![]() He and I toured together on and off for about a decade or so and I’d say we were close, though nobody was ever close enough to Vic to cart him out of his valleys and push him up into the peaks where we all wished he’d just set up camp and send more songs rolling down that mountain into our waiting ears. He influenced many and died too soon … an old story, but in this case the story of one of the best songwriters of our generation. Vic Chesnutt wasn’t destined to enjoy the success many of his fans enjoyed. Hersh writes:“We all tried to keep you talking, because shutting up is shutting down, and we were already a little lonely knowing how close you were to checking out.” The first chapter of Don’t Suck, Don’t Die, which follows Hersh’s acclaimed Rat Girl, is excerpted below.- Nancy Nusser The book is a love letter between friends and a raw, post-mortem plea, all the more wrenching for its futility. Written in second person, the book is an extended conversation with Chesnutt drawn from funny, quirky exchanges during the years when he and Hersh toured together with their spouses. Now, he is memorialized by his musical partner and friend, Kristin Hersh, in her memoir Don’t Suck, Don’t Die ( University of Texas Press, October 2015). Michael Stipe produced two of Chesnutt’s albums. Playing with two fingers, Chesnutt created an idiosyncratic, authentic body of work admired, even revered by fellow musicians. It didn’t take.” Paralyzed since his 1983 car accident, he told NPR he was $50,000 in debt and had put off surgery for a year because he was uninsurable. … You know, I’ve attempted suicide three or four times. ![]() In an interview weeks before his death, he told NPR that his song “Flirted with You All My Life” was actually “a breakup song with death. ![]() Vic Chesnutt, who wrote and performed songs with unwavering honesty about darkness, pain, and the small, sweet bits of life, died on Decemafter overdosing on muscle relaxants. ![]()
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