# Rock Stars that went nuts **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 29, 2002, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457 "2002-12-29T03:02:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/1 "2002-12-29T03:02:21Z")
I was just curious. What rock stars have had their career essentially ended due to schizophrenia, too much acid, or general insanity. This should not include those who have died or recovered from addiction. I can think of two: Syd Barret. Formerly of Pink Floyd. He may have released an album or two. Last I heard he was living with his mom in England somewhere Roky Erickson. From the 13th Floor Elevators. A Texas psychedelic band from the '60’s. He got busted, spent 4 years in a mental hospital instead of jail (probably a bad choice). Upon his release he continued to write songs and tour on a very limited basis through the '80’s. He lives near Austin, Tx. His financial and personal affairs are managed by his family. [http://www.erickson.com/](http://www.erickson.com/) Any others ---
**Author:** ![Heloise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e36b37/32.png) [@Heloise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heloise)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/2 "2002-12-29T03:47:15Z")
Well, not allowing the ones that are dead just kills most of my thoughts. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Harry\_Lime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Harry\_Lime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harry_Lime)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/3 "2002-12-29T04:01:33Z")
Peter Green, the founding member of Fleetwood Mac, back when they were a blues/rock band in the late 60’s/early 70’s. He wrote _Black Magic Woman, Oh Well_ and _The Green Manalishi_. He had a breakdown of some description. I’m fairly certain he’s still alive, just lost to the world. Cat Stevens turned into an asshole. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/4 "2002-12-29T04:01:45Z")
Will you count people who eventually made a return? After The Stooges broke up Iggy Pop wound up homeless and eventually checked himself into a mental hospital. This was primarily for his substance abuse problem, but he also received psychiatric treatment. But he cleaned up, got his head together, and launched a relatively successful solo career. ---
**Author:** ![Harry\_Lime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Harry\_Lime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harry_Lime)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/5 "2002-12-29T04:04:14Z")
Personally, I have doubts that Brian Wilson is as healthy as he’s currently reputed to be. He doesn’t seem like it when I see him. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/6 "2002-12-29T05:27:59Z")
Ironic that Brian Wilson is often considered to be a “rock and roll casualty”, yet he’s the only Wilson brother still alive… The one that instantly comes to my mind is Jaz Coleman of **Killing Joke** – after recording a couple albums, he decided that the apocalypse was nigh and fled to ICELAND to await Judgment Day. The rest of the band finally talked him into coming home after a few years, though. He’s definitely kinda nuts. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/7 "2002-12-29T05:38:45Z")
There was a great article on Roky Erickson in _Texas Monthly_ about a year ago. He’s doing pretty well these days, thanks to the wonders of modern pharmaceuticals. When do you see Brian Wilson, **Harry**? Is this, like, personal contact with the guy, or are you just seeing him on TV? ---
**Author:** ![kawliga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@kawliga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kawliga)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/8 "2002-12-29T07:46:28Z")
There’s Jim Gordon, the drummer for Derek and the Dominoes. He also worked with The Byrds, Traffic, Joe Cocker, Frank Zappa, and George Harrison. Acute paranoid schizophrenia ended his career by 1981. He beat his mother to death with a claw hammer in 1983. He was sentenced to a life term soon after. ---
**Author:** ![Intaglio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71e660/32.png) [@Intaglio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intaglio)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/9 "2002-12-29T07:51:57Z")
Axl Rose doesn’t seem like he’s all there, his behavior now or in the past would seem like he’s nuts. ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/10 "2002-12-29T08:59:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kawliga \* > \*\*There’s Jim Gordon, the drummer for Derek and the Dominoes. He also worked with The Byrds, Traffic, Joe Cocker, Frank Zappa, and George Harrison. Acute paranoid schizophrenia ended his career by 1981. He beat his mother to death with a claw hammer in 1983. He was sentenced to a life term soon after. \*\* Damn shame about him (and his mother). He was one of the best. ---
**Author:** ![Harry\_Lime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Harry\_Lime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harry_Lime)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/11 "2002-12-29T11:24:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by minty green \* > When do you see Brian Wilson, **Harry**? Is this, like, personal contact with the guy, or are you just seeing him on TV? Yeah, yeah… :rolleyes: I know… After I wrote that, I realized that I’d left it a bit too open. No, I don’t deliver his paper or anything. It just seemed that everytime we got one of these laudatory pieces on TV about the Recovered Brian Wilson, he was then interviewed and seemed _non compos mentis_, at least to me. ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/12 "2002-12-29T12:56:19Z")
Brian Wilson is a good one. I wonder why I did not think him. His family had to get a court order to keep that Psychiatrist, who was keeping him drugged and dependent, away. He has been doing much better. ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/13 "2002-12-29T13:01:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lamia \* > \*\*Will you count people who eventually made a return? > > \*\* Sure. As long as they aren’t some talking testimonial. Actually, that’s a possible tangent. Messed up rock singers who found Jesus, then became messed up Christian rock singers. I can think of a couple of possibilities, but they struggle with drug dependency more than sanity. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/14 "2002-12-29T13:57:31Z")
I hadn’t heard that about Jim Gordon. Bummer. ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/15 "2002-12-29T15:41:16Z")
The ex-bassist for Smashing Pumpkins went crazy I think. She became addicted to plastic surgery or something. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/16 "2002-12-29T16:26:08Z")
“Skip” Spence, former member of the Jefferson Airplane and co-founder of the psychedelic band Moby Grape, died nearly four years ago. He spent 30 years as a diagnosed schizophrenic, drifting in and out of mental institutions. But he was a musical genius, as anyone who has heard Moby Grape’s first album, or Spence’s solo album, “Oar,” can attest. His story is really tragic. You can read more about it [here](http://www.salon.com/people/obit/1999/04/19/spence/). ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/17 "2002-12-29T17:53:25Z")
Richey Edwards (aka Richey James), the guitar player for _The Manic Street Preachers_ went missing in early 1995. His car has been found near a bridge known as a local suicide spot, so suicide is a possibility. But a body was never found: maybe he’s still alive, and decided to run away from it all. [More information here.](http://www.dotmusic.com/interviews/March1996/interviews11447.asp) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/18 "2002-12-29T18:44:10Z")
Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Band (and, as I just discovered [here](http://basic1.easily.co.uk/03C052/042055/Book%20reviews.htm) was the original owner of the dead parrot) ended up spending some time in a mental hospital, suffering from depression made worse by his incessant drinking. He was checked out by Keith Moon (hardly the best role model for someone who needed to stay sober). Stanshall never really licked his alcohol problems, and died when his apartment caught fire. Technically, the mental illness had nothing to do with the fire, though he may have been smoking in bed. Also, despite his problems, his career never ended and he was working on various projects up until his death. ---
**Author:** ![lout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@lout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lout)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/19 "2002-12-29T18:55:42Z")
The (former) gloved one is insane by any standard I’m familiar with. ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457/20 "2002-12-29T19:24:16Z")
Yeah, the King of Pop is probably the most crazy musician mentioned in this entire thread. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-stars-that-went-nuts/145457.md?page=2)