Devo star JERRY CASALE was reminded of the horrors of the 1970 Kent State University massacre during a recent trip back to the school - and still can't believe so many have justified the tragedy.
Casale was a student when state troopers shot at peace activists protesting President Richard Nixon's Vietnam War bombings - and a recent return to his alma mater for a keynote address as part of the 40th anniversary of the events in May (10) brought back the nightmare.
Two of his friends, Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller, were killed when troopers, who were tipped off about the protest, opened fire.
Casale recalls, "I hadn't been back at that location where the killings took place in all that time. Walking through it reminded me of exactly what had happened.
"There were more than a couple of thousand students out there that day protesting the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia.
"All the anti-war students knew they were going to hold a protest, but the National Guard knew that too. Governor Rhodes had the campus surrounded by the National Guard. He had two units hiding in the (university) heating plant and gymnasium ready to go with gas masks and everything.
"We didn't know that their M1 rifles had live ammunition. Students were totally unarmed... (They) shot tear gas at us to get us corralled over the hill into this one area where they could put us on buses."
But Casale tells Hustler magazine there was a moment before the shots rang out he'll never forget.
He explains, "I saw some guy in a gas mask yelling... He made a big hand gesture, and these 12 soldiers... lowered their guns and then boom! It didn't even appear that they were aiming specifically. Just like a duck shoot, they were shooting at anybody they could get."
Casale insists many of the students shot were simply trying to leave the campus and the chaos, including Krause who was simply trying to get to her car.
He adds, "Allison got shot down in the parking lot... There I was looking at what it's like to see someone shot with an M1 rifle bullet."
The rocker insists the tragedy led to him forming Devo: "I don't think I would have started Devo without that change in me."