So a pop star dies from being high as a kite on drugs. So what’s new?
Littered with white powder and tin foil, this was said to be the scene inside Liam Payne’s hotel room after the singer fell to his death in Buenos Aires last night.
Payne was found dead by police who say they found the popstar’s medicines including clonazepam – a drug which is used to control epilepsy, involuntary muscle spasms and panic disorders.
The photos were published across the Argentinian media, including major broadsheets today and purport to show Payne’s suite at the Casa Sur hotel in Palermo.
There was a frantic call to 911 from hotel staff about ‘an aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol’ who was ‘smashing up his room’ minutes before he died.
Shrugs.
Not everyone sees it as I do, though.
It comes hours after Waissel, a 38-year-old singer-songwriter who auditioned alongside Payne on the 2010 series of X Factor, name-checked Cowell in two statements in which she accused music bosses of focusing on ‘profits rather than people’.
Did Cowell ply this man with drugs? No? Nothing to do with him, then. Even if the industry has a reputation for exploitation, Payne chose to take narcotics. No one forced him. Narcotics abuse is a decision people make. He made that decision and this is the price. The music scene is littered with prior examples of drug use leading to early demise, yet he decided not to take note.
Self inflicted. No sympathy. And, no, it is not Simon Cowell’s fault.
Police are holding “voluntary” interviews of people, under the threat of arrest if they refuse. So the meaning of “voluntary” is already being blurred.
Pop star talent shows have been around for long enough now for everyone to know the score. Last year’s winner has to be buried in order to make way for this year’s three minute hero. Nowadays talented musicians are using the Internet via You Tube and streaming services to get their music out to the public. Talent shows are a short cut to fleeting fame. Substance abuse by people who can’t cope with whatever life throws at them is hardly limited to those who are falling off the end of Cowell’s conveyor belt.
This guy fell three floors to his death apparently. Not very impressive. During a rooftop chase across London in one of the Mission: Impossible films, Tom Cruise jumped out of an office window about three floors up. Not only did Tom survive the fall, he was up again within a second or two to continue the chase.
It’s all part of the media circus to keep the proles from thinking too hard about the important issue affecting them.
That reminds me of the Mitch Benn song People Nowadays Are Hard To Shock. It’s about fading celebs trying to do something outrageous in order to stay in the news and finding it more and more difficult as the public have seen it all before.
It’s sad for his family and friends but it’ll be one less reunion tour for the future.