My musical heroes keep dying

By March 27, 2014August 7th, 2014Music

Some of my favorite bands and more importantly my favorite front men keep dying. The Rock n Roll business is tough, but it also seems like it’s less frowned upon being an addict, with all the partying going on. There’s a lot of ups and downs where substance abuse is part of the full ride.

Peter Steele of Type O Negative died on April 14th 2010, 48 years old after finally becoming clean and sober. He stated himself that he was an idiot for starting doing cocaine at the age of 36. And everybody knows he drank a lot of red wine too. In his final interview just before his death – that you can see here – he mentions he drank 12 bottles of wine in one day. 12 bottles! That’s insane. He probably drank and took all kind of shit besides the two I mention here. But he got clean and everyone was looking forward to more of his intellect, wit, humor and unmatched musical orchestration as he was preparing the next Type O album. But he died of heart failure. He was a big guy who put his body through a lot of stress, so it kind of makes sense he went out like he did, but it’s still such a shame considering the place in life he was. This interview is classic Peter too. Man I miss these interviews and I hate the fact that I won’t hear another new Type O album ever.

David Brockie of GWAR died on march 23rd 2014, 50 years old. He stated in multiple interviews that he ever only smoked weed and drank alcohol and previously had struggled with addiction to pain killers. I think he also mentioned acid some times. But he always said he never did hard drugs. So his death really baffled me. Accidental heroin overdose took his life. A statement from Randy Blythe (Lamb of God frontman) says he didn’t think he was a cold stone junkie, but a drug dabbler. Which kind of makes sense to me too, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to function like he did. They just released a killer album in late 2013 and the relentless touring required focus. What I hate about this mess is his constant distance to hard drugs, and here he was shooting up himself. Hypocrite I kept thinking. I’ve come to the conclusion that he was projecting when calling all kinds of people in the music industry junkies. No one knows what’s gonna happen with GWAR now. Dave always said he thought the band could go on for eternity, without him as Oderus. And I think he believed and meant that. At this years GWARBQ, there’s going to be a memorial for Dave and a Viking funeral of Oderus. Does that mean they retire that character too, like they did with Flattus? Probably, but who knows? And will GWAR continue with a new front man? I guess we’ll know after the GWARBQ. GWAR will perform with a spectacular lineup with past members and characters of GWAR, with the original Beefcake on vocals. Bob Gorman said in a podcast that the Slave Pit has 3 meetings a week, discussing current and future plans, so when they have something to share with the bohabs, they will. Dave was a life loving, smart, intelligent and funny artist. I’ll miss Oderus, his lyrics and voice, thankfully there was 28 years of GWAR glory with him involved. Just look at this video of probably one of the last RAWG shows ever recorded, how much fun he has. You can see he loves what he’s doing. And his voice is in good shape. Just scrub to around the 15 minute mark, where they play Crack in the Egg, that’s one of his best recorded live vocals ever. Dave you idiot, you shouldn’t have went out like that, you were smarter than that.

Finally all I have to say is this. Devin Townsend – don’t fucking die yet.