Leto's 'surreal' bomb scare drama
Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars says his experience of a suspected terror attack last week was "surreal".
A man gatecrashed the band's gallery room in Los Angeles as a small group of fans prepared to watch Leto's new documentary movie. He dropped a heavy wrapped package on the floor in front of the stage area before the singer manhandled him out of the room.
Bomb squad officers soon evacuated the premises and five blocks of the surrounding city, before establishing there were no explosives in the package.
See video footage of the bomb scare
Leto tells MTV: "Everyone, including me, thought it was a joke. I thought it was a fan who'd brought a gift, but as he got closer you could see he was giving off a different kind of energy.
"He threw this big package down and it obviously had some weight to it. He addressed me by name and said he had a message for me, and started reading out of a notebook. He was very incoherent and delusional."
Leto forced him to the backstage area where he tried to calm him down, but could see he was "not in a good place and very obviously disturbed."
The singer continues: "We got another knock at the door and it was the bomb squad saying they were clearing the area.
Police apprehended the suspect and demanded to know what was in the package. Leto says he told them: "Some appliances and maybe some explosives." It was later revealed there were no explosives.
Leto continues: "It was definitely surreal, but at the same time I did feel some empathy for the guy."
He says a comment he made later in the evening has been misunderstood: When he said, "It's official, we have the craziest fans in the world," he wasn't referring to the bomb-scare suspect, but to someone who stuck a 30 Second to Mars sticker to the back end of a police car during the drama.
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