Entertainment
CM Punk was ‘gentle’ with Frank Turner after replacing Daniel Bryan in wrestling music video
Punk stepped up when Daniel Bryan couldn’t take part (Photo: Rex – Frank Turner)
Frank Turner admitted wrestling with CM Punk gave him a wake-up call about the business – but the WWE legend was ‘gentle’ with him.
The Be More Kind singer worked with the former world champion – who is rumoured to be poised for an in-ring comeback seven years after leaving WWE – on the music video for 2016 single The Next Storm, and he’s reflected on his one-off experience in the squared circle.
He exclusively told Metro.co.uk: ‘He was very gentle with me in the ring, which was required!
‘It turns out, like many people, I might have had a dismissive opinion about the actual athleticism of wrestling, which was hard corrected by the experience of being in the ring with a wrestler.
‘Those people are serious athletes and I am not! So he was gentle with me, and I appreciated that.’
Punk – real name Phil Brooks – wasn’t actually originally meant to be in the piece, but he was recommended by Turner’s friend and videographer Ben Morse after fellow wrestler Daniel Bryan couldn’t take part as planned.
Bryan (left) was replaced by Punk in the video (Photo: WWE)
‘Daniel Bryan is quite publically and vocally a fan of my music, which I’m flattered by. He comes to shows and stuff like that,’ he said, explaining that his WWE contract at the time – and a devastating injury which forced him into an early retirement before a sensational return years later – stopped it from happening.
Instead, they turned to Punk, and realised he and Frank share mutual friends in Off With Their Heads, and a shared love for music.
Turner did undergo a bit of training – admittedly more of a ‘prep day’ – to get him ready for the shoot, and he ‘did some press-ups in the run-up’ before feeling like he was put to shame by the wrestler’s figure.
‘The minute we got into the ring for the shoot and took my shirt off it was like, I shouldn’t have bothered. It’s a f***ing waste of time,’ he laughed.
It was an unusual but rewarding experience for the musician – who’s currently working on his upcoming ninth studio album FTHC – even if some moments during filming were definitely intimidating.
‘There was the running knee strike to the face – that wasn’t very pleasant. And grinding, where you’re just lying on the ground and he’s rubbing his forearms across my face, basically,’ he grimaced.
‘It was really uncomfortable, would be the word. It was, “This is horrible and I want it to stop”. It wasn’t like it was physically painful, but it was so invasive! Punk taught me a lot about wrestling, I know more about it now than I did before. He did a great job!’
There are parallels between the worlds of wrestling and music, particularly when it comes to engaging with a crowd as part of a live performance – and Frank has been delighted to get back to playing to full venues after a nightmare 16 months during the pandemic.
Frank is delighted to be getting back on stage every night (Picture: Ferdy Damman/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The music industry has largely been on hold, but he is back on the road this week and played his first sold-out gig in a long time at the Clapham Grand on Monday.
‘The point of a performance, for me, is that moment of critical mass, where the energy in the room or the field or whatever reaches that point where it becomes transcendent. It’s very, very hard to do in a socially distanced environment,’ he pointed out, stressing that ‘no one’ in the industry is being blasé about the situation.
‘But if football’s OK, if Silverstone’s OK, if Wimbledon’s OK, then this is OK, thank you very much, and I want to do my f***ing job!’
Now, he’s pushing forward, with FTHC on the horizon and – in the more immediate future – the return of his own Lost Evenings festival, which will take place at the Roundhouse in Camden in September.
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Of course, things are uncertain – but Frank is ready for the battle that lies ahead, while embracing every moment he gets to be back on stage, feeling at one with the Sleeping Souls on stage and everyone in the crowd.
‘Everybody’s acclimatising to working in a period of extreme certainty. But at the same time, the music industry in necessarily full of problem solvers,’ he smiled.
‘My tour manager Tre always says that her job is fighting fires. We’re good at that kinda thing! Now, there’s a lot more fires going on right now but at the same time, we knuckle down because we love what we do.’
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