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The main newspaper in my metropolis didn't even mention his death in the "celebrity deaths" area on Sunday or today. MTV News had a blurb about his death, but there was nothing like the "breakin' news all week long" coverage of Kurt Cobain's and Aaliyah's deaths. Both local modern/album rock stages that play tons of AIC songs, including the one that's sponsoring Jerry's performance, said practically nothing about his death during the hours that I was listening to them over the weekend, although somebody dedicated a Mad Season song (like there was more than one) to him during lunch today. ALL of the news I've really gotten about it came from Yahoo (which has several great articles besides the one I posted). Although, I should point out I initially heard that he was dead fairly early Saturday morning from a co-worker who saw it on some rock music website -- which immediately made me wonder if it was yet ANOTHER rumor ("You'd be well advised not to plan my funeral before the body dies") until I was able to go home and check in with Yahoo and aliceinchains.net to confirm it.
Basically, what we have here is a case of exactly what I said above: for all practical purposes, the man has been dead for a half dozen years, so apparently the media doesn't give a damn. Not even Crankyland (Aaliyah had about two dozen threads and nobody in Crankyland even likes her music or her filmed movies -- "Matrix Reloaded" doesn't count). Not even MTV. I mean, when was the last time they played an AIC music video? Unless you're a Beatle, expect to be ignored by MTV when you die if they aren't any longer playing your music videos, no matter how hot you were "back in the day." Had he died in 1994 like Kurt, it would have been a much different story (although people would have accused one of stealing the other's thunder).
Not that I'm arguing for more media coverage of his death -- whether he was the lead singer of my favorite band or not, he's getting pretty much what he deserves for disappearing from the public eye and the attention of his friends, relatives and bandmates for 4-5 years so he could bathe in heroin.
This does now leave us with just Pearl Jam among the original Seattle Big Four... ick... That was pretty much true before Saturday as well, but AIC never officially disbanded -- they were just doing personal side projects until Layne could get his act back together. Now 3 of the 4 have truly self-destructed with no hopes of reconciliation or reunion...
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