HammerFall drummer nearly arrested

Artist news 25-04-2005 14:13

Johansson was not very impressed: "That's what happens when you're on tour", he told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

Hammerfall are in the middle of a European tour, which reached the city of Pratteln in Switzerland last week.

There, the band checked into Hotel Etap and that's when drummer Anders Johansson and guitarist Oscar Dronjak suddenly decided to "pour a drink" into the TV.

Anders Johansson explains: "We wanted to make an 'atom bomb,' you know, when it sparkles." Johansson and Dronjak then proceeded to throw the TV out of the hotel's first-floor window. Johansson continues:

"It was broken anyway. But then we realized that they would notice that the TV was missing, so we went outside to get it."

When it became apparent that the television was broken, Johansson and Dronjak threw it out the window one more time. But the second time the drunken duo threw it further, into some bushes. Johansson recalls: "That way no one would see it, we thought."

To hide the fact that a crime had been commited, Johansson stole the TV set that was located in the hotel lobby and carried it up to the room. But a surveillance camera caught him on tape.

And when the band were due to go on stage on Thursday they got a visit from the police. Johansson: "They were very upset and wanted to arrest me."

The concert could only go ahead after the band's German tour manager Rüdiger Dressein offered to repay the TV. The angry tour manager feared being forced to cancel the show. Yet Anders Johansson does not feel any remorse for his actions. He states:

"I would have felt bad it the concert had to be cancelled. The TV I don't care about."