Support Life And Music
D.R.E.A.M.
Data, Research, Education, Awareness, and Music
VII.
Burning Out vs. Fading Away
This D.R.E.A.M. Report made possible through a generous grant by the Arizona Eastern Star Foundation. For more information about the Arizona Eastern Star Foundation, please visit https://www.azoes.org/az-oes-foundation.html
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It’s better to burn out than to fade away.
The lyric first appeared in Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” from 1979, then four years later in Def Leppard’s “Rock of Ages.” The line was recited again by the villainous Kurgan in 1986’s cult classic film, Highlander.
And was then tragically cited in Curt Cobain’s suicide note. “I don’t have the passion anymore, and so remember, it’s better to burn out than to fade away”
“Burnout” and “crashing” are common themes across any kind of work, whether it’s painting, retail management, software development, roofing, etc., etc., etc. But they have unique applications and risks when applied to the professional music life.
This D.R.E.A.M. report analyzes the use of “crash” and related terms as metaphor from our data source. We’ve excluded literal descriptions of real vehicle accidents:[1]
Dressed up like a car crash. Your wheels are turnin’ but you’re upside down.
18 total instances with 6 distinct meanings:
- Failure (6 instances).
Na na-na na-na na na-na na na-na na. Slow down, you’re gonna crash.
SEARCH TERMS: “Crash,” “Crash and burn,” “Burn out,” “Burnout.”
“Crash and burn” has been the most common usage. The musical life is at its core an arrhythmic procession of emotional highs (chemical highs notwithstanding), with frequent unpredictable descents and climbs – – like a winding mountainous road. Such uneven terrain is psychologically challenging for anyone to navigate.- “I was tired of drinking so much at the goddamn shows, and with the bands, and realizing I can’t function like this. This is not healthy for me. So I took that personal action. But it’s just, you gotta change your environment, Because what happens is, the artist just, you know, you crash and burn and guess what? You are forgotten. Unfortunately.” – Jon Asher – Asher Media Relations.
- “I have a little bit of drumming experience, so I might be able to hold time, at minimum, so I might not crash and burn there. As far as the guitar. . . I mean, actually, you know what? If I was on guitar or bass, yeah, I would crash and burn.” – Nick Hade, vocalist for Rahway, when asked about trading roles in the band.
- “For every Rush (the band), there’s 10 that make a living wage, and for every one of those, there’s thousands that might sell 10 albums, or 10 songs, or whatever. And if you’re not ready for that yourself, because everyone goes out going, ‘Oh, I’m going to be the next big thing,’ and then when you’re not. You have to be ready mentally for that, or you will fall, you will crash.” – RD Rivers, author.
- “So you just be there for each other. It’s just the same as somebody you cared for or were involved with was having. . . crashing out. All you can do is be there, or say, “Hey, you’ve got to stop this, it’s… you’re killing yourself.” Alycen Rose – Groupie
- “Whether you’re writing music, you’re doing poetry, you’re writing, you have to be able to accept negative reviews and criticism if you want people to see your work. And yeah, they’re brutal. . . You have to be able to see stuff, especially nowadays, with social media being so available, right? I’ve been scrolling through, not even thinking, and I’ll see my own work pop up. I’m like, ‘Oh, awesome,’ and like, ‘Oh, yeah, they hated that.’ And it can crash you, right? It can totally crash you.” – S.C. Mendes, author.
- “I saw so many bands burn out that really deserved a chance. It broke my heart.” – Ray Van Horn, Jr., author
- Burnout (5 instances). [2]
Drink up with me now and forget all about the pressure of days.
SEARCH TERMS: “Crash,” “Burn out,” “Burnout,” “Pace”
This category covers the numbness and fatigue that comes from overwork, overcommitment, overdoing, oversaturation + insufficient rest, insufficient breaks. Interestingly, there turned out to be a bit of a blurred boundary between “Burnout” and “Failure,” in this analysis.- “Everything in moderation. If you do too much of anything, it’s just not good. I mean, that’s just a basic tenet of life, you know? And that’s in anything; food, drinking, music, everything. If you do too much of it, you burn out on it, or it could mess you up. So you have to try to be a little measured about it.” – Amy Sciarretto Atom Splitter PR
- “So when we get back from having played a few shows, it’s like you were expected to get up next morning, and you know, to be in the office, basically. So it’s this back and forth. And it’s like, for our families, they expect us to come back home like recharged, and have been, you know, full of energy from having been out on tour. But it’s like we’re drained. And then but still we gotta carry on doing what puts money on the table. So yeah, it’s a different story.” – Alexander Skepp – Gosta Berlings Saga [3]
- “Musicians break down on the road all the time, because, especially back then, because you’re at a pace of 24 to 48 hours a day. Back then, you have 5 to 6 shows a week. You barely have time off. It is 2 a.m., or 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. kind of a lifestyle.” Alycen Rose – Groupie
- “My comments were definitely going to be about burnout, and your self care routine is super important. . . Even if you are partaking, making sure you give yourself enough rest the next day before you have to go back and be an adult.” –mrlinden, DJ
- “I’ll spin off of you on that burnout part. Recognizing the ability to recognize when and if that situation comes when and if we do burn out, you know, like, what are we going to do? . . . Are we gonna keep burning it out until we eat ourselves inside? That’s what leads to suicide. That’s what leads to the heavy drugs, or the depression, and the anxiety knowing and being aware of being.” – Joseph Mercado “DJ Dimension,” DJ
Alysen Rowse
- Comedown (3 instances)
‘Cause I don’t wanna come back down from this cloud.
