Metal Anarchy

During an appearance on the “HardLore” podcast, Year of the Knife’s Madi Watkins opened up about her recovery following the band’s June 2023 van accident. As previously reported, that incident left her in critical condition and the other members of the band with various injuries.

Watkins said the following about the band’s future:

“I think that there’s a long road ahead, but most of it’s just convincing the band that I’m ready. Because I think sometimes I push them, like, ‘I really want to play’ and they’re like ‘can you?’ And I’m like ‘yeah, let’s practice, let’s do stuff.’ And they’re very like… Maybe [they’re] just being conservative, but I’m like, ‘C’mon, let’s go for it.’”

She also commented on returning to practice:

“It was awesome, it was like seriously so fun. It was just cool to get back to practicing. I was like, ‘We can do this.’ And anything we have like, offers, they’re like, ‘I don’t know…’ I’m like, ‘You do know. We can do this.’”

Watkins also confirmed that her voice is “feeling good.” She later discussed regaining her cognition as well:

“That’s the weirdest thing about it. I feel like I don’t even remember being at the hospital and I feel like I just remember being back home. Like, I know there was times in-between that, it’s just I have no memory of them, which I think is super weird, but maybe a good thing.”

She also expressed gratitude for everyone’s support:

“I honestly think that seeing that, I was just like, ‘Holy shit!’ Even people that we’re not close to were being supportive. To me I was just like, ‘Damn, we’re so lucky.’ That was something… I don’t know if I felt that way before, but after that I was just like, ‘damn, we really had the support. When we needed it people were there.”

She also confirmed that her mobility has greatly improved:

“I’m at like a 100%, which is cool. It’s like wild. Because I think the twins were always like really, really worried [about me.] They were like, ‘I don’t know if you’re going to get back to where you were.’ But I think I’m better than where I was.”

She also gave more details on the accident, saying her and Brandon Watkins were asleep:

“Andy and Aaron were in the front. I was laying on the first bench and then the second bench Brandon was laying on. And then it was just like [crash.]”

She also reiterated that she doesn’t remember going to the hospital in Salt Lake City:

“Literally my first memory is like being back home, which is so weird.”

She went on to say that she essentially lost a full month:

“My brain was just not there, unfortunately.”

[via The PRP]