security guard, Kirkwood allegedly grabbed the guard's nightstick and cracked the guard on the forehead. The security guard told police: "I thought the guy was going to kill me."

Perhaps in homage to the Indiana Jones boxset released on DVD just in time for holiday giftgiving, the security guard retailiated by drawing his handgun and shooting Kirkwood once in the stomach. The FBI, who later arrived on the scene (because the incident happened at a federal building) found Kirkwood soaked in blood; the security guard appeared dazed by the encounter, sitting to the side. "I never shot anyone before," he told police.

Kirkwood was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to injure on December 30th, and will face trial on Tuesday, January 6th. He could get up to ten years in prison for his outburst.

Although never officially removed from the Meat Puppets lineup, Cris Kirkwood has had his share of misfortunes since the band's 1994 heyday, when Too High To Die charted in the months following Meat Puppets fan and supporter Kurt Cobain's suicide. After a poorly-received 1995 album, No Joke, the younger Kirkwood became increasingly involved with drugs, and after his wife's death of an overdose in 1998, Kirkwood even went missing for a short time. His brother, Curt Kirkwood, relocated to Austin, TX around that time and formed a new band which eventually assumed the Meat Puppets name, releasing Golden Lies in 2000.