Terrible! Delp was a suicide.

[Compact Diss]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2007/03/14/family_rocker_brad_delps_death_was_suicide/?p1=MEWell_Pos1

 

This is very tragic. Suicide is one of those killer silent tragedies. I cannot believe this. The guy was a wonderful person.

I am in shock, I cannot even imagine his thoughts.

 

Joe

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

That's a real shame.

[spiral light]

I saw something in the local papers about him, wasn't he from NH?

[GuitarPlayerFL]

 

This makes it even more sad. Why??????????????

[skipclone 1]

An amazing talent and great personality, and that wasn`t enough to live-I don`t get it...

[Chad Thorne]

An amazing talent and great personality, and that wasn`t enough to live -I don`t get it...

 

And children and a fiancee he was supposed to marry this summer.

 

Now Richard Jeni, too.

 

I know that people have emotional pain that seems overwhelming sometimes. But suicide also sometimes seems very, well, selfish to me. It's a baffling phenomenon. I don't get it, either.

[Bluesape]

Senseless! Perhaps he had a terminal condition - very sad.

[skipclone 1]

Well I`m no stranger to emotional pain. I suppose if you have loved ones depending on you it can seem selfish. I just don`t get what it`s supposed to solve, it takes away the possibility of ever feeling good or anything else ever.

[mdrs]

Some things you simply can't understand. They just happen, and you never really know why.

 

Likely he had major depression. Sadly, it is treatable. But the treatment requires a lot of work. And, perhaps he just wasn't up to it.

 

It is a very sad thing. You think, hell, this guy has everything to live for. But, you can't really imagine the kind of pain that might bring someone to do this to themselves.

 

It is very sad, indeed.

 

Depression can be effectively treated. If you or someone you know is suffering, ACT!!! Get them to a good therapist, or psychiatrist, or a doctor. If someone ever expresses that they are considering killing themselves, ALWAYS TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. GET THEM HELP ASAP. AND, DON'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER.

 

You might save their life.

 

I hope Delp's family is O.K.. Suicide is hardest on those left behind.

[Bluesape]

Good advice, Don - folks I've known personally have checked out, but ya never see it comin'!

[Guitarzan]

very sad. yes depression is bad.

[caprae]

I get a sick feeling in my stomache whenever I hear the word suicide. Had a brother-in-law do it and possibly a brother.

 

I found this on PostSecret quite some time ago. I had to save it. I wish everyone considering suicide could read it first. It is quite sobering. This postcard read:

 

when i was 16, i had serious plans to kill myself. then i took a poetry class, & one day the teacher read us a poem he'd written. these lines, & the way he said it, looking at me - IT SAVED MY LIFE

 

the attached poem reads:

 

f**k the poets of the past, my friends.

there are no beautiful suicides

just cold corpses with s**t in their pants

& the end of the gifts.

[spiral light]

Well said!!!!

[S. Yeti Bigfoot, Esq.]

For those that are trying to understand suicide...you might as well just stop trying. You are trying to apply logic an illogical act. People who commit suicide are looking at themselves and the world through a very skewed and distorted version of reality. Clear-headed and rationally thinking people are not going to be able to follow the train of thought and rationale that are behind it, because we immediately see the flaws in the thinking and seem not to be able to follow it beyond that....it is counter to one of our most basic and strongest natural instincts....the survival instinct, and therefore very difficult to grasp.

 

It's just a tragic thing that happens sometimes, as Doc said. I've seen more of it that I cared to in my life and have never really been able to grasp the "why" of it.

 

In most cases it is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

[JohnH]

Brad had no physical terminal illness other than, obviously a mental one that needed treatment. I can't believe he didn't think he was that great and hated himself so much that he did this. Most rock vocalists I have been around have huge egos and at least some diva behavior, I mean they should!! Brad wasn't like that at all. I think I'm going to put my Boston CDs away for awhile, it's too painful for me to listen to right now. I was enjoying the hell out of Cosmo's new Alien CD, I don't even think I want to hear that anymore either.

 

Read this article for more info.

 

http://thetrack.bostonherald.com/moreTrack/view.bg?articleid=188564

[fantasticsound]

[fantasticsound]

[Compact Diss]

Some of his writings have been revealed.

