Not many authors can treat death - particularly that specialty category of celebrity death - without sounding sensational and exploitative. Yet in a tone that comes with personal history, Staci Layne Wilson brings this genre of true-life sadness and life-learning lessons to print in two volumes.
PSA: While there are no explicit images, these books detail suicide, addictions, and chronic alcohol dependency. These stories may not be for you.
Wilson has done sub-atomic research on dozens of instances and one cannot say she was unaffected. As the daughter of the Ventures’ guitarist Don Wilson and model/editor/writer Nancy Bacon, one can see the influence her upbringing has had on her writing. Her heartwrenching recall of her father’s loss of a child before she was born puts this in real-life perspective.
Granted, this lifestyle is not for everyone and those that lived it (and died by it) are reminders that we’re all human. The standout stories in Volume 1 are the most familiar and raucous, with The Who’s Keith Moon being the prime example. His now legendary tales of debauchery and excess are covered in these pages, including the “it flaming well did happen” (Roger Daltrey quote) tale of his 21st birthday at the Flint, Michigan Holiday Inn in 1967.
Rick Allen, Def Leppard
From there and around, Wilson chronicles some well-known passings, including the victims of the dreaded ‘27 Club:’ Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, et al. Yet a good portion of what we call a tragedy ended up being a wake-up call for some, including Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, who lost his left arm in a car crash. While Allen is no angel, that incident turned his life upside-down and made his adaptation to being a drummer in a rock ‘n roll band a lesson learned that continues to present day.
Some of the stories are ones out of control, the circumstances you wish you could change: Buddy Holly, Jim Croce, John Lennon. Others are yes, tragic: Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eddie Cochran. And one aspect we forget in the moment of deaths such as these are the loved ones left behind.
Scott Weiland’s ex-wife Mary was angry in her open letter to Rolling Stone, noting there was no reason to glorify his drug-induced passing. Chris Cornell left a daughter. Taylor Hawkins had three children. Yet sometimes, the offspring of these individuals - revered for their stature - have a talent all their own: Jason Bonham and Wolfgang Van Halen to name a few.
Admittedly, some of the more notorious and chilling personalities are also given their due. While Wilson does not glorify their lifestyles, their demise are noted: GG Allin, “Dimebag” Darrell, and Elliott Smith. However, Wilson handles most if not all with gallows humor, noting that “heartless bastards” Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones did not attend the funeral of Robert Plant’s son Karac in 1977.
Drugs and their hold on musicians is the overriding theme in both volumes. Many succumbed to overdoses or died needlessly. Volume 2 has more detailed and harrowing encounters of musicians whose legacy is still vibrant: Jaco Pastorius and Mia Zapata were of different hemispheres of musicality, but each contributed that particular something that makes their deaths truly sad and heartbreaking.
As noted above, Volume 2 also provides starker encounters of musicians that barely made it out alive, handed jail sentences, or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. And some tales… well, they may not involve death but how about this: rapper Vanilla Ice now owns the publishing rights to “Under Pressure,” the song he sampled and was sued for! The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” went thru ginormous legal hassles (courtesy of the infamous Allen Klein), but ended graciously (read: $$$) after his death.
Many of these battles are well-known publicly, and the biggest ‘homage’ group, Led Zeppelin is taken to task. Suffice it to say, Wilson gives over more than a few opinionated paragraphs regarding their similar-sounding songs to pioneering black musicians. In addition to the SMH nonsense of John Fogerty vs. John Fogerty, plenty of stories abound regarding managers vs. artists, investments gone bad, honesty not being the best policy, and the ultimate steal: musical instruments.
Gram Parsons
But so far, the best reads are the most calamitous, twisted, nay, celebratory you will find: Gram Parsons’ devoted friends carting his casket off to Joshua Tree National Park and the ensuing mayhem is just pure gold.
Wilson does a studied dive into the supposed Satanic and witchcraft rituals that those outside the industry deemed sinful and unhealthy. While some in that sphere read too deeply into backward messaging or lyrical obsessions with the occult, the musicians themselves - Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, and the Rolling Stones - pooh-pooped the bizarre interpretations, even if meant public explanation or the formation of the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center, headed by “Tipper” Gore) that led to the infamous labeling ‘Parental Advisory: Explicit Content’ that has been stickered on “material unsuitable for children” since 1987.
A portion of the stories recounted do have a bittersweet twist in those spiraling downward found religion as a solace to their pain. And in the case of Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, after leaving them in 1992 and coming out as gay, he felt the weight of the world lifted and eventually reunited with the band in 2004.
Wilson recounts with great detail several violent and let’s face it, historic gatherings marred by death: Altamont in 1969 and a 1974 London gig by teen heartthrob David Cassidy that effectively ended his concert career.
The most reported event was The Who stampede in Cincinnati, Ohio in December 1979 as eleven people were trampled to death at the doors to Riverfront Coliseum. Mistaking a late sound check for the start of the gig, the crowd kept pushing forward until the doors cracked and shattered and fans were caught underfoot in the melee. Never again was festival seating allowed in Cincinnati and The Who did not play there again until 2022.
The sordid public scrutiny of these happenings points to the insatiable interest of how musicians (Elvis, Michael Jackson, Gary Glitter), entertainers (Freddie Mercury and the stigma of AIDS), groupies, and showbiz as a whole (including the denial and then acknowledgment of the COVID-19 pandemic, that claimed among the millions Adam Schlesinger and Harold Budd) has amalgamated itself, plunging down a wormhole of legendary fiction, true-life crime and the never-ending battle of the perpetrator, the victim and the circumstances. I credit Wilson for undertaking a tricky subject that is continually evolving, every year, thru life and death.
Rock & Roll Nightmares, True Stories, Volume 1 :: Rock & Roll Nightmares, True Stories, Volume 2 :: by Staci Layne Wilson :: Published by Excessive Nuance