Lead singer Ken Casey on stage with the Screaming Eagles horn players in the background

Photo: Jenny Krasic

The Dropkick Murphys Just Wrote a Song about Welles Crowther

Lead singer Ken Casey on taking the stage with the Screaming Eagles to salute the 9/11 hero, and his band’s love for BC. 

The courage of Welles Crowther ’99, who died in the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks after guiding as many as eighteen strangers through stairwells to safety, repeatedly turning back to help others in the burning South Tower when he could have saved himself, has inspired many people. That includes the members of the popular Celtic punk rock band the Dropkick Murphys. The group’s frontman, Ken Casey, said he learned of Crowther from BC alum Christina McMahon ’01, the executive director of the Boston band’s charitable foundation. To pay tribute to the Man in the Red Bandana, as Crowther was initially described by the survivors he guided to safety, the Dropkick Murphys wrote a song about him, “A Hero Among Many,” for their latest album.

They also dedicated a recent Boston concert to Crowther. A portion of the ticket sales for Red Bandana Night, as their typically rollicking show at MGM Music Hall was called, went to the Welles Remy Crowther Charitable Trust, which benefits youth education and social wellness programs. At one point, Crowther’s mother, Alison Crowther, joined the band on stage to toss red bandanas to the energetic crowd. And BC’s marching band, the Screaming Eagles, helped perform the Dropkick Murphys’ anthem “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.” We asked Casey about how Crowther’s bravery inspires him, and about the band’s longstanding affinity for BC.

What was it about Welles’s story that moved you to write a song about him?

He could have walked out of the tower and not gone back up those stairs. This is someone who could have thought about himself. That’s humanity in action.

Alison Crowther, mother of Welles Remy Crowther, tosses red bandanas to the crowd at a Dropkick Murphys concert honoring Welles. Photo: Jenny Krasic

The BC marching band has played with the Dropkicks a number of times over the years. What shows stand out?

One of the first times was when they joined us when we were opening for Aerosmith. Truth be told, Steven Tyler got a little uptight that we were going to show up Aerosmith by having the BC band join us. I thought that was ironic, because—it’s Aerosmith! If the BC band can make Aerosmith quake in their boots, they must be doing something right.

What explains the special relationship between the Dropkicks and BC?

There’s a ton of great universities in Boston, but being introduced to Boston College through sports, growing up during the Doug Flutie era, it’s just always seemed, as the name would say, like Boston’s college. Then you add in the Jesuit experience. I went to Catholic Memorial, and most of my friends went to BC High. That’s where the synergy comes from. . . . And both my grandfathers went to BC after World War II. Neither of them graduated. In my family we get kicked out of a lot of things, but they didn’t get kicked out. They just didn’t finish because they were trying to go at night and still work and raise a family. I’ve got one kid left, and I’m hoping he can get into BC. Pass that along to admissions. I’m kidding!

Is there anything punk about being Catholic?

I think Pope Leo’s being pretty punk right now, speaking truth to power, and I love that. The identity of the band is tied closely to our Catholic upbringing, for sure. A lot of the band members went to Catholic school, and obviously there’s a big effect on how you learned to carry yourself in the world.

What do you hope people will learn from Welles’s story?

When you’re talking about the world today, the work world and chasing the dollar, I just think humanity and caring for others is still the most important thing. Obviously, I hope none of us will be faced with a day like the one that Welles had and the decision he had to make. But I think that, hopefully, we would all make that decision to put others before our own needs and safety. I don’t think any of us will know until we get there, but getting back to that idea of upbringing and being taught to care for others­—it’s part and parcel of meeting the moment when called upon. ◽

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