Yesterday Was Everything Page #8

(Emotional) I pulled all

that f***in weight off him

and pulled him out of

that stupid f***ing van.

And he looked untouched.

He wasn't bloody,

he wasn't messed up.

He was fine.

I thought he's okay, he's just

knocked out or something.

And the paramedics

got there pretty soon.

The woman came down and I

showed them where he was.

And she just said "He's gone.

He's gone."

It was a f***ing horrible night.

(Braden) As messed up as I was,

I wouldn't trade that for having

to be Jesse or deal with that

night and have that memory.

I don't know how

he got past that.

(B Best) I remember I

was at my parent's house

at the time in the

middle of the night.

I just got a phone call that

there had been this accident.

They didn't really know

for sure yet what happened.

I was just running around my

house literally screaming.

Like just I didn't know

what the hell to do.

Still in shock like hoping

that it wasn't true.

(Ryan) We saw something

on a message board that was

kind of cryptic, and it was

about those guys and honoring

them and their memory

living on and stuff, and we

didn't really understand

what they were talking about.

Our band email had an email

I believe from Jordan's parents.

It wasn't really informing us

what happened as much as it was

them expressing to us how

much our band meant to them.

And um... [clears throat]

excuse me...

how much they appreciated the

fact that their children got

to spend their

last moments doing...

spend their last moments

doing what they love to

do with their favorite band.

When I first heard about it,

I think Dan was still alive

and there was a chance

that he was going to live,

but yeah he was just

so f***ed up like...

I mean the sh*t Jesse's told me,

I don't even want to talk

about cause it's super...

it's really graphic,

and it's f***ing sad.

But...

It's f***ing brutal, man.

(B Best) They were two of my

best friends at the time, and

I just really looked forward

to a future getting to know

those guys. It's taken too

short, they were both only

19 years old, like, looking

back we were just babies.

It's f***ing tragedy.

(Carol) I try not to talk about

it unless Jesse wants to talk

about it. Some of the mothers,

like the two mothers who lost

their children, had the report -

the accident report, said

"Here you want to read it you

want to read what happened?"

and I was like "No I don't

wanna read what happened."

I can't imagine my child in the

dark with his friends around him

not with him anymore and Braden

and Junior not being able

to move, not being able to do

anything and Jesse being lost in

the dark wondering what to do.

And it just it still still still

kills me every time I think

about it, let alone sitting and

reading about somebody having to

go through that sort of thing.

So whenever Jesse talks about

it we talk about it but I don't

want the details I don't

want to know the details.

And when you listen to him sing

'The Year Summer Ended In June'

you know how he feels about it.

There's no doubt in your mind

how he feels about what

happened and that dark night.

(Kyle)After that tour ended that

was when Temo quit the band.

When I came home and found

out that Temo had left. As hurt

as I was from the crash, I knew

that that's what I had to do.

I said "Hey this is Jesse,

singer of Compromise, I'm more

than willing to come down

there and try out any time."

It felt like the right

thing to do, it felt like

something had

brought us together.

I think he looked at it as an

opportunity to carry on their

legacy through the band that

they love and the band that

they ended their life with.

So Jesse met up with us in

the States and came back to

Milwaukee to be the new

singer of 7 Angels 7 Plagues.

We continued to write and

rehearse for an EP that we were

working on, and we ended up in

the studio not long after that.

And that's when Jared gave

us a call to inform us that

Matt and himself were going

to be quitting the band.

There was never a point

where we weren't gonna continue

on, it was like "He quit,

okay, screw it whatever.

We're just gonna

continue on", and we did.

But at that point we had

already planned to do this

'Yesterday Was Everything'

festival.

Jordan's father thought it

was a great idea to, only a few

months after the crash, raise

awareness for drunk driving,

to celebrate his son you know.

It was an amazing idea.

And he put it together so quick.

And the city just really

really latched on to the idea.

(Stu) And 7 Angels were

supposed to play, and it was

such a big f***ing deal man.

Like it was the craziest sh*t

that they were gonna come up and

play this show and that

Jesse was gonna be singing.

Like it was like "Holy sh*t!

This is crazy," you know?

It was planned, we were

gonna do it and then all of

a sudden Jared just says

"I'm not gonna do it." You know.

And I'm so bummed I phoned

him and you know, begged him,

"You gotta come, you don't

know what this show is gonna

do it's gonna be healing.

It's gonna heal people.

People need us there to play

those songs,

it means the world to people."

At least come up and do this

last run of shows and then

we'll all call it quits.

But they refused.

I think at that time we had

never made a trip like that.

Like Edmonton was a place that

we had never really probably

heard of before

meeting these guys.

And it was you know a 30

hour drive from Milwaukee.

So I feel like that was just

something that was too much for

them to wrap their heads around.

Kind of spineless and a

b*tch move to bail out when

there's that many people like...

it sounds like weird, but

when there's that many people

depending on you.

Because they were.

Like everybody needed like to be

consoled in a way and that show

was like a way that that was

going to happen, you know?

(Jesse) And luckily

Branden just stepped up.

He learned the songs

very well, very quickly.

The first time I went to

Edmonton Braden was still in

a back brace and

Junior was on crutches.

It was so soon after that the

surviving members from the crash

were still recuperating.

We roll into town and we

just have this like aura around

us automatically, just based on

who we are and our involvement

with their friends who passed

away, you know, weeks earlier.

We just immediately were

taken in like we were a

part of the family.

I just never experienced

love like that from

people I'd never met.

Yeah I mean that

band was like a...

you know they were like the flag

for healing in a weird way.

And that festival was an

extremely special time for

Jordan's family, for my family,

for Braden's family,

for all of us Compromise guys.

Just to get together and

you know, pay respects to

Dan and Jordan. You know

they gave their lives for

that music so to be able

to put on a fest where

everyone could get

together and remember them.

I didn't get to go to

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