 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2007/03/15/delps_suicide_note_i_am_a_lonely_soul/

[Fumblyfingers]

You know I have been really down before at times, like probably everyone here has also perhaps at one time or another. Sometimes it just feels so hopeless but I have never had a clear thought containing the actual intent to end it all. I wonder just how bad the pain has to be to get to the point of suicide and not being able to care about the pain you are going to inflict on those you leave behind, especially the children.

 

I mean like in physical pain, it can only get to such and such point before you pass out from it not so? I wonder about emotional pain and how bad it can get to where you don't care anymore and just want to die. Especially if there are no drug or alchohol problems as well.

 

Very sad and scary too as it could happen to anyone I guess. I am sorry for his family.

[Dr. Ellwood]

"I wonder just how bad the pain has to be to get to the point of suicide and not being able to care about the pain you are going to inflict on those you leave behind, especially the children."

 

I had a good frend of mine take his own like. He was one of the most talented musicians I've ever know personally. He had heroin,alcohol,qualute problems and could not control it. His wife let me read the note he left and how he looked at it was that he was releasing his wife and kids from a horriable situation that he created and couldn't fix! He saw it a a favor to them and everybody else and they would be much better off without him in the world. He said the kids should have a daddy that could take care of them.

 

 

[S. Yeti Bigfoot, Esq.]

My younger brother committed suicide May 5, 1985 at the age of 30. He drove his car to a rest stop near my mother's house on Interstate 10 in Louisiana, ran a hose from the exhaust pipe into the back window of the car, sealed up the gap in the window with duct tape, broke open a bottle of Bacardi rum, started writing a running commentary/suicide note and let the car idle until he died.

 

He had always had some mental serious illness, and had been institutionalized several times...at times they even just kept him chemically restrained with Thorazine and held him for whatever the requisite time was and then let him check himself out. He had long bouts with addictions and long periods of completely delusional behavior. He was diagnosed with Bipolar II disorder and Schizophrenia with Paranoia when he was 19. There are medications now that could have helped him.

 

He would disappear sometimes for as long as a year. He would be walking and hitch-hiking around the country...in and out of jail, sleeping under overpasses or flop houses or missions or wherever he could find. Then he would suddenly reappear, find a job...get an apartment...buy a car, and do really well for 6 months or a year. If you asked him what he had been doing while he was gone, he might not really know for sure. If he showed up at home for a day or so while he was rambling, he might tell you that the Nazis were chasing him and he had to stay on the run. He was thrown in jail in Tampa for threatening President Reagan's life. He "designed" a helicopter and took the "plans" to the post Commander at Fort Rucker, AL, who had one of his Captains call me to come get him. Two days later he was arrested in Tampa again for punching and kicking a police officer who tried to get him off a bus because he didn't have the fare. He was thrown in jail in Rehobeth Beach, Delaware because he was sleeping on the beach and the police knew he had no place to go so they wanted to try to give him some shelter. Two weeks later he was in San Diego in jail for vagrancy.

 

In his suicide note, in one place he said that the reason he was killing himself was because he had a couple of bad teeth in front and the girl he was trying to court wouldn't have anything to do with him because of that. In another place, I think he got closer to the real truth. He said that he was just tired of living like that and he needed some control over his own destiny.

 

It's just an impossible thing to ever really understand.

[Bluesape]

Wow - sorry to hear that, Sas. I lost my younger brother who died in an accident borne of stupidity bordering on suicide. He and a buddy(who was driving) were drinking, high, and speeding. According to the survivor, my brother set the handbrake on a hairpin curve. Of course, no seat belt, the car rolled, he was ejected. There were no suicidal precursors ever in his life, and the driver needed a story that would save his own butt, so there has always been a question there.

[S. Yeti Bigfoot, Esq.]

That's tough, when there some reason to question if it was actually suicide or homicide (even negligent homicide)...it makes it tough to ever resolve it emotionally. At least my brother was a clear cut, unquestionable case of suicide.

 

The whole point is really that it is a difficult thing to wrap your head around...even if you make an effort to get inside the person's head, you really can't undestand everything that was going on in there.....

[caprae]

... he looked at it was that he was releasing his wife and kids from a horriable situation that he created and couldn't fix...

