VIC CHESNUTT SUICIDE: ‘I COULD DIE BECAUSE OF OTHER OPERATIONS I CAN’T AFFORD’
Singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt died on Christmas Day in Athens, Ga. He was 45. According to a family spokesman, he died from an intentional overdose of prescription muscle relaxants.
In an LA Times report by Claire Noland, Chesnutt had been admitted to Athens Regional Medical Center on Wednesday and died surrounded by “devastated” friends and family, according to Jem Cohen, a filmmaker and friend who produced Chesnutt’s 2007 album “North Star Deserter.”
Cohen said: “This is not a story of a rock star being on heroin or even drinking themselves down. The real story here is about someone who struggled against amazingly difficult odds for many years and managed to transcend those odds with almost unparalleled productivity and creativity and power in his work.”
Paralyzed after a 1983 single-car accident when he was driving drunk at age 18, Chesnutt had limited use of his arms and hands but nonetheless carved out a career as a songwriter, singer and guitarist. He was discovered in the late-1980s by REM frontman Michael Stipe, who championed his early recordings, and he gained the respect of music critics and fellow musicians who were struck by his darkly humorous songs.
In recent interviews he contemplated the challenges he faced as a wheelchair-using paraplegic with inadequate health insurance and mounting medical bills.
“I’m not too eloquent talking about these things,” Chesnutt told The Times earlier this month. “I was making payments, but I can’t anymore and I really have no idea what I’m going to do. It seems absurd they can charge this much. When I think about all this, it gets me so furious. I could die tomorrow because of other operations I need that I can’t afford.”
In The Times interview, he called “Flirted With You All My Life,” a song on the new album, “a suicide’s breakup song with death.”
“I’ve been a suicidal person all my life, and that song is me finally being, ‘Screw you, death.’ ”
Chesnutt’s survivors include his wife, Tina Whatley Chesnutt, who played bass with him, and his sister, Lorinda Crane.
Services are pending. Information about memorial contributions will be posted at Constellation Records’ website, http://cstrecords.com/.
Ah, yes, another of the vanquished in the war for profit known as the U.S. "health care" system. May he rest in peace.
This is THE biggest farces in USA History. Everyone should be afforded Health Care as people in Canada, Norway, etc are. This should not be a political situation but a Humane one.