Tragic news. Peace and best wishes to Chesnutt and family.

wow. Just heard an interview with him on nPR-probably Fresh Air~and wrote his name down to listen to more of his music.

Love and understanding to Vic and his loved ones.

It’s been reported that Vic Chesnutt has died. Very sad news.

when there’s no way out….So sad

I heard the same programme. He didn’t sound at all convinced about having surpassed the notion of suicide. Curious how the mind works — or fails to work — for some. Whatever, bon voyage, Vic. And better luck next time.

If only Vic could have waited til Obama’s healthcare plan kicked in all of his concerns over outrageous medical bills and his inability to afford the operations he needed would be a moot point.

David Brooks and others on NPR this afternoon would tend to make you believe such crap if you didn’t know better.

In all seriousness, I hope Vic has found peace. Great guy.

So sad. It makes u wonder just how many stories like this are out here. The sheer cruelty of our system is astounding.

We will never know.
I’m so sorry to hear this.

I had a friend who reached the lifetime limit and took a similar route out, because she saw no alternative. Her family is devastated to this day. We can do better, and we must do better.

I heard that program. It was Terry Gross that interviewed him.
The politicians of this country make me ill. I’m just waiting for Medicare
to kick in for me, and perhaps I’ll recover.

I know an older hairstylist who took a job at Walmart (super WM’s have hair salons) because he wanted “health insurance”. He soon discovered that the “insurance” was useless. Sky high out of pocket co-pays, deductibles and giant gaping holes in “coverage”.

This is what the uninsured and others will discover with Obama’s highly touted revolutionary “Health Care Plan”.

Its a giant stinking turd on the public. Insurance companies are set to make billions on the backs of the working poor, the infirm and the taxpayers. And provide no coverage.

They took Vic off of life support around 3pm today. He was a friend and colleague of mine here in the Athens music scene. He will be very sorely missed. Ex-Throwing Muses lead singer Kristin Hersh has set up a site for donations to help Vic’s family.

http://kristinhersh.cashmusic.org/vic/

dayam
thanks for letting us know big guy

Hey TRex. Very sad news. Thanks for the link for donations for Vic’s family.

this is just so sad. saw vic perform ‘west of rome’ and other stuff at the old casbah in san diego in 92 or so. chatted with him after, bought–ahem–cassette from him. i wish he coulda stuck it out or beaten whatever demon was on him. hugs and drinks to you other old indie folks who show up in this thread.

When they say that every 10 minutes, somebody dies due to lack of health insurance, this must be what it feels like.

I wish I could preserve those feelings and send copies to Obama, Lieberman, and all the other money-worshiping bastards and bitches who made this possible. I would make them wear the hurt every day for the rest of their god-damned lives.

Sorry, but these stories are pissing me off.

Thanks for the link. The donation site for his family was down when I checked a moment ago. Here is the text from the Google cache. Hopefully people will checkout the site, when it is back up. If somebody here is a Lawyer in Georgia maybe they can give them advice on the lawsuit against him for his hospital bill.

“This page is a tribute to Vic Chesnutt – here to accept donations on behalf of his family to defray the expenses associated with his recent hospitalizations and death. 100% of all funds raised will go to Vic’s family.

What this man was capable of was superhuman. Vic was brilliant, hilarious and necessary; his songs messages from the ether, uncensored. He developed a guitar style that allowed him to play bass, rhythm and lead in the same song — this with the movement of only two fingers. His fluid timing was inimitable, his poetry untainted by influences. He was my best friend.

I never saw the wheelchair—it was invisible to me—but he did. When our dressing room was up a flight of stairs, he’d casually tell me that he’d meet me in the bar. When we both contracted the same illness, I told him it was the worst pain I’d ever felt. “I don’t feel pain,” he said. Of course. I’d forgotten. When I asked him to take a walk down the rain spattered sidewalk with me, he said his hands would get wet. Sitting on stage with him, I would request a song and he’d flip me off, which meant, “This finger won’t work today.” I saw him as unassailable—huge and wonderful, but I think Vic saw Vic as small, broken. And sad.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to listen to his music again, but I know how vital it is that others hear it. When I got the phone call I’d been dreading for the last fifteen years, I lost my balance. My whole being shifted to the left; I couldn’t stand up without careening into the wall and I was freezing cold. I don’t think I like this planet without Vic; I swore I would never live here without him. But what he left here is the sound of a life that pushed against its constraints, as all lives should. It’s the sound of someone on fire. It makes this planet better.

And if I’m honest with myself, I admit that I still feel like he’s here, but free of his constraints. Maybe now he really is huge. Unbroken. And happy.

Love,
Kristin”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s4v2s4ZxVA

Future stepped into by field and turned it into an empire
Forefathers where are you now ?
Your dust is settling on my furniture
I stepped out of a cloud and the ditch is close
I mean the ditch is closing in.
Hemingway did your fat little self justice
so here’s to you you articulate dead fisherman
What if I said I love you and need your guidance to help me through the obstacles ?
Would you say I am too wordy and then would you laugh ?
What if I said I’m under the glass untouchable as the document itself ?
Would you say OK and that you never even considered me ?
Independence day, I never knew it would be so symbolic.

I worked in a music venue back in the ’90s. We had him on our stage once. We hade to build a ramp for his wheelchair so he could get on stage.

Besides his show being great and his music and lyrics being incredible, he himself was the nicest guy.

A lot of performers are narcissistic 4$$holes that treat crew like garbage. Vic was the kindest, most polite person to the crew I have ever met. He was keenly aware of the work that the crew did for his show, if he was more mobile, I have no doubt he would have been there wrapping up cables and deconstructing the stage right along with us.

We have Death Panels right here in the USA, they are called ‘insurance companies’. Right now they are sitting in judgement of Vic Chesnutt, and they have decided that his life is not worth the infinitesimal decrease in their profits.

And Obama and the Democrats just handed these rapacious killers guaranteed profits forever by transferring the wealth of the middle class to their CEOs.