Better to Burn Out?
In a recent episode of Saxondale, Steve Coogan's latest BBC2 sitcom, the middle-aged ex-roadie, rather the worse for wear, bursts backstage after a gig by a Queen tribute band, hoping to gatecrash the usual post-encore excesses of the rock'n'roll fraternity. He is disappointed to find the band members busy on their iBooks while sipping fruit smoothies.
Considering the well-documented drug-dazed antics of Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse, you could be forgiven for thinking that such a picture of health and sobriety, however amusing, lacks a little credibility. It appears that today's rockers still hold to the time-honoured principles that trashing hotel rooms and consuming copious amounts of narcotics are part and parcel of the obligatory lifestyle.
As the famous 'Club 27' of rock stars who died at that age - Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain - would seem to bear witness, it's better to burn out than to fade away.
This week, giving weight to the adage that 'only the good and rock stars die young,' a report came out that suggests that those who burn twice as bright do indeed burn only half as long. Mark Bellis and his team at Liverpool John Moores University concluded that stars were three times more likely to die in the first five years after their first chart success than ordinary people during the same period. And even if they survived 25 years in showbiz they were still far more likely to climb that stairway to heaven before the rest of us.
In Matthew 16, Jesus warns that it's futile to gain the world but forfeit our souls. The problem is that for so many young people we've made fame far too tantalising a prospect. If you get fame, you gain the world. It's a currency that seemingly can be used to acquire all the money, sex and drugs you could ever want.
Professor Bellis makes no bones about the fact that his report was meant as a public health warning to aspiring Madonnas that all that glitters is not gold. Drug and alcohol abuse seem all too often to become a crutch to cope with the pressures of hyper-popularity. But, with yet another season of X Factor upon us, it's glaringly obvious that we have a long way to go as a society if we're going to help people recognise the true cost of fame.
Jason Gardner
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