I've also listened to Art Bell on the AM band for years, since back in the early nineties. Kind of stopped listening when the crazies made him feel the need to take a break. But now that he's back, so am I.

There is a certain symmetry; A similarity between the interests of a person that would be attracted to the Art Bell show and the interests of a person who would listen to Tool. So I'm not sure I should be surprised. But I am, because the kind of guy who listens to Tool is not usually the same kind of guy who listens to AM talk radio. Then again, I'm one of them.

So anyway, I was startled to find out that, on their new CD, Tool has used the program that contained the area 51 caller on Art's show. Now that I think about it, it's perfectly suited for them.

It's the hidden track. Number 13.

For those of you that know Tool, this should come as no surprise. For the rest of you - if you like Art Bell's show - let the CD play for 2 minutes "past the end" and you'll hear the "Area 51" caller.

John

Interesting....I thought I was the only looney type to mix such strange combinations of sound. I literally cut my teeth on AM radio. I've always loved to listen in on what was happening around the country. It intrigued me as a kid to be listening to radio stations in New York, Fort Worth, Texas, Denver, Cincinnati and all points in between. I still like to tune in once in a while, but don't get to much anymore. It's quite a contrast to Tool which itself is quite a contrast to some of my other musical tastes. They say variety is the spice of life! Jerrod

The following is a verbatim transcript from last night's Art Bell Show at approximately 1:45 A.M. Friday Sept. 12, 1997:

Art: On my Area 51 line, you're on the air, hello.

Male caller: Hello, Art?

Art: Yes

Caller [sounds frightened]: I don't have a whole lot of time.

Art: Well, look, let's begin by finding out if you're using this line
properly or not.

Caller: OK, in Area 51?

Art: Yes. Are you an employee or are you now?

Caller: I'm a former employee. I, I was let go on a medical discharge about a week ago and, and... [chokes] I kind of been running across the country. Damn, I don't know where to start, they're, they're gonna, they'll triangulate on this position really soon.

Art: So you can't spend a lot of time on the phone, so give us something quick.

Caller [voice breaking up with apparent suppressed crying]: OK, um, um, OK, what we're thinking of as aliens, Art, they're extradimensional beings, that, an earlier precursor of the space program they made contact with. They are not what they claim to be. They've infiltrated a lot of aspects of, of, of the military establishment, particularly the Area 51.

The disasters that are coming, they, the military, I'm sorry, the
government knows about them. And there's a lot of safe areas in this world that they could begin moving the population to now, Art.

Art: So they're not doing, not doing anything.

Caller: They are not. They want those major population centers wiped out so that the few that are left will be more easily controllable...."

Art [fragment]: ...discharged...

Caller [sobbing, then fragment]: I say we g ....

[Dead air for 25 seconds, followed by theme song and repeat of Mark Fuhrman interview talking about marijuana busts]

[2:29:43 elapsed time] Art: We are now on a backup system....The entire transmitting system went down...

Art's radio network engineer later reported that the network's
communication satellite lost 50 channels (including Art's feed) at that moment, possibly due to a "lost earth sensor" (so it no longer pointed to the earth station).

Art reported that the telephone conversation continued off the air for
about a minute, when the caller "screamed" and "screeched" and the
telephone connection went dead. Art also reported that his Web site
registered 5 million hits just after the outage.

Later, a Tucson caller who he said worked for Hughes (which Art said
supplies microwave systems to Area 51) reported that his computer memory and electronic watch were zapped at the same time that the broadcast went dead, and suggested both events may have been caused by a cloud-reflected EMP (electromagnetic pulse, which are created by nuclear explosions or by special EMP generator).

A caller claiming he was with Area 51 security said: "[We're] Professional cleaners, you know they dig a lot of holes in the desert...I use a lot of acid....We worked with satellite operations in the Gulf War when we cut down certain transmissions...." He predicted the caller would not be calling in again.