Serious food for thought for my fellow addicts

[Greatgreebo]

Hey everybody,

Just a quick backround note on the post I'm about to write on this side of the forum. We have been goofing around on the social side of the forum (like we always do) and we've been on the subject of having an official singer/songwriter for the forum. I've been campaigning to have Neil Diamond be our official singer so whenever you sign on to the forum you will hear Neil Diamond music playing in a continuous loop (sounds good to me). There's been lots of support for Neil (feel free to vote on the Social Side-there is an ongoing poll keeping track of the votes)  Anyway, long story short is that lots of bad jokes came out of this and we all have been having our laughs over the last few days. It was just suggested that if Neil didn't get voted in we might want to consider Janis Joplin. My first thought was "What?!? Not Neil?!?" and then my second thought was that she died from a drug overdose. Here is basically what I posted on the social side:
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I love Janis Joplin but she can't be our official singer/songwriter because she overdosed and died :-(
Having said that that means there is a lot of good music we can't use in our soundtrack because there was an actual drug overdose associated with them:
Alice in Chains, Blind Mellon, Sublime, Mother Love Bone, Graham Parsons, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin, The Who, The Vandals, The Sex Pistols, The Germs, Skinny Puppy, Morphine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Def Leppard, Atari Teenage Riot, Nike Drake, Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker, The Pretenders, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Hole, The Temptations, Rory Gallagher, The Squirrel Nut Zippers, Tommy Dorsey, The Righteous Brothers, Malfunkshun, Ratt, Crazy Horse, The Byrds, The Smashing Pumpkins, Ramones, Culture Club (okay..they sucked), AC-DC, Three Dog Night, Blues Traveler, Little Feat, Uriah Heep, Canned Heat, The Associates, Deep Purple, EMF, The Grateful Dead, Average White Band, Thin Lizzy, The Blues Brothers (tragedy).

Then we have our awesome musicians/bands who had people die BECAUSE they were abusing drugs/alcohol or they overdosed on it but it caused them to drown or whatever. So a drug overdose or habitual abuse killed them but the official cause of death is listed as stroke or heart attack or cirrhosis of the liver or GI bleed or head injury or whatever:

Styx, Billie Holiday, Nirvana, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, The Doors, Humble Pie, Mamas and the Papas, Derick and the Dominos, The Guess Who,  Michael Jackson, to name just a few.

Sorry, not trying to be a downer....but these two lists are only a tiny, small portion of the musicians/bands that have had drug abuse ruin them.
Obviously these are only some of the bands that have been affected and I've only listed off the ones I could think of off the top of my head. I'm sure if I spent some more time on it I could make my list a whole lot longer. Plus, there are tons of other musicians/bands that don't fit into the 'good music' catergory in my opinion so I don't have them listed because I don't like their music (with the exception of Culture Club--I have NO idea why I put them on my list because I really think their music sux.) I didn't care for Michael Jackson's music much either, but he was a pioneer so I put him on the list. There are lots of individual jazz and blues musicians I could have put down, but most people wouldn't know who they were so I tried to keep it main stream and relevant to all.

Anyway, I know we all like to joke around and have fun- I do too. But every now and then I gotta go for a reality check. I LOVE music and it saddens me to see all the great talent we've lost because of someone's inability to overcome their addiction.

Any thoughts or ideas from anyone?
Any names of music we can't include in our soundtrack?

Hope I didn't bring everyone down. I'm the first one to goof around to lighten things up. It's just that I was reading through this post and realized that Janis Joplin couldn't be used and it made me sad and it made me start thinking....
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Anyway, the above is what I wrote. I just wanted to share it with people. All the bands that I know of that have been ruined by drugs kind of boggles the mind. We've lost so many great musicians to addiction. It made me realize the world has lost so many un-named people that had a lot to offer the world also but they lost the battle with their addiction.
I don't want anyone here to lose that battle.

Stay strong,
Greatgreebo

ps-feel free to go to the social side and weigh in on Neil Diamond. I triple dog dare you :-)

[dominosarah]

How about Johnny Nash.....I Can See Clearly Now?

[vicki595]

To Wolverine819~  Yes,LateAugust is very sensible,bright and full of wonderful advice.
She's,also,very kind,has a quick wit and enjoys and understands a good satire.

She'd make a good role model for you~

Vicki

[Wolverine819]

thank God for Late August being on here
she is the only one who makes sense of anything

[Jade59]

Oh, hahaha...you said he was on Intervention.  I didn't read your entire post...was too excited to see someone mention such an obscure band.  I do wonder how Travis is these days.  He was only a teenager when he made his first album in 97 and very talented IMO.  A real shame he got into drugs so heavy.  I'm waiting for his comeback.

[Jade59]

I LOVE Days of the New.  Travis Meeks was sure struggling with addiction last time I heard.  He was on Intervention last year.

[GA Guy]

OK, I haven't read this whole topic, but I don't get the idea of picking some squeaky clean person to be the "official singer". Wouldn't it be better to pick someone who'd battled this terrible disease and made an example of themselves as a clean and sober musician? the names that come to mind right off the bat are Eric Clapton, who's battled his own alcohol and drug use and has gone on to open a rehab facility and donate literally millions of dollars to it's upkeep.  Or maybe Stevie Ray Vaughn, who battled his own demons before dying in a freak helicopter crash clean and sober. Even someone as cheesy as Elton John, who has gotten clean and works tirelessly for tons of charities. I think these are the real musical heroes.