Some fans mistakenly believed the track was inspired by the suicide of Kurt Cobain, which Patrick roundly denied. Its popularity spurred Short Bus to platinum sales. I don't think it would be fair and I certainly wouldn't want us to sell any records at the expense of this guy’s family.' I'm worried it's going to turn up in print, and I really don't want the guy's family to have to deal with it. He had the guts to stand up for what he believed. “The song is not a celebration of suicide. “It's about a guy that kind of made a statement, a final one,” Dwyer told MTV in 1995. Though Dwyer was not expressly mentioned in the song, his actions were alluded to in lines like, ' Now that the smoke's gone and the air is all clear, those who were right there hot a new kind of fear.' Patrick was always careful to clarify the lyrics were not a celebration of what happened. The track was eventually completed and released by Patrick’s band Filter on their debut album Short Bus in 1995. Patrick recorded a demo at Trent Reznor’s house, and at one point considered making it a Nine Inch Nails song. Watch the Music Video for 'Hey Man, Nice Shot' I was watching it and I was all, 'Hey man, nice shot.'' We're all gonna die.' There was a morbid curiosity. Back then, we were watching it out of fascination of like, 'Wow. You can see anything on the internet now. “There was no internet to watch death on. Patrick is 'from the suburbs' so he didn't 'remember seeing a lot of things like that growing up,” he told KLAQ in 2012.

“That wasn’t Faces of Death, but it had footage from that press conference.” “On one stop, there was this little booth that was selling books, and they gave me this weird video tape,” he told Billboard in 2020. By then, Patrick was a touring guitarist with Nine Inch Nails. Richard Patrick was 17 at the time of Dwyer’s death, and four years passed before something clicked. Some stations aired footage of the incident completely uncensored, while others opted to cut away seconds before the gun was fired. The public nature of Dwyer’s suicide spawned conversations and criticisms regarding graphic content in news reports. As people pleaded with him to put the gun down, Dwyer placed the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger. “I had one of those moments where I was up in the air, looking down at myself, almost an out-of-body experience.”ĭwyer didn’t commit violence on the media, but instead on himself. “I remember the gun, because it was huge,” fellow reporter Eric Conrad noted. “To be honest, after what he had just gone through, the thought crossed my mind that he could just turn that gun on the people in the room,” admitted Kenn Marshall, then a reporter for The Patriot-News. 357 Magnum revolver out of a manila envelope, shocking those in attendance. Among his foreboding statements: the promise he was “going to die in office” and a suggestion that members of the crowd “leave immediately if you have a weak stomach or mind.”ĭwyer then pulled a Model 19. Budd DwyerĪfter more than 30 minutes of speaking, Dwyer began to conclude his speech. Watch a 1987 News Report on the Death of R. My prison would simply be an American Gulag.” 'Since I'm a victim of political persecution. 'It wouldn't be legitimate punishment, because I've done nothing wrong,' he added. “But it wouldn't be a deterrent because every public official who knows me knows that I am innocent. Judge Muir has already told the press that he felt ‘invigorated’ when we were found guilty and that he plans to imprison me as a ‘deterrent’ to other public officials,” Dwyer announced. “I face a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison and a $300,000 fine for being innocent.

As the conference started, Dwyer read from pages and pages of prepared materials, consistently declaring his innocence and criticizing the justice system that planned to incarcerate him. Most of the people assembled, including members of the media, assumed he would be announcing his resignation from public office. None of Dwyer’s staff knew what he would discuss that day. 23, 1987, but called a press conference for the day before. The discovery: Dwyer had accepted a $300,000 bribe from the firm to guarantee the contract would be theirs.ĭwyer was convicted in 1986 of 11 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, perjury and interstate transportation in aid of racketeering. Computer Technology Associates was awarded the contract, which stipulated that the the California-based company be paid $4.6 million for their work on the project.įinancial discrepancies in the deal resulted in a 1984 investigation. When Pennsylvania discovered state employees had overpaid federal taxes, an outside accounting firm was hired to investigate how much money needed to be redistributed.

Hey man nice shot regular show