Shaun Ryder's Wild Encounter with a Killer Orangutan
Manchester music legend Shaun Ryder has countless outrageous tales from his decades in the spotlight, but one story stands out as particularly unbelievable: the time he faced down a killer orangutan on a beach in Barbados.
A Memoir Reveals the Shocking Confrontation
The 63-year-old Happy Mondays frontman is releasing a new memoir, adding to his existing autobiographies, while also working on the band's first album in twenty years. Reflecting on recording their fourth studio album in 1992, Ryder shared the terrifying moment when an enormous orangutan suddenly dropped from the trees directly in front of him on a Barbados beach.
'This thing just dropped out of the trees right in front of me. It was a f***ing big orangutan,' Ryder told The Sun newspaper. Locals had reportedly warned people about the dangerous ape, nicknamed Jack the Ripper, but Ryder was determined not to show fear.
The Standoff That Saved His Life
Ryder described how he growled aggressively at the animal, shouting 'Grrr, arrrgh, f*** off, just f*** right off' to intimidate it. Remarkably, this strategy worked, and he escaped completely unharmed. It's worth noting that orangutans are not native to Barbados, and Ryder admits he was smoking fifty rocks of crack cocaine daily at the time, but he insists the encounter was absolutely real and not a drug-induced hallucination.
From Wild Past to Sober Present
The musician's memoir also details other extreme experiences from his chaotic past, including being held hostage for two days in Amsterdam, witnessing a shooting, and narrowly avoiding arrest in a heroin house. Ryder gave up drugs at age forty and now lives a sober life with his wife Joanne and their two children, Pearl and Lulu.
He credits Joanne with helping him achieve sobriety and manages the television side of his career, which includes regular appearances on Celebrity Gogglebox with former bandmate Bez and two stints on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! Ryder jokes that he now acts as a 'f***ing taxi service' for his young daughters, acknowledging he wasn't as present for his four older children from previous relationships.
Despite the 1992 album not being a commercial success and the band splitting the following year, Ryder continues to create music and share his incredible life stories, with the orangutan confrontation remaining one of his most unforgettable adventures.
