Supernatural Ghost Hunting with Chad Lindberg

We caught up recently with one of our favorite Supernatural guest actors, Chad Lindberg, who played fan favorite Ash in multiple seasons of Supernatural. As far as we know, Ash is still holding down the fort in Heaven, waiting for the Winchesters’ next visit or perhaps waiting for Cas to get things straightened up upstairs. We’re hoping we see more of him in SPN soon. It was our first time meeting his girlfriend Amanda Hall, and can we just say, she’s awesome?

Chad: So Amanda, this is Lynn and Kathy, they wrote a book about Supernatural and the fans.

Kathy: Chad is actually in two of our books – we wrote an academic book, Fandom At The Crossroads, about Supernatural and its amazing fandom, and then we wrote a memoir about all the crazy and wonderful things that happened to us when we were researching the academic book – that turned out to be a book about being a fangirl. That one’s called Fangasm. And Chad is in both.

Chad: That’s because we’ve known each other for like seven years! One of the first cons I ever did, we met because they were writing this book, and the convention was showing My Big Break. I introduced them to Tony and Elizabeth (Tony Zierra and Elizabeth Yoffe, director and producer of the amazing documentary film, My Big Break), and we became friends, and we’ve hung out a bunch of times over the years.

Kathy: Tony and Elizabeth literally gave us some life-changing advice – we’re forever indebted to you!

Lynn: I don’t think we would have written Fangasm if it weren’t for Tony, and we wouldn’t have known him if it weren’t for you. He kept saying to us, “Don’t just write the academic book, tell your own story, that’s the real story! I dare you.”

Chad: That’s what he said to you? That’s awesome.

Kathy: Which relates back to My Big Break – that film wasn’t right without Tony’s perspective, and neither was our book. And he had gone thru that same decision process.

Chad: And I see these guys all the time…

Lynn: At the cons — And I remember we had a pretty crazy time on Bourbon Street with you one time too…

Amanda: (with raised eyebrows) Oh?

Lynn: (laughing) Not that crazy! People were recognizing him on the street, and he’d never been there before, so…

Chad: It was a good time.

Amanda: He’s always a good time – in a good way, not in a crazy maniac way.

Lynn and Kathy: (are grinning because Chad and Amanda are seriously adorable)

Lynn: What is happening with the film you were cast in, the Allman Brothers biopic? That was such a horrible accident [that happened during location filming]

Chad: It was. I was cast as Red Dog, the legendary Red Dog, who was a long haired dude and a zany character. And a lot of work went into it, just preparing, just in terms of like getting the part. Then everything was all lined up and great. First day of shooting, we were shooting by some train tracks and they didn’t have permission to be on the tracks. Two trains go through, and they went up on the trestle to set up the shot and a train came and they basically all had to run off the tracks and try to get off the bridge. As another train came through, they put a mattress on the tracks and a train came through and rammed into the bed and a 27 year old production assistant named Sarah was on the bed and it killed her. First day of filming. Ten people on the crew had to go to the ER, they were really injured.

Lynn: Ohmygod, were you there?

Chad: No, thank god. I got an email from my manager, and then it just blew up, it rippled across Hollywood.

Lynn: There was such an outpouring of support. I was proud of Supernatural for taking part in Slates for Sarah.

Chad: (nodding) Yeah, because it needs to be done. So they’ve suspended filming and there’s a criminal investigation into what led to this. The good that’s come out of it will be new rules for safety on set. I know I’m gonna be careful with everything I do, and not afraid to say you know, that doesn’t feel right. And it’s hard because, in a weird way, I was a part of that. I got so many texts that day from people saying, aren’t you in that movie? And I was like, yeah. It was a movie about the Allman Brothers, it was supposed to be like fuck yeah, man…

Lynn: That’s heartbreaking, I’m so sorry

Chad: Yeah, it’s heartbreaking, I mean, it’s devastating.

Lynn: Such a tragedy and a loss, and it’s also hard because that sounded like a great film, and it was generating a lot of buzz. I was really happy for you.

Chad: Yeah, I felt like it had momentum, I was like here we go, yeah, and then…

Lynn: It sounded like a perfect part for you.

Chad: It was yeah, a big part – and playing a real guy. But it wasn’t meant to be. Obviously there are bigger reasons it wasn’t meant to be. My buddy Jeff was saying he was on a set and they had a safety meeting after that, so it’s everywhere and that’s good, and Sarah’s name really means something.

Lynn: It’s made a difference.

Chad: Exactly.

Lynn: Might it come back? Could the film still happen?

Chad: You never know. It was being produced by Gregg Allman, had a great cast, an amazing cast, so you never know, maybe years from now they’ll try again. Or maybe it has so much taint on it.

Lynn: I wonder if someone could make it, and make it in honor of Sarah.

