The Partying and Glamour Side of Rock and Roll

Tragedy strikes.

I had been playing with a rock band for a number of years. This band was one of the most talented in a two hundred mile radius. We played hundreds of dates in a year, opened for dozens of 'big name' acts, and were in pursuit of a recording contract. We worked hard, dreamed big dreams, and we loved to party. All of us loved to drink as well.

A little more than two years ago, I left the band due to irreconcilable differences. Although the breakup wasn't on the best of terms, and due to my non-confrontational persona, I see very little of them, and speak to them only on rare occasions. That being said, I still remember the good times we had, the recordings we had done, and all the gigs we played.

On Friday night, a couple of the guys in the band were on the way home from the gig. They had been partying all night, and I'm sure that they had consumed a large amount of alcohol. They took off in the singer's car, packed with a few friends, to go to someone's house for an after-gig party.

A friend of the singer's was driving his car, but even he probably had too much to drink. The driver lost control of the vehicle at high speed, drove into the ditch, and the car rolled a number of times. There were five people in the car; two occupants were members of my ex-band.

One woman was thrown from the vehicle. Apparently, she was lucky, as she only suffered deep cuts to her leg. The driver suffered cuts and bruises, but otherwise was released from the hospital the next morning. The guitarist suffered a broken sternum, and has been in the hospital since. The lead singer, apparently uninjured, pulled the occupants from the wreckage. The guitarist's girlfriend died instantly (to make things even worse, she was a single mother of three). The singer, although physically unhurt, must have sustained a large amount of emotional and psychological damage, pulling a corpse from the vehicle.

The story gets worse, as it was found out that the singer's car was uninsured at the time of the accident. It is expected the driver will be getting a DUI, the singer will be charged with operating a vehicle without insurance, and both will probably be facing manslaughter charges. Lawsuits could escalate to the hundreds of thousands of dollars (perhaps more). Among all this horror, you could imagine the rift that will be placed between all these once-friends.

With two of the occupants of the vehicle facing serious jail time, it pretty much spells a vicious end to a band I once played in. An innocent victim lost her life; the other four lost the lives they had. And all I can think of is of the true victims -- the children without a mother or father, victims of circumstances they will question for the rest of their lives.

I find it so unfortunate that these events transpired. Nobody deserves a tragedy such as this. This is an event that hits close to my home, but tragedies like this happen all the time on the roads of the world. Even sadder is that this tragedy could have been easily prevented.

So for all of you who think Rock and Roll is about sex drugs, and partying, I hope you read this posting closely. My friends who were in that accident drove under the influence of alcohol on a regular basis, believing they were "good" drivers, or ten feel tall and bulletproof. They thought "it would never happen to them". But I had the feeling -- a long time ago -- that their irresponsible behaviors would catch up to them sooner or later. It's awful that someone they cared about had to pay the price with their life at the cost of their ignorance.

For all who are still with me, I hope you have taken my words to heart. Rock and Roll may be many things, but it is not carelessness, nor ignorant. We have lost too many musicians due to substance abuse. I often wonder what kind of music would have been made if artists like Hendrix, Bonham, Moon, Joplin, and Morrison had lived to a ripe old age.

Godspeed, my old bandmates, I hope you find comfort in the turbulent days ahead.