| Say Goodbye, Don't Follow by Jason Meltzer www.Get Your OJ .com Is it because they came from the last legitimate era of rock and roll that so many of them fall victim to the monkeys on their back? How many is enough? How many grunge bands alone has this effected? 1994: Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Seattle grunge band Nirvana, dies of a heroin overdose / alleged suicide. Three months later Hole’s base player dies. April 19th 2002: Layne Staley, lead singer of the Seattle grunge band Alice In Chains, dies of a heroin overdose. There have been several other unnecessary rock star deaths since the early 1990’s, many involving grunge bands, and many involving drugs. Shannon Hoon, former lead singer of Blind Melon, also died of a heroin overdose. Like Kurt Cobain, Hoon left behind a promising career and a daughter, Nico, who no longer has a father to speak of. So what is it that drives these rock stars towards lethal hard drugs in the first place? There are a few tempting assumptions to make. With rock and roll success comes money. With that money and success comes pressure from fans, labels, and other band members to put out another album. It’s seemingly also no coincidence that the majority of these drug-related deaths take the life of the front-man of a group. Kurt Cobain, for one, was completely disenchanted with having his face plastered across every music magazine on the face of the planet. Let’s face it, a rock and roll band has to put up with a lot of in your face media attention. True, the attention might go with the territory, but it doesn’t follow that every rock star is going to just accept that role and be able to cope with it. Furthermore, if you’re having family problems or other pressures and you are strung out on drugs all the time, it’s not going to help matters. A whole pile of stories have been printed about Layne Staley’s alleged personal problems and drug addiction over the years. One story went as far as to report that Layne had contracted gangrene from injecting heroin into his fingers too much! Layne had, in fact, been battling addiction for at least half a decade. Recently, though, things were beginning to look up. Layne was allegedly feeling better, Alice In Chains released their box set, and rumor had it that another album might be released some time down the road. Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell has stated more than a few times that he looked forward to the day that Layne would call him up and tell him that he was healed and ready to record. That day will never come. All that is now left of Alice In Chains are the memories, the unmatched vocal harmony between Staley and Cantrell, and the ugly footnote of another dead Grunge band front-man. Sadder still is the almost certain fact that another talented artist will follow in Staley’s footsteps sooner than later. At a time when music is over-saturated with meaningless fluffy so-called “alternative” pop, it’s all the more saddening to let a true talent go. It’s enough to make you want say, “well, why THAT band!” when truly that is far from the real tragedy here. The real horror is how many beautiful talents we have lost to hard drugs with almost no hope of ever being able to stop the next victim that passes on just like the one before him. |
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