Chad: They could do that, in a year or two maybe, keep the cast hopefully. Ain’t nothing happening until the investigation is squared away though.

Lynn: I’m so sorry. Can we switch gears to talk about something else we wanted to ask about?

Everyone: (is nodding)

Lynn: So you don’t just play a ghostbusting character on television, you do this in real life! Your ghosthunting adventures at the Supernatural cons – people are so excited about it. Tell us about the most recent one – I heard buzz that some pretty unusual things happened.

Kathy: Amanda, were you there?

Amanda: I was there, yes!

Chad: Oh yeah, she’s my right hand, she’s done several of these investigations. Even though we’ll be sitting watching a scary movie and she’ll be like AAAH!

Lynn: Oh, that’s totally me too, I’d be like AAAAH! (now we’re all screaming, much to the consternation of the rest of Starbucks…)

Kathy: Wait, and then you take her on a ghost hunt??

Chad: Yeah, trauma city, but she went into one of the craziest places in New Orleans, and she’s in there with the equipment, backing me up…

Amanda: (interrupting) Don’t let him fool you, I was like this… [gets up and puts her back to Chad, looking authentically terrified] I was so afraid that I wanted my back to him, so we’re going around and around, in like circles….

Chad: [jumping up to demonstrate] I kept trying to get around her, but she wouldn’t let me…

Amanda: And we’re literally like going around in a circle, we’re like Mo and Curly or something!

Lynn and Kathy: (are laughing hysterically)

Amanda: And then finally we had to stop and be like, ok, take a breath, what are we doing?

Kathy: That would’ve been great on film.

Chad: But yeah, so we went to the Bonnie Springs Ranch, which is kinda a cool western town that was used back in the days of the Spanish trail, as a stop off, they’d gear up for seven days, and near there was like Indian combat ground. A very cool place, if you ever get a chance, go check it out. So when I knew Vegas was happening, I took the idea of doing ghost hunts to Creation, like this is real supernatural, and they were like, of course, let’s do this! And I was like, finally something that really fits me, and works for me!

Lynn: And for all of us. And for them!

Chad: And for them, and for the fans, exactly. So Bonnie Springs was our second outing, and I think they all were pleasantly surprised. They didn’t know what to expect, the fans, and they really got a show. I can’t always say that the spirits are going to come out to play, you know, it’s up to them.

Lynn: Yeah, you can’t say hey, I’ll be here at 2:00, make sure there’s a lot of you around…

Chad: No, I mean, time doesn’t even exist for them. But they did, they did come out and play. We went to two different places, we went to the wax museum, we spent a lot of time in there, we had a lot happen, with all these mannequins…

Lynn: (shaking her head dramatically) OMG NO NO NO, I can’t even go to a wax museum, that’s too scary!

Amanda: You and me, Lynn…

Chad and Kathy: (are laughing at Lynn and Amanda)

Chad: That would be pretty funny.

Lynn: And Kathy would be over there with Chad like, get serious…

Amanda: You guys will be like the Ghostbusters.

Lynn: Or the Ghostfacers! And we’ll be your back up girls. [looks suddenly doubtful] Umm, sorta.

Chad: And then we went to the Opera House after that, which was a whole different vibe, very negative. You go to these places, and the energy shifts. We spent a good hour in there, and AJ and Travis came. When I had the spirit box onstage and they were there and I asked, what’s Travis’ last name, and it said clearly, “Wester”. Everyone heard it, and I looked up at Travis and his eyes just went wide.

Amanda: He actually put his face against the wall.

Chad: He was like “Yeah, I heard that, and everyone else heard that, SHIT! They said my name, and who exactly said my name?? Who said my name and how do they know??” And you could just see the wheels turning. And AJ, I brought the meter that I brought yesterday, and I brought that out and it was just going beep beep, like irregular beeps, which was different than yesterday. It was like hey, we’re here, yeah. So he was kinda fascinated by that.

Chad: And we did this thing with the fans, where we have everyone stand in a circle. And I’ll take the spirit box and say one-two-three and let the spirits answer, and if everyone connects, you can get the spirits to start counting with you. So we did that and people loved it. We got EVPs. So Burbank was a huge success.

Lynn: And didn’t somebody get touched by a spirit in Burbank?

Chad: I think, you know, spirits are always touching us, especially in those locations, I think it happens more than people realize. There’s the cobwebbing feeling that you get, when you’re being touched, or some people actually get touched. There was one girl that had scratches.

Amanda: And they looked real…

Chad: I’m not gonna say oh, it’s supernatural, right away…

Lynn: I think you have to be skeptical, and then if you go into it with skepticism and something comes out, then you have credibility.

Chad: I do, I have to be skeptical. And then one girl got very scared, in fact we had to escort her out…

Amanda: We just hear this death curdling scream and then she went into sobs and then just flew out the front door! So his mom and I went after her and just like sat with her and talked with her – and it seemed like it had to do with the Constantinos, who were there.

