The Cult were involved in a bus crash in Europe this week while traveling in the early morning hours from Split, Croatia, to Ljubijana, Slovenia. Thankfully, there were no fatalities or very serious injuries, but frontman Ian Astbury was pretty banged up in the accident. Judging from the vocalist’s description of the events, things could have been a lot worse, as the bus nearly went over an 80-foot drop.
A press release from the band’s publicist calls the incident a “terrifying crash.” With the rest of the band and crew sound asleep in their bunks, Astbury was seated in the front lounge of the bus when things went down. “I was the only one awake,” reports the singer. “All of a sudden, the bus veered violently, hit the guard rail and tipped on a 45-degree angle, then righted itself and came to a halt. The guard rail was the only thing that prevented us from going over an 80-foot drop.”

During the collision, Astbury was thrown into the aisle, and as a result, suffered a spate of injuries to his neck, back and shoulder. He later received pain meds and applied ice to his wounds.

The driver managed to get the damaged vehicle to a service station a few miles down the road, where it was patched up. Miraculously, the band was able to play that night’s show with no interruption. The Cult are such troopers!

The bus was eventually repaired the next morning and the band was off on its way to the next gig, some 20 hours away.

The incident is in the rear view – literally- but the aftereffects are being felt. “No one has had any sleep, so the guys are pretty beat, and we are still in shock, to be honest,” Astbury commented. “You never think something like this is going to happen to you, and it just did.”

Tour bus accidents are often serious, and lives have been lost because of them, the most famous being Cliff Burton of Metallica.

Thankfully, no one was killed or seriously injured in this accident. You can check out the damage that the Cult’s tour bus sustained in the photo below:

-loudwire.com