Vic Chesnutt died on Christmas Day. And if he had to go so damn early, so damn cruelly, and so damn needlessly, there may have been no better day for him to do so. Dying while much of the world was celebrating the birth of a prophet could not have been more poetic. And Vic Chesnutt was sheer poetry.
Naturally, there’s nothing poetic about the facts behind Chesnutt’s death. A 45-year-old man at the height of his career, he was so in despair over ever-mounting medical bills that he opted for an overdose of prescription pills rather than face even one more day battling the healthcare industry. And despite the reported passing of some so-called reform, it’s unlikely he’d ever have been spared. Nor will many of the millions of others who face catastrophic illness, whether they have insurance or not.
But that’s another sad story, and Chesnutt, though he probed some of the darkest, most hurtful places a soul can go, never was one for sad stories. Or for that matter, sad songs. Sure, many of his tunes came soaked in melancholy, but Chesnutt wasn’t pouring on the tears and feeling sorry for himself. He was merely stating the facts as he came across them, and as they crushed him beyond hope.
The accolades have already begun accumulating; or, should we say, they continue to. Michael Stipe insists, “We have lost one of our great ones.” Patti Smith notes, “He possessed an unearthly energy, and yet was humanistic with the common man in mind.” Jeff Mangum reveals, “Hearing his music completely transformed the way I thought about writing songs, and I will forever be in his debt.”
But it was in life where the accolades really counted: Stipe “discovered” Chesnutt at Athens’s 40 Watt Club back in the late ’80s and would produce his first two LPs. Widespread Panic, who would also record two LPs with Chesnutt, as would the band that included Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto and members of Montreal’s Silver Mt. Zion and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, all of whom backed up Chesnutt on both 2007′s North Star Deserter
Then there were the bold-faced names that assembled for 1996′s Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation
“Flirted with You All My Life” [Download Here] via Vicchesnutt.com
“Philip Guston” [Download Here] via Vicchesnutt.com
“Degenerate” [Download Here] via Aquarium Drunkard
“Lucinda Williams”
“Gravity of the Situation”
“Kick My Ass,” Garbage
“Sad, Sad Peter Pan,” Smashing Pumpkins/Red Red Meat [Download Here] via De Ongeletterde Wanhoop
“The Saturday Option,” Lambchop with Vic Chesnutt
“God Is Good,” Victoria Williams & Vic Chesnutt
“Grim Augery,” Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse featuring Vic Chesnutt
ytaudio(erfJEoxHq7o)
Comments (18)
It’s presumptuous of you to blame his suicide on dissatisfaction with the U.S. health care system. A happy person – sick or healthy, in debt or debt free – would not commit suicide just because of mounting health care bills.
Only he knows all of the reasons. It would be in better taste to celebrate his life and achievements rather than assert reasons for his suicide while blatantly inserting your opinion on health care reform.
Agreed. Way off base with this careless assumption.
Sounds like you both are assuming the author was making an assumption. How do you know what’s right or are you just asserting your political agenda where it don’t belong?
http://onlineathens.com/stories/122509/bre_539625910.shtml
In more than one interview and to those who were close to him, he mentioned being near suicidal because of the mounting medical bills and the inability to battle the bureaucracy of and inadequate care given to him by the health care industry we have in the United States. This is not a careless assumption by the writer of this article. He had been very vocal about our horrific health care system and how he had to spend so much time battling with insurance companies, doctors and mounting medical bills. He felt strongly that health care was in need of reform.
i’m glad i spoke with him after a particularly difficult show he played; could he be as caustic, full of vitriol as his songs portrayed? hardly anyone approached him that night. he went four floors down in the freight elevator and was outside the club watching, it seemed, to see if anyone would dare to converse. i did; we talked of bands and clubs of the past, the mountains of northeast georgia… i think i made him comfortable for a short time. i think he was tired…. i think i would be too.
It has to be an assumption because it surely isn’t the truth. My opinion is to not write about something you don’t know. I would put you in that category as well.
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/ri-p-vic-chesnutt-songwriter-another
http://weblogs.dailypress.com/entertainment/music/pop/blog/2009/12/vic_chesnutt_19642009.html
There is a link on one of these url’s for those who might be able to help Vic’s family with the medical expenses that they are now responsible for. The health care industry in the United States has failed to help another human being.
the man was in severe pain from being paralyzed and had many surgeries throughout his life since he was 18. He has contemplated suicide often from what his close friends and associates have stated in various interviews. To blame this on health care issues (which I do agree needs severe reforms) as you do in your article is political, irresponsible and disrespectful to Vic. Kurt Cobain killed himself due to his own medical related pains as well. It happens, and Vic finally decided he had enough of the pain. Respect the man and celebrate his life and music, don’t politicize it with your own agendas.
