Cannibal Corpse singer George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher has admitted he cried after seeing guitarist Pat O’Brien wearing an anti-suicide vest in court.
O’Brien was arrested in Florida in December 2018 on charges of burglary and assaulting a police officer. It was alleged that he forced his way into an occupied family home after his own house caught fire, brandishing a knife when confronted by police. The authorities had to Taser the guitarist before taking him into custody. He was found to have had a huge weapons cache at his rented home.
At a hearing later the same month, O’Brien appeared in court wearing an anti-suicide vest.
“When I saw him in the court with the vest, dude, I cried,” Fisher told Jamey Jasta on the Hatebreed singer’s podcast The Jasta Show.
Fisher said that he was shocked at O’Brien’s arrest: "I don't wanna speculate about what could have happened that night, but it could have been way worse — for him.”
The guitarist was released from jail on December 14, 2018 on $50,000 bail.
"When people were seeing it, they were pretty good with him," said Fisher. “They just said he was one of the best guitar players in death metal in America, and in the world, and he's highly respected. And they didn't really trash him at all. And they showed him on TV.”
According to the singer, O’Brien “has a road ahead of him with legal issues”, but hopes the guitarist will eventually rejoin the band.
“We love him. We want him back… We support him 100 percent; we're behind him 100 percent.”
