Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

WHY ROCK STARS DIE YOUNG
Ozy ^ | Sept 20, 2015 | SEAN BRASWELL

Posted on 09/20/2015 8:12:59 PM PDT by MtnClimber

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE Because we’d all rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, but it ain’t the good who are dying young. SHARE ON FACEBOOKSHARE ON TWITTEREMAIL TO A FRIEND 95 SHARES SIGN UP FOR OZY EMAILS

email address INVALID EMAIL Hey, it looks like you're on our list already! Please check that the information you have provided is correct. What's your email? Sign UpOZY Terms & Conditions THANK YOU

FOR SIGNING UP TO OZY

It’s been hard to avoid tragic tales of troubled musicians lately. Two recent documentaries, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (on HBO) and Amy (in theaters), chronicle the lives, and early demises, of Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, respectively, beloved singers whose struggle with drugs, depression and the consequences of fame precipitated their deaths at age 27. Another recent biopic, Love & Mercy, takes us inside the head of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, who only just survived such swirling forces and more in his own life.

In some ways, like Achilles, the legendary Greek warrior in Homer’s Iliad beset with inner conflict, these artists sense that joining the tour and pursuing earthly glory could mean dying young, but many choose to embrace it nonetheless. “[I]t’s better to burn out than to fade away,” Cobain wrote in his suicide note. Of course, such tales of downfall and destruction are not limited to musicians as well known as Cobain, Winehouse and Wilson. Indeed, according to the alarming findings of one new study, pop musicians more broadly tend to live up to 25 years less on average than the rest of us, and have much higher rates of death by accident, suicide and homicide.

But is it just the temptations, hazards and vicissitudes of life on the road and in the limelight that are to blame for such numbers and destructive tendencies? Or are these musicians really just playing out a life strategy that lies dormant within almost all of us should we be placed in the path of fame’s freight train?


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-88 next last
To: caww

IIRC Howe has a very strict diet. Vegetarian and such.


61 posted on 09/21/2015 7:11:36 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you really want to irritate someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: xp38

I am 75 and I have about the same amount of wrinkles as his wife!

He looks awful!


62 posted on 09/21/2015 7:14:05 AM PDT by Ditter ( God Bless Texas!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

But then Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard and even Jerry Lee Lewis are still alive!


63 posted on 09/21/2015 7:18:06 AM PDT by smalltownslick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
..they pushed themselves very hard

..

'rockers of every stripe bear a terrible burden!

64 posted on 09/21/2015 7:23:57 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Big Red Badger
Oh Yeah !

who are they?


65 posted on 09/21/2015 7:28:45 AM PDT by Hugin ("First thing--get yourself a fire"arm!" Sheriff Ed Galt, Last Man Standing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
"Will ya still need me, will ya still feed me,

when I'm eighty-four......"

66 posted on 09/21/2015 7:29:52 AM PDT by HandyDandy (Don't make-up stuff. It just wastes everybody's time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fightin Whitey
Oops got the pic of the painter not the sheetrocker!

Here's lookin' at ya!

67 posted on 09/21/2015 7:42:56 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: volunbeer
With that said, it still amazes me that Mick Jagger is alive.

Mick Jagger is probably the healthiest rockstar ever.

He had a proper British middle-class upbringing. A drug bust early in the Stone's career had Jagger facing prison time. Boys like Mick Jagger aren't supposed to go to prison. He was pretty much scared straight and has largely avoided drugs for the remainder of his life.

His addiction is money and not spending it on anyone but himself.

68 posted on 09/21/2015 8:00:25 AM PDT by Drew68
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

I am hoping the current crop of “artists” follow in their steps. Justin Bieber has 6 more years left : )


69 posted on 09/21/2015 8:09:41 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vendome

How come politicians don’t die young?


70 posted on 09/21/2015 8:10:10 AM PDT by angcat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Hugin

“I don’t know if he as an addict, but Rod Stewart certainly was a heavy user at one time. I remember he said he used to do cocaine enemas so he wouldn’t trash his nasal membranes and ruin his voice.”

Use does NOT equal addiction. There are lenty of folks all across society that have used substances (alcohol, drugs) to excess at time, but never to the extent of addiction and the self-destruction which that brings.

In AA meetings, members refer to people that can drink without becoming addicted as “normies.”

Stewart probably a “normie.”

BTW my list of sober performers was far from exhaustive.

A trivia item I intend to mention from time to time, Donald Trump does not drink.


71 posted on 09/21/2015 8:43:09 AM PDT by truth_seeker (come with the outlws.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: caww

Well, except for the fact that Steve Howe is still an absolutely amazing player, and Keef is playing the same riffs he’s been playing forever.

Appropriate to his milieu, Keith is, but I remember an argument with a freeper a few years ago who said that Keith would go down in history as one of the greatest blues players ever. I think I may have asked (if I did not, I should have) when do you think Keith will start playing the blues? Cuz he sure has not to date been a blues player.


72 posted on 09/21/2015 8:48:38 AM PDT by dmz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Yes, in fact I saw him Aug 31st in concert. He was fantastic, though I saw him holding up the wall on a couple of occasions as he rocked on!


73 posted on 09/21/2015 8:51:23 AM PDT by colorcountry (The gospel will transform our politics, not vice versa (Romans 12:1,2))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: colorcountry

Oh he can still play....but frankly without Squire, it’s not Yes.


74 posted on 09/21/2015 8:52:07 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Watch “Beware Mr. Baker” on Netflix. Ginger Baker looks better now than he did as a heroine addict at age 30. He’s still as crazy as a loon and in his mid 70’s!


75 posted on 09/21/2015 8:53:10 AM PDT by colorcountry (The gospel will transform our politics, not vice versa (Romans 12:1,2))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: truth_seeker

I was shocked when I found out that Angus Young of AC/DC has been a teetotaler all his life.


76 posted on 09/21/2015 8:53:25 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

You’re right. ‘Yes’ was definitely less without Squire. Missed him.


77 posted on 09/21/2015 9:04:37 AM PDT by colorcountry (The gospel will transform our politics, not vice versa (Romans 12:1,2))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Countless local demos.
Neil Zaza;
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=3339282,21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAY1WKouT18
Bobby Sche’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ100pj82Po


78 posted on 09/21/2015 9:32:33 AM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: angcat

They don’t want to?


79 posted on 09/21/2015 9:43:19 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

The demos all blur into one, sort of. Ya get a call to play on a song you’ve never heard, spend a couple hours, at most, in the studio, get paid, and leave to play your regular gig. The Zaza and Sche’ stuff was for regular cds, released internationally.


80 posted on 09/21/2015 10:53:54 AM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-88 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson