Bummer alert! That awesome story about two elderly men escaping a German nursing home to attend the massive Wacken Open Air metal festival over the weekend wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. It turns out the two men never set foot inside the festival and were not exactly “elderly.”
The German news outlet Deutsche Welle, which broke the initial story, now reports that the police department provided misinformation in its statement to the media. The initial police statement described an incident in which two “elderly” men fled from a “retirement home” to attend the Wacken fest, even adding that the pair “obviously liked the metal festival.”
In the new article, Deutsche Welle reports that the police department has released new information, revealing that the two men were actually 58 and 59 years old, and made their way out of a mental health facility, not a nursing home.
On top of that, the updated statement from the police department clarifies that the two men never even made it into the Wacken festival. Instead, they went to the town of Wacken to drink and party.
“They have mental health issues … both went to Wacken [the town] to party and also consumed alcohol,” a police spokesperson said in the updated statement, adding that they ended up in a “helpless situation.”
The two men were taken to a medical tent that was set up for festival goers, and that’s what may have led to the confusion in the police department’s initial report.
Over the past few days, the two men were hailed as heroes in the metal community, with many music fans feeling inspired by their “never too old to rock” attitude. While the story wasn’t exactly true, remember that Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne and more metal icons are legitimately senior citizens and still rocking as hard as anyone!
