Philzone.org - Philzone Phansite Community Discussion Board: Hep C Support & Awareness: ARCHIVE 2010: R.I.P. Vic Chesnutt

sadly I report the death of GA balladeer Vic Chesnutt. Vic died yesterday in Athens Ga @ age 45. His album and song, west of Rome, the tirles using my hometown, is one of my favorites. It's sad Vic died in a depression over $70 in unpayable medical bills he was being sued for. RIP Vic

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/art icle/ALeqM5ilNJWDAmysDAUbD3ugGCP2xSF3-w


ATHENS, Ga. — Vic Chesnutt, the folk-rocker whose sometimes dark reflections on life were influenced in part by a car wreck that left him paralyzed, has died. He was 45.
Family friend Christina Stuckey, who answered the phone at Chesnutt's home, confirmed the death to The Associated Press. Chesnutt's record label, Constellation Records, said in a statement on its website that Chesnutt died on Christmas Day, Friday.
The brief statement says "Vic transformed our sense of what true character, grace and determination are all about."
Chesnutt worked with such notable artists as R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe and guitarist Guy Picciotto of the punk band Fugazi.
Chesnutt said in a biography posted on his MySpace page that he came to "a whole new understanding of music" after the 1983 car crash.
He recently had toured with his Vic Chesnutt band, a "supergroup" of sorts featuring members of Canadian bands Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra, as well as Picciotto.
"This is a truly incredible braintrust, with all these people - we've got some of the smartest and most sensitive punk rockers out there," he told the Athens Banner-Herald for a story in October.
The rocker released two albums in the past year, including "At the Cut."
However, Chesnutt had recently struggled with a lawsuit filed by a Georgia hospital after he racked up surgery bills totalling some $70,000, the Athens newspaper reported. He said he couldn't afford more than hospitalization insurance and couldn't keep up with the payments.
The problems baffled his Canadian bandmates, Chesnutt said.
"There's nowhere else in the world that I'd be facing the situation I'm in right now. They cannot understand what kind of society would inflict that on their population," he said. "It's terrifying."
Unlike Canada and other developed industrialized countries, the United States does not provide universal health care coverage. Most Americans obtain their health insurance through their employers, but a self-employed musician like Chesnutt with pre-existing medical conditions would have difficulty obtaining an affordable health insurance policy.
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west of Rome, just east of the border
in a static-y ramada inn
polishing his boots and pummeling his liver
steeped in the dark isolation
just what business does he have around here
credentials are wearing out with each little bit of cheer
yes it's a bad scene we're convening

brushing his teeth and milking his ulcer
preparing to waste another wily morning
stroking himself and them phoning up his sister
he tells her their life would make one whale of a movie
yes a childhood full of dry goods and wet neglect
the father they now sponge off they have no absorbing respect
yes he's a glad boy to have such a void
yes he's a martyr crawling accross cobble stones
from his cozy cottages just west of Rome
yes its a sad state for great suffering

RIP Vic Chesnutt

http://www.archive.org/details/vc2009-12-05.akg483 .flac16