Flaming Lips Frontman Explains How A Grenade Ended Up In His Luggage

By now, you've probably heard about Flaming Lips' frontman Wayne Coyne accidentally shutting down Oklahoma City's airport earlier this month after TSA agents found a grenade — thankfully, not a live one — in his luggage.

Coyne was on his way to Los Angeles for the premiere of the play based on the Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots album when the grenade (painted gold, and disarmed) was found in his bag, which, according to his fellow travelers, triggered a "TSA lockdown" at Will Rogers Airport. After agents eventually discovered the grenade had been disarmed, Coyne was allowed to board his flight, and he sent out an apologetic tweet soon after.

But, what, exactly, was he thinking bringing any kind of grenade to an airport? Well, as it turns out, he wasn't thinking anything, as he explained to Pitchfork

"The truth is unfortunately boring," Coyne said, adding that, the night before the flight, he Lips had been up all night at a house party — "you know, pot and booze and drugs and people playing music until six o'clock in the morning" — where he picked up the grenade and decided to keep it. "It was an actual grenade that was now missing its explosive parts and painted gold. I just threw this gold grenade in my bag and had not quite thought about it."

Of course, when the airport's X-ray machines discovered the grenade in his bag, it understandably set off alarms — "the bomb-squad guy came out," is how Coyne put it — though he said everyone at the TSA seemed to believe his explanation that it was all just an accident.

"Everybody could immediately tell what it was, but it's too late; the merry-go-round had to go its whole way around before you could get off," he said. "[But] they were all very nice to me."

And as for the folks who missed their flights due to the security delays? Well, Coyne's not quite as remorseful about their plight. After all, as he points out, he technically didn't break any laws ... except for maybe the law of stupidity.

"I would agree that it was stupid of me, but I don't feel wholly responsible if people missed their flights," he said. "I'm not making the rules. It's not illegal for me to have that grenade with me."

Is it actually possible to accidentally pack a grenade in your luggage? Let us know in the comments below!