Kristen Hersh, of 4AD's Throwing Muses, is on a book tour promoting her new book about her late, great friend and compadre Vic Chestnut. Last night, she spoke about the book to an adoring crowd at San Francisco's Green Apple Bookstore, full of fans of her music and Vic's.
Vic was a brilliant singer-songwriter who took his own life in 2009. He had been confined to a wheelchair for many years after a car crash and was prone to severe physical and psychological pain.
Vic Chestnut Wikipedia page...
This book was the result of a request by the British newspaper The Guardian and Kristen said she barely remembers writing it; it just came pouring out.
Although Kristen said that she and Vic both had "the suicide gene", and had mutually supported each other for years in an effort to "not die and not suck", she still said she was shocked when he actually died, "Dead forever?", she asked, ".... he didn't seem the type...."
The amount of love they obviously had for each other, and the amount of the love in the room last night, were both readily apparent.
There was a lot of sadness, but also a lot of love and humor. It was as if writing this book helped Kristen deal with this tremendous loss, and the book tour is helping all kinds of people affected by the music of Kristen and Vic, many of whom are still at a loss to explain or understand Vic's abrupt departure from this mortal coil.
P.S. Wikipedia says: "Coil" is no longer used as a synonym for "disturbance".....
Order The Book Here from Univ of Texas Press...
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