Rock and Roll Suicide - An Exploration into Music and Mental Health

           Since the most recent post on  Pete Ham  contains a significant amount of information about Badfinger , this post about Tom Evans will not go into as much detail. Try as I might, I have not been able to find any information whatsoever about his childhood or history of depression. What do Badfinger and X have in common? Unfortunately, both bands have 2 founding members who committed suicide.        Tom Evans was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England.  He was most well known as a musician and songwriter and was asked by Paul McCartney to sing lead on “Come and Get it”, which became the lead track for the movie, The Magic Christian (which is a goofy and weird movie, if you haven’t seen it). Evans’ depression kicked in after Pete Ham hanged himself; Badfinger disbanded and Evans, along with keyboardist Bob Jackson from Badfinger joined another band called The Dodgers . A year later all the band mem...

Pete Ham was born in Swansea, Wales and formed a local band in 1961 called The Panthers , which was later changed to The Iveys in 1965.   In 1966 the band relocated to London. Mal Evans, who was the personal assistant for the Beatles, became interested in The Iveys and decided to sign them as the first act to the Beatles ’ record label, Apple Records. The band decided to change their name to Badfinger after their single “Come and Get It” (which was composed by Paul McCartney) went on to become a Top Ten worldwide hit. Pete Ham joined George Harrison in playing an acoustic guitar duet, “Here Comes the Sun,” at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 in New York.   At this time Apple Records was known for being disorganized and poorly managed, which prompted band members to look for another label.   They unknowingly stepped into disaster by crossing paths with Stan Polley, a shady and corrupt NY businessman who was believed to be involved with organized crime. ...

Pronounced “Hairmon Broat”, Herman Brood has been called “the Dutch personification of sex, drugs and rock and roll,” “the Dutch Elvis” and was named by the Dutch Broadcast Foundation as “The Netherlands’ greatest and only rock star”. He was born in Zwolle, Netherlands and started playing the piano at the age of 13. In addition to being infamous for his self-indulgent lifestyle, he was also known for being a painter, writer, poet and performer. His influence in Holland was so pronounced that he was the subject of multiple biographies, documentaries, books, and a biographical movie, all highlighting his art and photographs of his rock and roll career. Brood also struggled with multiple addictions: heroin, alcohol, speed, gambling, and sex. He was quite outspoken about his habits and not ashamed of them.   According to friends, he rarely slept (on average 2 hours per night) while he spent his waking hours doing drugs, playing music, being engrossed in his art or writing, h...

Hideto was a singer, guitarist, and songwriter who went by the stage name hide (pronounced hee-day, and yes, he spelled it with a lower case ‘h’) and was in the same band as Taiji Sawada of X Japan. He was also successful in his solo career with the band in addition to co founding the US based band Zilch which also featured members of Killing Joke , Danzig , and Queens of the Stoneage .   His last band, Spread Beaver , was formed prior to his death.   Jennifer Finch and Demetra “Dee” Plakas from L7 supported hide on several television performances in 1993 prior to the creation of Spread Beaver . Upon entering high school in Zushi, Kanagawa, he joined the brass band club but eventually quit because he preferred the trumpet. After that he switched to the guitar and formed the band Saver Tiger . hide was first turned on to rock and roll when he was 15 through the album Alive II by Kiss ; later that year his grandmother purchased...

Taiji was born in Ichigawa, Chiba Prefecture. He first tried to play his dad’s guitar when he was in junior high school and was mostly inspired by western music, namely Queen and The Beatles.   He dropped out of school in 1984 when he was 16 to form his first band called Trash and was their front man and lead guitarist.   Two years later he switched to playing bass and joined the band Dementia . It was during this period that he met hide (intentional lower case 'h'; birth name Hideto Matsumoto); later they both were in X (also known as X Japan to differentiate them from the American band) which became Taiji’s most popular and well known band. Taiji played several shows with X before joining their band in 1986 and stayed with them until 1992. Taiji once stated in an interview that the band was everything to him: “Originally, rock came from America [to Japan]. While everybody [in Japan] was still copying American rock, I was recording with X …I felt that finally, the...

Born Robert George Meek in Gloucestershire, England, Meek is known as England’s first independent record producer. He broke new ground in recording techniques and introduced a DIY approach to the music industry that was unheard of. Despite not being able to play an instrument or write musical notation, he had an incredibly gifted ability to write and produce successful commercial recordings. He was the first producer to record many artists prior to launching into major recognition, including Marc Bolan, Tom Jones, Ritchie Blackmore, and Jimmy Page. He decided to not record David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, or the Beatles, stating the latter was “just a bunch of noise, stealing other people’s music.” One of Meek’s recording artists was Screaming Lord Sutch (remember that guy?). Meek recorded in a small flat upstairs at 204 Holloway Road, North London, between 1960 and 1967.   From this studio he recorded his most well known hit is The Tornados’ “Telstar”, whi...

Although not a rock and roller, you would be hard pressed to say you have never heard this man's voice or a piece of music he composed or arranged.  Donny Hathaway’s style of singing jazz, blues, gospel and soul influenced musical artists such as Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Amy Winehouse, Victor Wooten, and John Mayer. He was a major contributing force to the 70’s funk and soul music scene and garnered respect and high demand from others in the industry. Born in Chicago and raised in a St. Louis housing project, Hathaway was raised by his grandmother, a professional gospel singer who encouraged him to sing gospel at church when he was only 3 years of age. In college he met his lifelong friend, singer Roberta Flack, whom he later recorded multiple duets with. In addition to the 5 albums of his own he worked on, Hathaway did soundtrack work for the TV show Maude and either composed, arranged, or performed for artists such as Willie Nelson, Joe Cocke...