Music, touring and mental health

[Clams]

This is a great interview by Steven Hyden with Ryley Walker about Walker's battles with mental health and addiction while on the road. Seems especially prescient given all the recent deaths in the music biz (eg David Berman and others) and also given all the recent 3dd posts about Nuci's Space (not to mention Patterson's discussion of Nuci's in that recent Crash & Ride podcast).

https://uproxx.com/indie/ryley-walker-i ... -health/4/

[Sterling Bigmouth]

Read this last night, powerful stuff. If you have an hour or so to spare, definitely listen to Walker’s interview on the Crash & Ride podcast (the same one Patterson was on the other day). He goes a lot more in depth, and he’s quickly becoming one of my favorite voices in music.

[walthers]

Thanks for posting this, I will check it out this evening. Been a rough year as Neal Casal was one of my absolute favorites. Many people think being a "rock star" is super glamourus and is nothing but fun, but the older I get and the more I read about the lives of many of these people it seems to be a very hard and long grind for most of them. I did receive the Nucci's email as well and will be making my donation soon, thanks for putting that together Uncle Ricky!

[Iowan]

For a long time I thought it was weird that rock stars had such an issue with this stuff, but I'm finally at the age where the idea of partying every night and being away from regular life on end sounds fucking awful.

I remember when Isbell got sober, I thought, can he really not drink casually? It seemed strange to me. One day it finally hit me that when I go to a rock show, I can party, have fun, and not become addicted because I go back to regular fucking life in the morning, For musicians it's another town, another party, and do what you have to to survive in the short run. It's a completely different world and it's now very easy for me to see how that can destroy you mentally and create chemical dependence quickly.

It's truly amazing how guys like DBT can find their happy spot and stay healthy and sane after so many years on the road.

Not to meantion the reality that many creative types have underlying mental health issues that they can't afford to fully address and would be almost totally unmanageable in a road existence. Fuck.

[scotto]

Yeah, great article. Glad mental health, trauma, suicide, etc., are being talked about more these days and not just hushed up. Still enormous stigma and disgraceful resources, but things are improving.
And Ryley Walker's a great Twitter follow.

[Clams]

And Ryley Walker's a great Twitter follow.

So is Steven Hyden who did the interview with Walker

[Beaverdam]

https://relix.com/articles/detail/behin ... c7e001b53e

This seems like a worthwhile organization and immediately made me think of Nucci’s Space. I feel so blessed to have health insurance and sick days and feel for those who don’t.

[tinnitus photography]

over the last week, we've had JTE, RIley Gale of Power Trip and Mike Noga of The Drones all die. Mike was the oldest at 42.


this cannot go unchecked. something has to give.