 

That's what I was guessing many people believed, that they were not making a good impact or being much help any more, so they might as well check out and bring some relief to those around them. This I makes sense, and if we're honest, I'm sure many of us have been down enough to think that we've just screwed up too much and will never get out of it. Add to that clinical depression scewing your thinking and it has to be hard to be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

I knew two kids in High School kill themselves a year apart. My brother was a possible suicide. Was drinking and sat on the RR tracks. Engineer said he never flinched or looked so he thinks he was passed out. Said suicides usually look up at the last minute. Two others in HS sped out of town and hit the RR tie that held up one of their sister's mailbox. Flipped the car end-over-end numerous times. They figured they were doing close over 100 mph.

[caprae]

The whole point is really that it is a difficult thing to wrap your head around...even if you make an effort to get inside the person's head, you really can't undestand everything that was going on in there.....

 

Amen to that. My brother-in-law, after being divorced, finally sat in his trans am in the garage. When he and my sister-in-law married he was successfully working in the accounting dept of a large company, had a very nice house, furniture and cars, seemed happy and normal. He ended up where he couldn't keep a job from the stress, started mowing lawns and finally became a part-time grounds keeper at a church and living with his mother. She only divorced him after he started getting too physical when he was down. This depression and mental illness is a confusing thing.

[caprae]

Here's another strange one: lady kills herself after being obsessed with DaVinci and the book The DaVinci Code.

 

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23389218-details/The+woman+driven+to+suicide+by+the+Da+Vinci+Code/article.do

[Megiliel]

That's awful. Didn't someone notice that something was going on? People are so afraid to interfere, because either they don't think it's their place or they just don't realize what's happening. Ugh. That is really sad.

[Hardtail]

Like some of you, I've had to deal with someone committing suicide too. After all these years, I still shake my head and say... why?

[Zuben]

A sane and rational person will never understand why a person commits suicide nor are they, in my opinion, in a position to judge anyone who has committed suicide. It is not a cowardly way out of anything (There may be some debate here and well deserved)

 

I am not a doctor but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night (bad joke)

 

I can relate this to you. Depression, pain, mental instability, mental illness is almost impossible for even the most educated doctor to understand. Chemical imbalances in the brain take an incredible toll on a person. A toll a normal person could and never will understand.

 

There have been many studies done on genius and madness and there is a very, very thin line between the two. That is just one aspects of hundreds.

 

Yes, it is hard on the family but living with some of these burdens are far more painful to the person contemplating suicide.

 

Although I have never attempted suicide, it has crossed my mind more than once in the last 3 years. 3 major surgeries, 14 "procedures" and not a great outlook to improve my quality of life has taken its toll on my being.

 

I am lucky, my wife is a health professional, my pain management doctor is a family friend and very versed in long term pain and other family friends who are in the medical profession spent a lot of time with me explaining that long term pain is sickness. It affects the chemicals in the brain. It drains the serotonins (sp) and changes brain chemistry. The pain was so intense at times I had no rationale thought process and did not recognize I was being affected. But I was too much of a coward to cross that line. I thank God for that too.

 

After talks from my wife, my doctor and a Orthopod whom I have incredible respect for, one a day the pain was so unbearable I was close to crossing that thin line, God gave me a moment of rationale thought, I heeded their advice and started an antidepressant regiment. I worked from my waking hours to (sometimes minute to minute) keep my head above water. It took time for things to start working. Music was one of my great therapies. I focused on my kids and grandkids. Support from fellow musicians I never even met helped.

 

The pain is still there but the thoughts are gone. Life is precious but it doesn't take a lot to let that slip away when depression and pain start ruling your life.

 

Whether you understand a person's actions or not, do not judge them. As the old saying goes, walk a mile in my shoes.

 

For those of you who may make it to New Orleans for Jazz Fest this year, I just agreed to guest with a group who has helped me though all of this, Friday and Sat at the Cypress Bayou Casino. Feat. Shaun Murphy is my musical guardian angel. You take all the good things in life an dwell on them.

 

I wrote this in the hope it might help some of you understand the pain, mental or other that can change a persons thought process to the point they have no logic dictating their actions

 

Peace all.

[Strategery]

You know, there's worse things that can happen besides someone committing suicide.

It's harder to make your life work...than it is to give up and check out.

 

I have no sympathy for the person that commits suicide and abandons the living.

 

Take that for what it's worth.

 

Randy