Home Studio Of Lafayette Native, Royal Teeth Guitarist Destroyed By Nashville Tornadoes
As the sun rises over Nashville many are realizing the significant damage caused by tornadoes that touched down in the downtown area last night.
UPDATE: A Fundly has been created by Royal Teeth to help their guitarist get back on his feet.
According to numerous reports, at least two tornadoes touched down early Tuesday morning in central Tennessee, killing at least 19 people and damaging dozens of structures in the area. One of the tornadoes in downtown Nashville stayed on the ground until it reached a town 10 miles east of the city.
Authorities have responded to over 40 building collapses around the Nashville area—and sadly, a Lafayette native was a victim of one of those collapses. Musician Thomas Onebane is the guitarist for national recording act Royal Teeth and also a producer for the Young Hedons.
Thomas posted photos on social media showing the damage to his home studio. What's scary is that not only did Onebane's studio collapse, but he was on the second floor and came crashing down as well.
Luckily, he was fine and was able to seek shelter with other band members in the area. Royal Teeth drummer Josh Hefner says they are grateful that Thomas is safe.
We are safe but Thomas (royal teeth guitarist) lost everything. His second floor studio completely collapsed with him in it. crazy he survived. i picked him up around 2am and he's with us now.
There are many musicians and writers from our area in and around the Nashville area and fortunately for Thomas, he has friends in the area to help him as he assesses the damage of the collapse. As far as his equipment goes, he tried to get most of it to a neighboring place after the collapse but is unsure if his gear will ultimately survive the rain and the fall.
We're glad Thomas is OK and will keep this story updated with details as he begins to pick up the pieces.
UPDATE: I spoke briefly with Thomas who confirmed that he "lost everything" in the collapse and anything that will help him replace any equipment would be "tremendous."