Were Any Of The Kids From Soul Asylum’s ‘Runaway Train’ Video Ever Found?
Remember Soul Asylum's 90's hit "Runaway Train"? Better yet, do you remember the video that featured almost milk carton like photos and info about kids who were missing? Ever wonder what came of those kids?Here's the video if you need a little reminder
Last year, Spin ran an article detailing "Runaway Train" with the members of Soul Asylum, and even the videos director Tony Kaye (who went on to direct the critically acclaimed American History X).
The video idea came from Tony Kaye, and the band loved it. Then they saw the first cut of the video, and were blown away.
One thing I found interesting came from Soul Asylum guitarist Dan Murphy:
The other thing you might not know is that in every country, they did different kids that were missing from that country. So they spent a lot of time pasting in and changing the images.
But did their PSA style video work like Tony Kaye thought it would?
A few weeks after the video premiered, Columbia said, "You said kids will come back, and no kids have come back yet. Let's take them out and put more pictures of the band in." And I said, "No, give it a moment." And lo and behold, one kid came back and then another and another and another. It was pretty amazing. Twenty-six kids all over the world came back.
But not every story was a happy one. From Murphy:
It was very surreal being out on tour and meeting people who were in the video. There was a fireman who came backstage and his baby was one of the babies in the video. It was found buried in his ex-wife's backyard. Someone killed the baby. So it was really surreal in that aspect. You'd just be sitting there, unwinding after a show and some guy would come into your dressing room and then you'd realize what you'd done, what you'd created. This one girl, she'd been like 15 at the time she was in the video, she was like, "You guys ruined my life. I was just partying with my boyfriend, then I saw myself on TV." She was underage and she ran away [from home]. We could never say that a teenager that ran away shouldn't have. Maybe there was a really appalling reason, like you're getting abused by your stepfather or your mother's addicted to crack and turning tricks at your house. That video just made people more aware — it didn't offer any solutions.[/pullquotes]
Pretty interesting little tid bits on that video, and the kids featured in it. Thought you guys might enjoy.
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