Ray Lemoine Harley Flanagan showing off his wounds in July.

Harley Flanagan, the original bassist for New York hardcore pioneers the Cro-Mags, no longer faces assault charges tied to a backstage melee at Webster Hall this summer. Initial reports about the July 6 incident painted Mr. Flanagan as a drugged-out madman wielding a hunting knife, stabbing and biting all in his warpath. Mr. Flanagan disputed that account to The Local at his pretrial hearing. We spoke to Mr. Flanagan over the phone after his case was dismissed this morning.

So what really happened?

The long and short of it: I got invited into to show by people I knew from the scene, wannabe thugs who I used to associate with (I’m not naming names) who brought me backstage under the pretense of squashing the beef with JJ [lead singer John Joseph] and the band. These guys then closed the door and jumped me. At one point I saw the door open and then quickly close again, and I knew they were keeping the door shut from security. At that moment I just saw my kids in my mind and did what I had to do to get out of that room alive.

What about the knife. Was there a knife?

I’m not getting into that yet.

What about John Joseph?

It’s funny, I bumped into Mackie [drummer for the Cro-Mags] a few weeks ago and he said he told JJ that none of this would have happened if you just asked me to play a few songs. Mackie also said that Mike the Gook — the Cro-Mags member I supposedly stabbed — wasn’t even supposed to play with the Cro-Mags that night. Craig Setari [Sick of it All, Straight Ahead] was. They made it sound like I was going after band members. JJ’s credibility took a beating too. His statements contradicted each other and he helped my case.

Did it affect your personal life?

I missed training for jiujitsu for a month and then it was another two weeks before I was back on the mat teaching. This all showed me who my real friends are. When I was locked I met a guy named Knowledge who said, “This is a high-profile case, people will come out of the cracks to support you.” And he was right. Renzo Gracie did, as did many others. Only thing that hurt was the media sensationalism and wannabe thugs saying they were the victims.

What’s your take on hardcore today?

Once anything goes mainstream it loses credibility. I’m only tied to it because I helped write the soundtrack.

Tell me about your book.

I’ve been working on it for a while and wrote it myself and need to start cutting it down. I have some people shopping it — could be a cool movie. The stories are great, but now it’s got all this high level insane shit I have to cut parts about like the Alpha Omega tour. I’m working on a new album as well as the book.