eebmore: Not Keith Richards

Not Keith Richards

March 09, 2006

Forgive me for catty bitch posting and behaving like Joan Rivers (not to mention being about four days late for this) for a moment, but when first saw this picture on the yahoo news page on monday, I assumed it was a picture of a crazy old lady who had broken through the security ropes during the Academy Awards Ceremony.

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I was wrong. It’s a picture of Eddie Van Halen. Yeeeech. Don’t call to see for whom the bells tolls, it tolls for and aging guitar pop rocker who isn’t aging gracefully. Never being a fan of the guitar pop/rock, I haven’t really followed the descent of Eddie Van Halen into crazy old ladyism, although I have heard that he has had some rough luck in the past few years, so I looked him up on wikipedia and here is what I found:

The 1990s and onward proved to be a rough time for Van Halen. He battled alcoholism, lost his mother to cancer, was treated for tongue/mouth cancer, had hip replacement surgery, and separated from Valerie Bertinelli (whom he married in 1981), as his band split with their third lead singer, Gary Cherone.
In 2004, after years of not performing, Van Halen returned on the stage with the Hagar fronted line-up. The tour ended with a rift escalating between Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar, exploding on the last date of the tour, when Van Halen smashed violently his guitar leaving the stage. The tour also made clear that Van Halen fell in the trap of alcoholism once again, and he's been reported as performing in alcholic stupor by bassist Michael Anthony. According to David Lee Roth, alcohol has not been the only problem of Eddie's in later years: an accidental use of Crystal Meth, often found in street Cocaine, led Van Halen to grow a strong addiction on the drug, and as an effect, he allegedly is unable to sustain the burden of lengthy tours and performances.

Yeeeech. I was going to make fun of him, but now I just feel uncomfortable. There ought to be a law that makes it illegal for people to use cocaine after their twenties.

Oh, and damn wikipedia can be quick. The last paragraph of his bio already makes reference to this photo.

11:13 AM | Permalink

Comments

i feel sad for him.

how far can a person fall?

Posted by: miss kendra at March 9, 2006 12:40 PM

i think i'm going to print out a copy of the photo with "this could be you" written across the top and keep it in my wallet. if i ever find myself tempted for some hooch or anything else, i'll just look at the picture to remind myself that i was one third the way down that road.

Posted by: eebmore at March 9, 2006 12:53 PM

What I want to know is how these rock stars survive so long. Many of the people that I know, who went down that road, are quite dead.

Posted by: tfg at March 9, 2006 07:59 PM

His lack of tongue from the cancer is grossly evident, but I agree with TFG. I mean, watching the Stones at the Super Bowl, was like watching something from "A Deal with the Devil", where they are all skinny, have all their hair, and can still rock it when they should be retired and overweight.

Posted by: Broadsheet at March 9, 2006 10:22 PM

he's only 51. that isn't even old. tongue or no tongue (how tongueless is he?) he looks 71. he has the body of an emaciated old koot. of course, the wardrobe doesn't help one bit. cancer+meth=me having the creeps. he's like the anti-richards. well, not the complete converse. people have always given richards a hard time because he is wrinkley, but other than being wrinkley, richards is in shockingly good shape. but i think he was wrinkley when he was 19. i think the saddest thing about the old rockers is all the fake hair. those two generations puts way way too much emphasis on man hair.

Posted by: eebmore at March 10, 2006 12:49 AM

Well, at least he still has most of his hair.

Posted by: Ms. Lori at March 11, 2006 02:52 PM

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