Max Blau from Paste Magazine has a great piece on musicians who juggle performing and touring while managing a chronic illness. I think what struck me is how many of the artists have invisible disabilities. To the eye they don't seem sick and as fans we tend to think of artists as superhuman -- or at least want them to be superhuman."It was very humbling, and I could no longer do anything to full capacity and I could no longer prove to everybody or mostly to myself, that i was superwoman—my cape came undone, my zest went out the window along with all my strength and I felt powerless. I felt like the new girl in sixth grade that was just starting to fit, until she gets pantsed on the playground—the dream is over, the jig is up. I felt like an outcast… to myself." -- Singer-songwriter Rosie Thomas on how her hyperthyroidism affects her life as a performer.
Rosie Thomas courtesy of Last.fm
One thing that was only briefly mentioned was the price -- in dollars -- of being a working musician with a disability. A lot of musicians don't have health insurance (one factor in Alex Chilton's premature death from a heart attack in 2010), and most of these bands aren't bringing in a lot of money. Even for the lucky ones who do have good health care, it still adds up. Matthew Scheiner, who has hemophilia and hepatitis C as the result of a blood transfusion, says, "My health insurance costs double my rent, but this year alone they have shelled out over $150,000 in the interest of keeping me alive and well. When I neglect to clean my room for a few days, the scene generally includes empty vials, used syringes, bloody needles. I have an impressive collection of fancy tourniquets from around the world."
Two of the nine artists profiled had psychological, rather than physical, disorders, something I wish were explored more if only because while we don't expect our favorite artists' bodies breaking down, but the image of the troubled genius is practically a given : Syd Barrett, Daniel Johnston, Roky Erickson, Kurt Cobain (who suffered from both physical and mental illness) etc. It's a common trope in the history of rock, but it's over- romanticized rather than taken as a serious issue.
I love the point you make that people are aware of the struggles of independent artists, but romanticize them. Thomas's example highlights the fact that, in a society where a majority of the population considers universal health care some sort of communist plot, in order to be independent, an artist, unless she is born to wealth (have you ever noticed how many of the artist and intellectuals admitted to the canon of "classics" were born to wealth and privelege?), literally has to be prepared to die for her independence. Nothing romantic about dying young from a treatable illness, and suffering unnecessarily before you die.
ReplyDelete