The Ghost Inside guitarist Zach Johnson says he doesn’t know when the band will be ready to play together again following last year’s fatal bus crash.
The band’s tour bus was involved in a crash with a truck in El Paso, Texas, in November 2015. Both drivers were killed and the band suffered varying degrees of injuries. Johnson endured 26 hours of surgery to repair damage to his feet, legs and hip.
As he and his bandmates continue their recoveries, Johnson admits it will be some time before they can reconvene and work on new music or hit the road.
Johnson tells The Jasta Show: “For us as The Ghost Inside it’s going to take a while for everybody to get to the point where we can be a band – physically play with each other.
“But we were already writing. Our plan was to record in early 2016. So I’ll continue riffing and writing stuff for TGI.
“Our bass player Jim Riley is possibly gonna be going out on a tour. He broke and ankle and a tooth and it wasn’t as terrible as some of the others.
“He’d rather get back out there if he can until all of us are ready. It’d be fun to play guitar with another band or do whatever, but the thing is for me personally, my recovery is probably going to be up there as one of the longer ones. So I’ll just keep writing for TGI and just playing guitar for fun.”
TGI’s drummer Andrew Tkaczyk lost a leg in the crash and vowed to play the drums again. His rehabilitation is going well and he recently played the kit for the first time with his artificial limb.
Johnson says Tcackzyk’s attitude has been positive from day one. He adds: “He woke up, found out about it, and that day already was making jokes. And he understood the severity of it, but he woke up and was like, ‘Alright, this is what I’m deal with, it sucks, but I’m gonna plays drums, I’m gonna walk, I’m gonna be fine.’
“He’s really kicking ass with it. He keeps all of us laughing in general, even after all the shit he’s been through. He’s killing it, I’m excited to see how he’ll do once he gets back behind the kit.”
TGI are scheduled to play as part of the 2017 Vans Warped Tour.