Lynn: Who?

Chad: Mark and Debbie Constantino were there, they’re EVP specialists who have been on Ghost Adventures, they’re good friends of theirs, they’ve done tons of shows, they’re like awesome. They’re very tuned in, and they’ve become awesome friends of ours.

Amanda: So Mark and Debbie had just asked for a sign, asked to be contacted, and this has happened to them several times actually. They lost their young daughter to heart surgery, and she’s connected to them, so that’s where we went with it. But the fan, she just shrieked, it was piercing, and just covered her face and sobbed and just ran out.

Chad: And it was a girl who hadn’t spoken the entire night. You’ll usually get some people who are right away like, oh I’m psychic, you know what I mean? She wasn’t one of those. This girl was very quiet, reserved, very timid. She wouldn’t be the type to want to make a scene in front of people. Very shy. Then she lets out this bloodcurdling scream.

Lynn: Do you think that made her more open to it, that she was so quiet and taking it all in?

Chad: It could be. It could be also who she had with her. It could be a number of circumstances. They could have remembered her from a past life. It’s all connected somehow. I don’t know why that was, maybe she was the weakest link so they went after her. I was provoking them a little, I mean, I was just challenging.

Lynn: You were asking for a sign?

Chad: And I got one. And I was, yeah. So next we’re doing one at DC.

Kathy: You should come to my house then. Because it is haunted.

Chad: (looks interested)

Amanda: (looks surprised)

Lynn: (looks nervous)

Kathy: There are two presences – one is upstairs, and I’ve seen it twice. A man, in our bedroom. He looks very sad, not really threatening at all. But the creepy thing is that at a party we had a few years ago, a friend took her son upstairs to put him down for a nap in our bedroom. And we had never said a word to anyone about the ghost. And she comes downstairs and says, “you never told me you had a ghost.” And then she described to a tee what I had seen before.

Lynn: (is looking pale)

Chad: (is looking gleeful)

Kathy: And downstairs I’ve never seen anything, but my kids have described or sensed something – everyone agrees that it was a woman, and whenever they felt something, it was in the den or in this little hallway to the den. The kids used to run through that space when they were little, because it might be there. Then a few months ago I’m sitting in the den, Dave had dozed off, and I looked up and a woman was there. I could describe the clothes she was wearing, in detail.

Chad: (eagerly) Can I come investigate? I’m appearing on Friday, so I can come on Monday and check it out, maybe get some answers. Do you want them to leave?

Kathy: That’s the thing, I don’t necessarily want them to leave – I almost feel like it’s their place as much as mine. Except for pulling my hair sometimes, I’ve never felt threatened…

Lynn: (interrupting) Well I do! The den is also the guest room, and when I stay there it’s like, I’m afraid to even go the bathroom at night. I’m like running to the bathroom staring at my feet just going “don’t look up, don’t look up…”

Amanda: (laughing) I bet!

Kathy: And my son, who’s more likely to see things, he’s seen things in other places too, he’s very open to it. He doesn’t like to sleep there either.

Lynn; Well, there you go! You can’t have your own son not wanting to sleep there!

Kathy: (is rolling her eyes at Lynn)

Chad: Well, it would be good to get a better understanding of who they are, and just to know you’re not going crazy

Lynn: Which I totally thought she was at first, but other people kept seeing the same thing.

Kathy: (more eye rolling)

Chad: So will you guys be selling your books at some upcoming cons?

Kathy: At some of them we will, probably all three Supernatural books.

Amanda: Wait, what’s the third book?

Kathy: Our new one is called “Fan Phenomena: Supernatural”. It’s got chapters written by fans about their love of the Show, and academics analyzing it, and then two of the actors wrote chapters for it – Misha Collins and Richard Speight, Jr. Misha wrote all about how fandom and Supernatural have changed him (much like it’s changed so many of us) and Richard wrote about cons and karaoke – his chapter is hysterical, but it’s also emotional.

Chad: That’s awesome!

Lynn: It’s like a love letter to Supernatural, from all of us – cast, crew and fans.

To fight off the boredom of Hellatus, and hear more from Chad and the rest of the Supernatural actors, check out all of our books on Supernatural by clicking the links at the top of this page!

Here’s a link to the provocative, powerful documentary film starring Chad along with Wes Bentley and several other at-the-time rising stars – http://www.mybigbreakmovie.com/

And check out Chad’s family business, Beyond Badass Paranormal, which creates awesome jewelry – http://www.beyondbadassparanormal.com/

You can read our previous interviews with Chad about his work on Supernatural, and shenanigans with Jared and Jensen, by clicking his name in the cloud to the right – and if you’ve had some supernatural experiences of your own, tell us and Chad about them in the comments below!