jerry's bad hygene

[maximinus]

First off - I'm not trying to put down Jerry, but there is *some* evidence that he was shooting up at some low points in his life.

In the book 'Dark Star' someone went to his house in the early 80's, jerry opened the door and said something like "Whatya been doing? I've been a stone cold junkie for a few years" (sorry, I don't have the book in front of me for the exact quote). The witness states that Jerry was shooting into his legs to hide the problem, and that he saw the track marks.

Also, there is a small reference in Rock Scullys book to discovering that lemon juice could be used for shooting up with, although this could of course just imply that Rock was shooting.

I'd say that Jerry *may* have shot up at certain times, but he for sure smoked it most of the time. Possily he shot when low-grade H was all that was availiable.

[whitelacestrange]

i read alittle about that "i've been a stone cold junkie" in this article

http://www.levity.com/gans/SFFocus.html

this made me sad

[st. stephen]

wow, fuck
didn't want to read all this.
but he was a normal guy with his bad sides.

[Chief5959]

We are all flawed as human beings and not many of us could stand the degree of examination that Jerry life was put under during his lifetime. That being said it was his choice. As we go on and on for pages and pages on this site and other media about what made him great and the great things he provided for us musically we have to be realistic about the negative things as well. Jerry's drug use significantly contributed to his own demise. To go on with excuses like carpal tunnel etc, he only smoked, he was a diabetic to try to excuse the choices he made is just wrong. Does not mean he did not bring a lot of joy to people it just means that he was human and flawed like the rest of us.

[tigerstrat]

"Dark Star" is a hack-job "True Hollywood Stories"-esque dirt-digging bio. I would lend much more more credence to Blair Jackson's or even Scully's or McNally's books. Who cares, really though... hard drugs are hard drugs whether you shoot snort smoke, ingest...

[hesgone95]

Y'know, Jerry wouldn't have been Jerry without his flaws. All the choices we make, good and bad influence the person that we are which in turn influences the choices we make and so on. We are a combination of our light and dark, good and bad sides. Yin and Yang. The music and the band would have been diffterent if Jerry was different. Excuse him or not, it doesn't matter. That's who he was and this is the legacy that he left, the thing that we all love.

Besides, he's dead, and nothings gonna bring him back. The whole conversation of whether his choices were good or bad and what exactly contributed to his death and how he used his drugs is pointless.

Dunno if this makes much sense, just my 2 cents.

[boxorain]

The lyrics of Playin should be drifting through this discussion.

Particularly, "If a man among us got no sin upon his hand..." and "...a man is just a man."

Uncle Jerry, in reality, might not have been the cleanest guy that ever picked a guitar, but he took us places far past this reality and I'll be forever grateful.

[BlobWeird]

Why does it matter? So what if he smelled or he did drugs? It was his choice and he is NO WORSE of a human being at all. He was a great human being in fact. Like you guys said. If he brought joy to people for 40+ years and counting then he must be a great guy. Fuck it let him stink!