Chris Harms represents Germany on the ESC stage. In the past, the singer went through terrible things: he was attacked and still has physical consequences.
On Saturday evening, Chris Harms and his band Lord of the Lost will have a special honor: They will be able to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest. For the singer it is a milestone in his career. The 43-year-old has been on stage for over 20 years and founded his first band Philiae in 1999.
At that time he was also in the Hamburg discotheque “J’s”, an event location of the famous party king Michael Ammer at the time. On April 29, 2000, Chris Harms was there alongside other celebrities such as actors Til Schweiger, Heiner Lauterbach and Jenny Elvers or also DSDS star Dieter Bohlen – when a life-threatening attack occurred.
At around 3 a.m., a man sneaked into the VIP area. He placed a hand grenade with 3,000 steel balls between the cushions of the sofa, which can cause fatal injuries within a radius of twelve meters. After it blew up, nine people were injured – Chris Harms was among them. He was taken to the hospital with steel balls in his body. Nobody was killed in the attack. The police were able to catch the perpetrator, a court later convicted him.
“mentally shattered”
Chris Harms now explained to the “Bild” newspaper: “I was mentally ill after the hand grenade attack and tried to compensate with drugs and alcohol.” He was then able to process his fears with his music. He hasn’t drunk any alcohol for six years now, and he hasn’t touched cigarettes or drugs either.
He still feels physical consequences to this day: “I had 30 grenade balls in my back and legs, the worst of which were then operated on in the hospital. To this day I have about 20 of these small balls in my body that have encapsulated,” says the musician .
