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Detroit's Kenny Larkin: Being Shot Doesn't Hurt At All

Author: Jonty Skrufff
Monday, May 16, 2005
"Two guys came to my house at one o clock in the morning, knocked at my door. I opened the door and they shot me. That's the quick version of it. The police never caught the guys and they told me "Somebody knew that you were away and they were going to rob your house, they either thought that your girlfriend was there by herself, or you weren't there, and when you opened the door and surprised them, they pulled the trigger'. I got shot on the day that I returned from Europe."

Sitting in the conference suite of a 5 star luxury hotel and positively glowing with enthusiasm and vitality Detroit techno star Kenny Larkin chuckles as he recalls the moment he found himself staring down the barrel of a 357 Magnum. Flying back from an overseas DJiing jaunt, he'd gone to bed at home only to be woken by a knock at the door, which had made him nervous enough to pick up his own gun though not quite nervous enough to refuse to open the door.

"I looked outside and I saw this little black dude standing at my door. He looked about 15 years old. I was trying to reason to reason with myself - maybe his car broke down or maybe he needs my help; really stupid shit. Like an idiot I just opened the door, with my gun behind my back."

The moment he opened the door, however, a second larger attacker lunged into view yelling at his accomplice, and charging, he recalls.

"He was running full speed, then when he saw me with this gun by my side, he just pulled out this big ass 357 and pulled the trigger. It was weird because I got tunnel vision," he recalls.

"I zoomed in on the big gun and I saw its muzzle. The muzzle flashed, and I felt the bullet go through me. It didn't hurt - it was like - I felt that, ow! But the first thought in my mind was "that wasn't that bad'. Then I held my gun up and pulled the trigger and nothing came out, because I forgot to cock it though when I held the gun up, they both took off, then I cocked the fucker (his gun) and started shooting at them, because I didn't want them coming back. I slammed the door and said to my girlfriend - "call the police, I got shot'. She was like "No you didn't'. I said "didn't you hear the gunshots-', and I showed her the wound. She started screaming "Oh my God' and called the police and in the meantime I'm walking around my house going - I got shot, I can't believe I got shot, and there's this big hunk of meat coming out of my back. Then I couldn't stand up any more, so I had to sit down."

In the confusion, he managed to fire off his own gun at the now fleeing attackers, prompting neighbours to call the police ("They hated me, a black dude living with this white girl in this house with the fast car', he laughs) who themselves treated Kenny as a criminal rather than victim when they arrived.

"The police threw a cordon round the house and eventually said to my girlfriend "go open the door', so she opened the door and they kicked her to the ground. They thought it was a drug deal that went bad or some shit. Then later they were like "somebody came to assassinate you'. I'm like - who the fuck am I- I'm like this little nerdy ass guy, who'd want to assassinate me-"

Despite being attacked in such terrifying circumstances, Kenny admits he adopted a stoical stance to the incident, pointing out "after the shooting I never had one bad dream, no nightmares, I knew that I wasn't going to die, and that was it. I cried one time when I went to Belgium, four months later and I just started crying out of nowhere, and said: "Thank you God', and that was it. That was all the mourning that I did. Everything else was cool. Obviously I can't open the door to strangers anymore, and I've built a studio outside the house, somewhere I can go to, and I had a gun at the studio - I didn't want whoever coming back or whatever, but that was it," he says.

Ten years later, his life has taken several more unexpected turns, including his decision in 2002 to quite making music altogether to concentrate o
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