Sounds like many of you are in denial. Theres a big difference between assuming something or attaching your own agenda/politics to why a man has tragically passed…killed himself versus listening to the facts…the words that came out of his mouth..unless you believe him to be a liar/poseur.. In this case Vic Chestnutt very blatantly expressed his disappointment, his pain, grief and anger toward the U.S. health care system. If you claim to respect the man,how can any of you dare to not take his words seriously, especially now that he’s gone. This is one of the messages he obviously wanted to leave behind. This is honestly how he felt and what put him over the top. It doesn’t seem likely that any of you who want to deny his frustration and disgust with this failed system know what it’s like to have to live like he did…and have his country/health care fail him. Pay attention to the facts/the words from the man’s mouth. Your denial to acknowledge this tragedy and the country’s failure in this department is discouraging…. Unfortunately maybe it’s time for you to put your heads back in the sand…
or reconsider the state of our country and what we can do about it…complete with the good, the bad & the ugly.
It’s human to want to blame something, pinpoint a reason for life’s tragedies. But the truth is none of us can know the sizes and shapes of all the things that spiraled to push Vic to his breaking point, nor the one thing that tipped him past it. I remember seeing Vic when he was just beginning to play out and about. Late 70′s I believe, in Athens. I remember, after listening, feeling that my busy, microcosmic world stopped for a moment to remind me that I was blessed. And weak not to remember this always. Vic was a brave soul. Our miserable insurance industry has no place in his obituary. Give him his day.
Mark b:
Sounds like you have your head somewhere’s else. If you did not know him personally, which clearly it appears you did not, pay your respects properly and keep your thoughts/opinions/internet rants to yourself and try not to believe everything you read.
I don’t know much of is work and it may be speculative but as one who has had a close fiendship with pain for several years in a civilized country in Europe if I didn’t have free medical support I doubt I would be around to write this. He might have been depressed with a bleak future ahead he might have just had enough I don’t know but you can be sure the if on top of a life of pain you put bankruptcy I would have probably reached for the pils. He came out as a sweet guy shame he had to suffer so much.
John Hood, there is something dead wrong with your mindset. Talk about healthcare when it is appropriate. Pretty sick!
Cheryl and Mark B:
Thank you for confirming that health care was indeed an issue in Vic Chesnutt’s life and death, and for supporting my decision to mention it. At first I was going to make this completely about the music. But after having read how much despair this issue caused Chesnutt, I decided to keep it in.
Of course I don’t know for sure if this (or any) one thing pushed Chesnutt over the edge. But I do know that he was pushed – by bills and bureaucracy and lawsuits. And that he spent much of his life pushing back.
This was simply my way of reporting that fact.
The loss of a great artist who graced us with his work is hard to cope with. My sincerest condolences go to those who were close to him as well as those of us who were mere admirers. The vitriol in the posts above is disheartening but it’s human nature to be so completely identified with one’s opinion that wars, flame and otherwise, inevitably break out. I would like to help by adding some facts to the discussion. Even though Truth is always subjective (in my opinion), here’s my contribution:
“Vic’s death, just so you all know, did not come at the end of some cliché downward spiral. He was battling deep depression but also at the peak of his powers, and with the help of friends and family he was in the middle of a desperate search for help. The [health care] system failed to provide it.”
http://cstrecords.com/
The denial I’m sensing on this thread is not about Vic Chesnutt’s passing but about the sad reality of how people (like Chesnutt) can be, and are, very deeply devastated emotionally and physically by the lack of support (to put it mildly) provided to sick and dying individuals by hospital administration, drug companies, insurance companies and their State and Federal governments.
Here’s a FYI. I work in the Athens, Georgia medical system and I can tell you that Athens Regional Hospital brought a lawsuit against Chesnutt when he couldn’t pay his medical bills. He had insurance coverage at one time, but I don’t know what percentage it paid. (Mine is 60% coverage–that means I have to come up with 40%, and I hate to think what 40% might amount to for somebody in a wheelchair.) What the local press is reporting is that Chesnutt owed $70,000 and was worried that he and his wife might lose their house. Nobody knows if that what’s pushed him over the edge—he’d been suicidal for years—but it sure didn’t help.
[...] John Hood at Flavorwire: Sure, many of his tunes came soaked in melancholy, but Chesnutt wasn’t pouring on the tears and feeling sorry for himself. He was merely stating the facts as he came across them, and as they crushed him beyond hope. [...]
I’m still learning from you, as I’m making my way to the top as well. I definitely enjoy reading all that is written on your blog.Keep the posts coming. I enjoyed it!
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