Man Allegedly Yanks Tracheotomy Tube Out of Another Fan’s Throat at Godsmack Gig

If you’ve ever been down in the middle of the chaos at the front of a Godsmack show, you know it’s not the safest place in the world. But things reportedly got way out of hand during an altercation between two fans in the front row of a ‘Smack show Tuesday in Dubuque, Iowa, resulting in one man tearing a tracheotomy tube out of the other man's neck.

Wait, what?!? Yes, you read the correctly. Read on:

Brad Kluesner, 36, insists he was innocently enjoying the show when 38-year-old Darrell Abbott (who coincidentally has the same name as late Pantera guitarist 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott) tried to push past him. “I was like, ‘You’re not going to get past me, go around,’ whatever,” explains Kluesner, who admits he fought back and got a punch in before security guards separated the two.

But minutes later Abbott returned, and that’s when police say he attacked. “The next thing I know I felt fingers on the back of my head and I turned around as he’s grabbing my collar and the back of my necklace for my [tracheotomy tube],” which Kluesner says is attached to the necklace and hidden by a large, bushy goatee. “I guarantee you he had no clue that I had [a tracheotomy tube].”

Kluesner was rushed off to the hospital, where surgery was performed to replace the tube. He was released a few hours later and back at work on Thursday. “I don’t think it’s as bad as what it kind of seems,” Kluesner says.

But things could turn out much worse for Abbott, who police charged with assault with bodily injury and public intoxication for the incident. As of Friday evening he was still in the slammer, being held on $2,500 cash bond.

As for Godsmack, their current North American tour rolls on, leaving carnage in its wake as it makes its way toward its Sept. 9 finale in Honolulu.