Glass Animals Frontman Dave Bayley Reflects on Drummer Joe Seaward's 'Severe' Near-Death Accident

"We thought it was over — that the band was over," Bayley told the 'Irish Times'

Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley is looking back on a particularly harrowing time in the "Heat Waves" band's history.

In a new interview with the Irish Times, Bayley, 35, recalled a moment in 2018 where the group "thought it was over – that the band was over," following drummer Joe Seaward being struck by a "lorry" (commercial vehicle) and sustaining "severe" injuries.

“I got the news from his dad,” he reflected on the moment. “I’d just landed in London and got a call. I could tell as soon as I heard the tone. He was like, ‘Joe’s been hit.' He was playing it down. I think he was playing it down to himself. I got the red-eye flight in the morning, got there, met his family. Then it dawned on me how severe it was.”

At the time, Bayley wrote shared on Glass Animals' social media that Seaward "was hit by a truck while on his bike" in Dublin, adding, "his leg was broken on impact and he became tangled in the truck’s trailer where his skull suffered a complex fracture."

He explained that Seaward's "neurosurgery consisted of reshaping part of his skull that had collapsed and been compressed into the brain by the weight of the truck’s trailer." He also was administered "general anesthetic" on his leg.

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As a result of the extent of Seaward's injuries, Bayley and the group canceled the rest of Glass Animals' tour dates that year.

Bayley told the Irish Times that he “spent weeks” sleeping on waiting room benches in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital and living off of vending machine food while Seaward was being treated. During that time, he also noted that he formed the underlying concepts for what would become Dreamland, the band's 2020 album.

“Weirdly that is where the third album [began]… your brain goes to weird places,” Bayley reflected to the publication. “Your adrenaline level is 100 out of 100. You’re not sleeping a wink because you’re worried. You’re sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair in a waiting room — expecting bad news."

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He continued, "In those situations, to comfort yourself, you go back in time and relive all these memories. Those memories ended up being the foundation of that third record — a very strange time. I’m so happy it went the way it did [that Seaward survived — not that he was hurt in the first place]. Literally unbelievable — it’s a miracle.”

Thankfully, Seaward survived, which Bayley wholly attributes to the talented medical personnel who treated the drummer. “There was an absolutely genius surgeon in Dublin who saved his life," the singer said. "The whole nursing and physio team there literally resurrected him. It was incredible to watch and I’m so grateful to them."

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