Paralyzed singer Vic Chesnutt dies after overdose
Reuters, Dec 28, 2009 2:00 am PSTVic Chesnutt, a paralyzed singer-songwriter whose painful and poignant songs caught the attention of R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, has died after an apparent suicide attempt. He was 45.
Chesnutt died at a hospital his hometown of Athens, Ga., on Christmas Day, two days after taking an overdose of muscle relaxants.
"In the few short years that we knew him personally, Vic transformed our sense of what true character, grace and determination are all about," said the founders his label, Constellation Records, in a statement posted on its Web site. "Our grief is inexpressible and Vic's absence unfathomable."
The news about the singer's condition first spread through the Internet on Wednesday through Twitter posts by former Throwing Muses singer Kristin Hersh, who has collaborated with Chesnutt.
"(H)e's gone...so much to go away in a moment," she wrote in a subsequent series of messages. "(H)e was supposed to go to *my* funeral, damn it."
Chesnutt had been in a wheelchair since a single-car accident when he was 18, and was discovered in the late '80s by Stipe, who produced his first two albums. Chesnutt went on to release 13 more albums, including two this year, "At the Cut" and "Skitter on Take-Off."
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