My best friend and I went to see CKY at Pop’s in East St. Louis when we were around 14. We couldn’t believe our parents let us go unsupervised, especially in such a seedy area, ESPECIALLY since we were so young.
Him and I were buzzing off the energy of our surroundings and we both felt a sense of lawlessness we hadn’t really felt before. We enjoyed the openers from the middle of the crowd and then the headliner started.
The crowd at CKY shows is an active, undulating mass of people that created a sense of chaos. My friend and I saw this as an opportunity to do whatever we wanted. I feel horrible about it now, but we took this opportunity to grab girl’s butts.
It became kind of a pissing contest to flirt with getting caught. We each probably did this 4 or 5 times, one time even grabbing a girl’s butt that was right up next to seemingly her boyfriend (this guy was kind of a big Henry Rollins type and could have kicked the absolute shit out of us)
The girl and guy in this scenario looked around, trying to figure out who had just grabbed his girlfriend’s butt. My friend and I thought this was hilarious and laughed hysterically about it later, since we were never caught.
I want this off my chest because I never knew what those women felt. I know it wasn’t right and isn’t what I want to support in any scene, especially one that I respect as much as CKY. I’m the father of a daughter and I realize I made the world a worse place that day. I want to acknowledge what I did wrong and if anyone from that CKY show is reading this, I apologize. I’m deeply sorry for making you feel unsafe.
Comments
i appreciate the growth you show here and the changes you went through, but i have some questions if it’s okay to ask? but is the birth of your daughter what changed your mind on these things specifically or only? i often hear men change when they have daughters, but why not for their gfs/wives/mothers/in general?
i also want to make it clear that i’m asking for the sake of curiosity and knowledge of a perspective/experience that’s different from mine and not out of judgement to you. (but you don’t have to answer if you’re uncomfortable!)
I’ve been groped too many times to count by strangers. I remember all of them and how i felt. I hope your daughter doesn’t run into creeps too
It’s bad that it took you until you had a daughter to both write this and realise this. Shame on you for thinking at any age this was okay, and the women at that show may have changed their whole view on going out to these places now that they were SA’d.
Honestly, it’s not good enough to just be sorry about this and write out a virtual appology from your sofa.