Hammer, I Miss You

Now I know what it feels like when a hero dies. It's really quite odd. In a way, obviously I didn't know Jay Reatard - I never met him... But then, through his music, his publicity photos through to his twitter updates and photos he uploaded himself - I had a rare opportunity to feel like I could connect with him as just a normal guy. There wasn't a wall there, I was not enamoured by him as the ideal of a person - instead he presented himself as a normal guy who just happened to make some incredible music. (I'm not deluding myself like the poor people in the Michael Jackson seance did, of course - I know that he was not reaching out to me in particular).

Whilst he's been a prolific artist and I have most of his music that he has made (and I'm fortunate there are a lot of songs of his to enjoy for the rest of my life) but it's always sad to know there won't be more. Okay, so when favourite bands break up, you tend to check what the guys go on to do, but as a solo artist that has passed away, you can't really look elsewhere.

Even more so as old bandmates seem to be hiding away in terms of releases at the moment.

Coors light in the van ! Smoked the chron and jammed the bats ! Plus it's raining and I have a huge crush ... Life is good !

Totally unprofessional, shitty photo taken on a shitty phone camera. He kept it real. Seen live performances on YouTube and they're insane. Of course there's the incident last month when he got attacked but also the time he was cool enough to let this girl on stage to mess about with his V and she started smashing it up. All he asked was for everyone to have a good time and he was like everyone else.

I bet he was an awesome guy, and not even lying, I would totally live my life his way (and die in just over 6 years time) if I have anywhere near as much fun as he may well have.

The caption - life is good! at the end just makes it that bit more sad for me.