Messed up Musicians!

Why are most of my favourite musicians messed up? Is this telling me something?

Billy Corgan suffered from depression.. Big depression.. almost committing suicide depression.. Hopefully he is passed this as he truly is one of my favourite artists from the 90’s. More so than being an awesome musician and songwriter.. I just like Billy Corgan because he is Billy Corgan... I like how he handles himself in interviews and how he seems very knowledgeable about topics he chooses to discuss.

Kurt Cobain... Well everyone knows Kurt’s problems.. Depression hit him so hard that he chose to take his own life one sad day. He was dead inside a long time before this when heroin got a hold of him. He could say that he was taking the heroin to deal with his chronic stomach pain but in my opinion that was just his addiction talking. Addicts will say anything to convince themselves and others why it is ok to have their poison. Trust me.. I know..

Keith Moon.. Back in my partying days, I never thought anybody was ever a cooler rock star. He played the hell out of those drums and never ceased to amaze me in every song how he kept taking it to a new level. He would party harder than anybody else and out drink anybody. That’s great until he partied himself to death. Seems less impressive when you actually succeed in partying the hardest.

Janis Joplin.. I love reading about Janis. She just seemed like a fun person to be around.. She had one of the best smiles ever and seemed truly grateful for all her achievements and friends. Again she sure liked her poison.. One smash of bad heroin (overly strong) did her in. So sad.

Shannon Hoon.. Shannon was par with Kurt Cobain in my eyes. His lyrics hit me hard and his unbelievably unique style was amazing. Again depression mixed with addiction.. boooo

Stevie Ray Vaughan.. Ok.. Stevie actually succeeded in cleaning himself up. He had almost four years clean in when the helicopter he was in smashed into the side of that hill. Sad that this took his life, even though he brushed with death for so many years with his Crown Royal/cocaine cocktail.. Poor Stevie.. He admitted he was way happier sober and I’m sure he wished he never wasted all of those years living “life by the drop” (excuse the easy quote).

What is it about being a good musician that seems to run parallel with depression and substance abuse? If they never suffered from depression or cravings would they still have written such good songs? Would they still have stood out over all of the others? If there wasn’t heart break the majority of songs would have never existed. If there was never depression most of the sad songs are gone. What’s left?

The artists I have mentioned above were idols and role models to me. Does this have something to do with my past bouts with depression and addictions? Or did I like them because of these problems?

Not sure what it is that makes me relate and enjoy these artists as much as I do.. This brings me to that fact that there is no real moral to this post. I guess I figured by the time I was done typing I would have figured something out. Now I’m more confused than ever.

Thoughts? Comments? Contributions?