[Belial]

I live with chronic back pain, I know how easy it is to get addicted.

For a man with chronic back pain, Rush was constantly golfing and hobnobbing (the details of which his listeners have heard over and over).

How much golfing do you do with chronic back pain?

[TigersEye]

How much golfing do you do with chronic back pain?

I've had chronic back pain for 18 years. I don't golf but I have backpacked, worked as a carpenter, gardened (much harder on the back than golf), rebuilt truck engines, picked and dug medicinal plants, driven my '59 Chevy truck thousand of miles each summer to collect the plants and on and on ... That's how much a person can do with severe back pain. Without drugs.

[I still care]

If I take a handful of painkillers I can do stuff. Not well, but it's amazing what those little pills can do.

And it's a lot easier to take the pills and pretend you have no problem, rather than feel like a wimp and lie on the sofa all day in pain.

The problem is, people don't respect you if you lie on your back day after day, and complain. Americans don't understand true pain at all. And your self esteem takes a huge hit, because you feel useless. So the temptation to overdose on pain pills is huge, because nobody need know you are anesthetized up to your eyeballs. I can walk around like a human being after a few Vicodan.

But I'm not rich, and I get scared to get behind a steering wheel with meds in me, even legal ones. So I sit home in pain, trying to figure out a way to make ends meet.

[Jorge]

For a man with chronic back pain, Rush was constantly golfing and hobnobbing (the details of which his listeners have heard over and over).

Millions of people have chronic back pain, and MOST don't give up on life and go lie in a bed and complain.

They continue to work and try to enjoy life the best they can.

The idea that you would suggest Rush faked back pain and yet surgeries to correct it is a little far fetched.

[LoveBushLongTime]

I have a chronic back problem too, but that doesn't keep me from doing a physically demanding job. Nor does my back problem keep me from doing fun things I know I will pay for later.

What is your point?