Aaron Lazar (D’NT, Giraffes)

The Giraffes are a cult band from Brooklyn that has been leveling crowds with their signature mixture of heavy rock, punk, metal and surf since 1996. A well-earned reputation for mayhem has followed the band from the start. Their guitarist was shot in the leg outside of a White Castle late one night in Brooklyn after being accosted by an off-duty fire marshal with an itchy trigger finger. The bullet is still lodged in his knee. Their singer Aaron Lazar has suffered multiple Sudden Cardiac Death events. He has a defibrillator implanted in his chest which has erroneously shocked him on stage. During a show at Chicago’s legendary Double Door, it sent 700 volts directly into his heart 3 times in 30 seconds. He finished the set.

I've known Aaron for more than 20 years now and he's one of my closest friends. We have Been In Some Shit together. We've toured together, I punched him in the neck, I returned his rental car the first time he died, we were in a band together and it broke up in a hail of recrimination. We're still friends. I'm eerily close with his cat, Bill. We talk a lot here about how death renewed his interest in life and I think it's a really useful conversation. We also play a couple of new songs, one from his band D'NT with former Beat the Devil drummer Mitchell King and one from the Giraffes. Enjoy.