SEARCH TERMS: “Crash,” “Comedown,” “Come down.” Many literal usages of “come down” were deemed as not applicable: e.g.: “When you come down here we can have some enchiladas.”
Here we’re referencing the psychological or physical comedown after an intense peak, e.g. after touring or performing.- “So many artists in Nashville spend their lives on the road, and it is a weird rollercoaster of ‘go, go, go,’ and then you get home and everything stops, so sometimes coming home is the harder part. . . all of a sudden you have nowhere to be, and you feel like: ‘What is my purpose?’ all of a sudden. And so there is this crash when you get home off the road.” – Alice Wallace, singer
- “Sure it would have been fun, all the attention and fame and money and adulation. But man, the crash. You guys have seen it, and you’ve been in it. The crash is really hard, isn’t it?” – Jack Mangan S.L.A.M. Host
- “You’re gonna be out there for 20 days. . . 19. . . whatever it is. And then you do it, and you know, your life is: you get up, you eat breakfast, you pack, you unpack, you know, you pack up, you get in the van or the bus. . . and then you finally come home, and you can’t wait to get home. And then after about 2 or 3 days of being home, you want to climb the fucking walls, because it’s different. It’s, you know, there’s something about being on the road that, even though you feel like. . . some people are not cut out for it, I am. I could stay out there for extended periods of time. A lot of people I know are the same way, but when you come home, it’s. . . and, you know, I love my family very much, but there’s that mental thing where it’s just like, you know. . . the come down on that is very hard for me.. . . So one thing I dread about doing extended touring is to come down.” – Keith Roth, SiriusXM DJ, musician.
- Sleep (1 instance)
Why can’t we sleep forever?
SEARCH TERMS: “Crash.” We found lots of other references to sleep, but only Tyler Heath used the colloquial term, “crash” to mean “sleep.”- “I’m not a partier, I don’t drink, I love 9 hours of sleep. And a soft bed, you know? I don’t want to crash in a van.” – Tyler Heath, singer
- “I’m not a partier, I don’t drink, I love 9 hours of sleep. And a soft bed, you know? I don’t want to crash in a van.” – Tyler Heath, singer
- Dramatic Spectacle (2 instance)
The screamin’ tires, the bustin’ glass. The painful scream that I heard last.
SEARCH TERMS “Car crash.” None of these comments were in reference to literal vehicle crashes [1]. Both of these likened an intense performance to a car crash. YouTuber Jacob Givens used the metaphor to mean something that attracts negative attention.- “Speaking out of hate is the easy shortcut. It’s the easiest way to be seen in this world, and it’s really a short spark. It’s such easy. . . like, if you don’t feel like anybody sees you, or you don’t feel valid, or you don’t feel understood, hate is the instantaneous response. It’s the car crash.” –Jacob Givens, YouTuber
- “If you’re going to play sports and play football, your job for some of the people on the team is to run as hard and fast at that guy as you can, and hurt him and take him down, and if not, hurt him, at least knock him down. Right? That’s your job. You’re employed to basically create a car crash like every 30 seconds with every play you do right? You don’t want to do that. Don’t be on the field. That’s your job, you know. Same with us as artists.” – David Ellefson, bassist
- Other (1 instance)
He said that it was from when the cars had smashed so hard.
