Dec

Sunday Morning Music: Vic Chesnutt

Celebrated musician James Victor “Vic” Chesnutt (1964-2009) died on Friday afternoon – Christmas day – at a Georgia hospital after suffering an overdose of muscle relaxants.

While a serious car accident left Chesnutt partially paralyzed at the age of 18, his condition did not stop him from writing songs.

More after the jump…

Throughout his career, which spanned two decades, Chesnutt recorded with such bands as Widespread Panic, Lambchop, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Elf Power, Cowboy Junkies and Figazi’s Guy Piccioto.

Chesnutt also contributed to Dark Night of the SoulÂ¸ a groundbreaking musical project on which producer Danger Mouse collaborated with band Sparklehorse, filmmaker David Lynch and various artists to create an eerie, resonating collection of songs.

Chesnutt’s memorial service will be held in his hometown of Athens, Georgia on Sunday afternoon.

Categories : Local, Misc., Passing

6 Comments

Tom Sullivan
December 27th, 2009 at 8:31 am

Singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt was 45. The cause of death was not immediately released.

ATHENS, Georgia â€” 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.

[snip]

Chesnutt had recently struggled with a lawsuit filed by a Georgia hospital after he racked up surgery bills totaling 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.”

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Douglas Ewen
December 27th, 2009 at 1:06 pm

I will miss you Vic.

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Tom Buckner
December 27th, 2009 at 5:49 pm

Cause of death: US “health care.”

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EBNC
December 27th, 2009 at 8:52 pm

Go ahead and use his Chesnutt’s passing for whatever purposes you wish, but know that politicizing tragedy is in poor taste. Surely 9/11 taught us all something…

Shit, how many of you people actually heard of Vic Chesnutt before Crooks & Liars instructed you to be outraged about his death?

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Tom Sullivan
December 27th, 2009 at 9:47 pm

The New York Post (via an Asheville musician friend) scooped C&L by eight hours. Chesnutt wasn’t shy about politicizing his insurance situation. For some odd reason, he seemed to take it personally.

“I’m not too eloquent talking about these things,” Chesnutt said. “I was making payments, but I can’t anymore and I really have no idea what I’m going to do. It seems absurd they can charge this much. When I think about all this, it gets me so furious. I could die tomorrow because of other operations I need that I can’t afford. I could die any day now, but I don’t want to pay them another nickel.”

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Tom Buckner
December 28th, 2009 at 6:15 am

I admit, I didn’t know anything about him. There are only a million good musicians out there.

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