Taking Back Sunday drummer Mark O’Connell still isn’t sure exactly what went wrong.
After a show in Phoenix in August, he simply stopped being able to walk.
“I got off the bus and it just hit me and I fell to the ground,” O’Connell recalled. “The guys were like, ‘What are you doing? That’s not funny.’ And I was like, ‘I can’t move.’ They kept saying, ‘Get up, you’re fine’ and they got me into the hotel lobby and I sat on the couch. I thought I would be better after a while, but I couldn’t move. I crawled on the floor through the lobby and onto the elevator to my room. I thought in the morning it would be fine. I got up the next day and I just fell in the bathroom. I was sitting on the bathroom floor in tears.”
That’s when O’Connell was taken to the emergency room and learned he had a herniated disc in his back. Doctors ordered him off the tour and confined him to bed rest.
Aside from his appearance for TBS’ set at the Jones Beach stop of the Projekt Revolution tour, which O’Connell was only able to make after doctors injected steroids directly into his spine, he was able to do nothing but rest at his Long Beach home for weeks.
“It was a lot of just sitting around,” O’Connell said. “It definitely sucked. I was on painkillers for a long time and I was so worried I might get addicted.”
These days, O’Connell, ever a hard-hitter on the drums, said he is feeling about “90 percent” and he is thrilled about playing with the band again. “Sometimes, it bothers me a little and I just need to stretch a little more,” he said.
Other than the occasional pain, though, O’Connell said everything else is great. Though he was sad to see guitarist/singer Fred Mascherino leave, O’Connell said he was happy Mascherino got to pursue the music he wanted.
The change, he said, seems to be working out for everyone.“We’ve written six new songs and they’re all awesome,” O’Connell said, adding that the band hopes to hit the studio by the summer. “The four of us are writing together and we’re getting along great.”
“It’s like we have a new life,” he continued. “It’s just so much fun to play. The energy that we have when we play is like the old Taking Back Sunday. I’ve never been happier.”
PHOTO: Mark O'Connell for Warner Bros. Records