SEARCH TERM: “Crash.” This is not a frivolous inclusion. Car crashes have become so commonplace that a major band of the 1990s with a bass-baritone singer (Brad Roberts) named themselves after a well-known auto industry safety test device. Thirty years later, a SLAM guest mentioned them in reference to singing while sick. . . OK, maybe it’s a little bit frivolous. . . But still defensible.- “I can only sing one pitch right now. So this is going to be like Crash Test Dummies all the way through.” – Farhad Hossain, singer
Conclusions:
The concept of fatigue, burnout, and “crash and burn” are nothing new to musicians, as evidenced by this 1969 clip of Jimi Hendrix on The Dick Cavett Show, discussing these very topics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGf9PTYyJ4A
Any person who’s faced the responsibilities of school, work, family, home upkeep, creativity, demanding relationships, rigorous practice, study, deadlines, etc. has felt this, but it comes with unique risks and particulars for those in the professional music life. While 18 is a fairly substantial number of quotes (even including the possibly frivolous “Crash Test Dummies” quote), we’d expected to uncover more instances in our data set. As internal takeaways, S.L.A.M. will include more questions about these subjects in future SLAM: Music Survival Guide conversations, and will consider devoting a full panel discussion.
Per the data analysis, moderation and pacing appear to be the generally promoted recommendation to prevent, avoid, and/or recover from “crash and burn.”[4]
Bop-bop-bop-bop. Love is loving and not fade away.
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[1] We’ve heard numerous stories of literal vehicle crashes across many SLAM: Music Survival Guide episodes, some harrowing, some heartbreaking. We may catalogue and examine the psychological impact of some of the most infamous of musical crash events in a future D.R.E.A.M. Report.
[2] Full disclosure: “Burnout” was categorized under “Failure” in early drafts. We acknowledged that it carries its own distinct meaning, and has enough quotes and weight to merit its own category.
[3] Funny. The term “pace” was used in Alexander Skepp’s original quote only because the Zoom transcription misheard “pays” as “pace.” His comment still fully applied, so we included it.
[4] Wait, did we just get through a “Crash”-focused article without referencing Dave Matthews Band?
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How it’s done done done.
- The S.L.A.M. internal Data Research Education Awareness Music Team (D.R.E.A.M. Team) analyzed the full spoken content of 50 different “SLAM: Music Survival Guide” panel discussion recordings, tagging meaningful statements across various categories. This report focuses on quotes associated with the concepts of success.
- We did not seek to confirm or debunk the truth or validity of any statements made. The purpose was to analyze, process, quantify, draw logical connections, find meaningful commonalities, themes, and/or contradictions between the statements, and ultimately share the recorded observations, feelings, concerns, beliefs, philosophies, etc., in the speakers’ own words and lyrics. No judgments of the speakers or others present on the call are intended, nor should any be inferred.
- The speakers were invited to participate in “SLAM Summit: Music Survival Guide” panel discussions. All episodes are publicly available or are scheduled for release at https://www.supportlifeandmusic.org/artist-voices/. The quotes in this report have not been kept anonymous, and are not intended to be taken out of context as any kind of reflection on any persons involved in the conversations.
- Some of the content presented has been edited to:
- Remove extraneous words and phrases, like “you know,” “um,” “like,” etc., as well as to remove repeated or stammered words/phrases.
- Correct obvious Zoom transcription errors in translation, dictation, or grammar. (crosschecked against the actual episode audio.)
- No statement was changed, no quote was edited to directly or indirectly change its original meaning in any way.
- The majority of content is drawn from participant dialogue, but we occasionally include content from the S.L.A.M. hosts, if it is relevant and a natural fit for the topic.
- The “Conclusions” sections of this report were written solely in-house at Support Life And Music, and its recommendations are drawn from S.L.A.M. backgrounds in the music industry and mental health, as well as from the designated data set. All facts, figures, opinions, conclusions, and suggestions in this article are presented solely for informational purposes. There are mental health improvement techniques that can be undertaken by anyone in any situation to benefit themselves and others, but consultation with a certified mental health professional is always recommended. See the Support Life And Music website for an expansive list of healthcare providers.
References:
Neil Young & Crazy Horse “Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black)” (1979). Rust Never Sleeps [Album]. Reprise
Def Leppard “Rock of Ages” (1983). Pyromania [Album]. Vertigo – Mercury
U2 “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” (1994). Zooropa [Album]. Island
The Primitives “Crash” (1988). Lovely [Album]. RCA
Elliott Smith “Between the Bars” (1997). Either/Or [Album]. Kill Rock Stars
Bush “Comedown” (1994). Sixteen Stone [Album]. Trauma – Interscope
Tool “Sober” (1993). Undertow [Album]. Zoo
Wayne Cochran “Last Kiss” (1961). Last Kiss / Funny Feeling [Single]. Gala
Crash Test Dummies “Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm” (1993). God Shuffled His Feet [Album]. BMG – Arista
Buddy Holly and the Crickets “Not Fade Away” (1957). Oh, Boy! / Not Fade Away [Single]. Brunswick