NEW YORK -- Burton Cummings says he can't forget the taste of the air in Manhattan last Sept. 11.

"There was a taste to it -- an acrid, horrible taste. Even if you hadn't known what had happened, you would have known something was up because of the taste of the air," Cummings said.

The Guess Who singer and his bandmates were at a Times Square hotel in New York City last Sept. 11, taking a break in New York City before a New Jersey gig the next day.

Cummings, Randy Bachman, Donnie McDougall, Garry Peterson and Bill Wallace were asleep when their road manager, Marty Kramer, called their rooms and told them to turn their TVs to CNN.

OTHER PLANES HIJACKED

"The first tower had just been hit," Cummings remembered Monday night from Los Angeles, where he's been resting and tending to his tender vocal cords since the Guess Who's 2002 tour ended Sept. 1.

"Oh my, it was horrible. Nobody knew what was going on. We saw the second plane hit and at that time I went out to get sandwiches and drinks for everyone. I think we still thought it was accidental and then a guy in the elevator said that two other planes had been hijacked and were unaccounted for.

"That's when it hit us. And we were all terrified -- like Times Square could be next," he said. "When I got to the street, I remember being so struck by the looks on people's faces. I've been to New York a lot over the years and there's a lot of pride and energy in the people but on that day they all wore a stunned, vacant look of total disbelief.

"It was stunning to see. I have a photo of myself in Times Square, taken at about one in the morning on the 12th, and there's no one around. Not a soul. that never happens unless it's been cleared out for a movie shoot. But it happened that night."

A year after the terrorist attacks on America, Cummings says he still hasn't completely "processed" his feelings.

"It was awful. Terrifying. And the next day we drove across the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey and saw the pall of smoke and the towers weren't there.

"It was overwhelming. It still is, to think about it."