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Depressed for success >> Even therapy can't help Type O Negative
by JOHNSON CUMMINS
So yes, there's money in morbidity. Which could make Type O Negative the Bill Gates of rock, 'coz these unhappy campers have taken depression to a brand new low.
On their current album World Coming Down, you will hear some of the most doom-laden 'n' depressing epics ever put to tape since Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun." When bassist Peter Steele agonizingly sings lines like "Everyone I love is dead" or "With every breath I pray for death" or the cheery "Still looking for someone who was around, barely coping/Now I hate myself, wish I'd die," he's not fucking around. He's into death.
Steele is also quoted as saying, "I'd kill myself, but I am waiting for the punch line." If there was ever a needy candidate to receive one of those "Just hang in there!" kitten posters, it's this guy.
But misery does love company, and the rest of the band could hardly be described as happy-go-lucky lads. "World Coming Down was really a product of what all of us in the band were going through at the time," says guitarist Kenny "Chuckles" Hickey.
Hickey's personal hell included chemical addiction, alcoholism and sexual excess. Finally he suffered a breakdown onstage, which eventually served as a wake-up call for this sad sack.
"I had done a whole eight ball of crystal meth and was up for four and half days. By the time I got onstage I just broke down. For an hour and half I couldn't hit one chord and all I could do was cry."
The self-admittedly manic-depressive Hickey says he had to stop all booze and drugs for fear of dying. "I've been trying to stay sober now for a while, but it's an ongoing struggle. I lost out to a mini bar in a hotel room recently--I just couldn't resist it--but since then, I've been clean. Going on 63 days now!"
He also admits he's no stranger to suicide. "I've now made steps to avoid killing myself by seeing shrinks," he mutters. "They had been giving me anti-depressants, which I was uncomfortable with. Now I am trying to avoid anti-depressants. I'm now looking into thought control therapy."
In his best Richard Lewis/Woody Allen, Hickey adds: "At a hundred and fifty dollars an hour I think the first session should be discussing cutting his bill in half. That would get rid of some anxiety. Then we can start from there." The tales of woe never cease. :
The happy happy joy joy of Type O Negative can be experienced, along with fun-in-the-sun openers Puya and Jaded, at the Spectrum, Tuesday, November 9, 8pm, $18 |
Death sells. To see the full value of his point, one doesn't have to look much further than Saint Kurt. Days after Cobain put the nozzle of a 12-gauge up to his noggin, his silk-screened likeness was on the chest of every disenchanted youth the world over.