Cedric Bixler-Zavala Hints He Wrote At The Drive-In Songs About Danny Masterson, Who Allegedly Raped His Wife
Frida Garza
Filed to:at the drive-in
by Jim Dyson/Getty Images
Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the guitarist in post-hardcore band At The Drive-In, has found himself in the middle of a messy media storm involving his wife Chrissie Bixler, rape allegations against actor Danny Masterson (who played Hyde on That '70s Show,) and the Church of Scientology.
First, some context: As the Huffington Post reported earlier this month, Masterson has been accused by at least four women of rape, the incidents allegedly taking place in the early 2000s. According to HuffPost, an investigation into Masterson has "inexplicably stalled, despite the Los Angeles County district attorney having compelling evidence in the case."
Last week, one of the women accusing Masterson revealed herself to be Bixler, who is formerly a Scientologist. In a statement to the Daily Beast, she detailed her frustration with both the Church of Scientology, for its lack of action after she reported her rape, and Netflix, for continuing to give Masterson a platform on its show The Ranch despite the allegations against him:
For me, what Netflix has done, feels like a continuation of how the Church of Scientology made me feel when I reported my rape to them, as well as how Danny Masterson made me feel when I would beg him for an apology, an explanation, anything. I was made to feel unimportant. I was made to feel like I didn't matter. Like what Danny Masterson did to me didn't matter. My body doesn't matter, because it doesn't belong to me. The trauma and emotional pain doesn't matter, because I just don't matter. 'Danny Masterson is a celebrity. He flourishes and prospers in life. You protect that and reward that.' -direct quote from the Church of Scientology.
This is where Cedric comes in: The day that the Daily Beast story came out, Bixler-Zavala took to Twitter to let out his own frustrations with how his wife's assault has been handled:
Later, he hinted that one song off At The Drive-In's last record contained lyrics referencing her story:
The folks over at BrooklynVegan have identified a few lines in ATDI's song "Incurably Innocent," which, just judging by the title, already sounds like a critique of rape culture. Here are the lyrics (emphasis my own):
He keeps a-hiding your photograph
Of the moment that you needed to emasculate his
Photograph but you locked up in the trance of a memory
Photograph of the moment that you needed to emasculate his
Marching to the coffins on Franklin Avenue
Preyed on the anguish, you better run
Always dragging a finger across his throat
Man is the fixer to sage the ghosts
And the faith that awarded his every move
Fans also dug up photos connecting Franklin Avenue to the Church of Scientology. And as Spin points out, Bixler-Zavala all but alluded to this in an interview with NME earlier this year, when he said the song was "a song about sexual abuse and being able to finally speak out."
We're living in a moment when women and men are coming forward to publicly share their stories of abuse and assault. But Bixler's story, like so many others, and the way her husband has detailed it in song months ago, proves that the wave of news stories about assault does not mean this is the first time survivors are speaking up. This is just the first time that many of us actually listening.