It sucks when our favorite songwriters take the same path, one after another. Sure, thats the path they chose, but, on a egoist perspective, its also a path that leaves us without another chance of witnessing their musicianship on a stage, of listening to new songs they always had on the sleeve for us. Unlike Vic Chesnutt, I could actually get to see Sparklehorse live back in 2006, following their last proper album, Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain. Linkous looked like he was on a good shape and as late as 2009, he was involved in projects with Fennesz and Danger Mouse (he never got to see their collab album Dark Night of the Soul being released, due to disputes between them and EMI). Even if he had problems in the past (from Rolling Stone: In 1996, Linkous actually died for two minutes after ingesting a dangerous mix of Valium and antidepressants while on tour in the U.K. behind Sparklehorses 1995 debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. He recovered, but the incident left him crippled he laid unconscious for 14 hours, cutting off circulation to his legs. He suffered a heart attack when medics attempted to straighten his legs, and underwent seven surgeries to save his damaged limbs) no one could see this coming on 2010.
Rolling Stone
