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How Alcoholism Saved Eric Clapton from Suicide

I’m always torn when it comes to admiring people who may be talented, but who should not be morally allowed to reserve our undying adulation.  Fame and adoration tend to clasp each other, and since most performers are broken, it becomes a difficult task to try to divine who deserves our public scorn versus who deserves our moral compassion.

It’s no secret that I’m an Eric Clapton fanatic — but there is no hiding from the facts of his life that he was an addict, an abandoned child and an abandoning father — and one of the greatest guitar talents of several generations.

What’s a fan to do?  Pity the man?  Admire the Guitar God?  Can we temper the person with a little bit of each, or are we not allowed to split the righteous baby when it comes to placing a talent in the history of time?

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Mindy Got a Gun: Celebrity Death Trap or Rehab?

I woke to the sad news this morning that Mindy McCready — mother of two young children, country music singer, and star of Dr. Drew Pinsky’s “Celebrity Rehab” — was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Those of us who watched Celebrity Rehab could see this end bearing down on Mindy from afar, and the question was always not if she’d be run over by life, but when.  As of yesterday, we have our answer, and now the mourning for her children must begin.

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Could Amy Winehouse's Death Have Been Prevented?

On occasion I am reminded of something that happened when I was in high school. I had a friend who was chronically late to class on account of the fact that he sometimes didn’t properly set his alarm clock. He was asked not to return to that school the following year — it was the Peddie School and they expected excellence from their students and that included showing up to class more often than not. I felt as though it was something that I could have helped prevent and that I failed him as a friend by not helping him get to his classes on time. A friend of mine at the time told me that this was not the case and that I could not be responsible for his choice to set his alarm properly.

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Crossroads 2010 Movie Review

For the past five years, Eric Clapton has hosted a Crossroads Guitar Festival to raise money for his charity:  The Crossroads Center of Antigua.  This year’s festival — supposedly the last one ever — was held in Chicago on June 26th under a perilous sky and punishing heat.  The movie version of the festival is now available for purchase on iTunes for $20.00USD — or your can rent it for $4.00USD.  I plucked the purchase route, and I’ve been glorifying in Crossroads 2010 since late last night.

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