AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But something tells me, this is just one more “setback” that will end up propelling this untouchable band even higher.
Because it would seem nothing on earth can stop the meteoric rise of Velvet Guillotine.
11 years ago, New York City:
It is with heavy,broken hearts that we interrupt this program to bring you breaking news from here in New York City, where rock icon and Velvet Guillotine drummer Iggy Watts has just been pronounced dead from heroin overdose.
To repeat: Iggy Watts, drummer for the hit rock band Velvet Guillotine, is dead.
I…I don't actually know what to say. I have…There are no words for a loss like this.
Tragically, Mr. Watts has had a very public battle with his demons over the last ten years of his career, frequently in and out of rehab. He leaves behind his long-time partner and wife, Alice, who he frequently referred to as his rock and his tether to reality. In the hedonistic and frequently non-monogamous world of rock and roll, Iggy and Alice Watts carved a place for themselves in the hearts of many fans with their commitment to each other.
Making this loss even more tragic, however, is that Mr. Watts also leaves behind he and Alice’s newborn daughter, Eleanor.
Mr. Watts’s body was discovered by housekeepers at his residence at the iconic Dakota building here in New York…also the site of another music tragedy in 1980, when Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon dead outside the building’s very front doors.
Already, if you can see behind me, crowds that may even rival the memorial to John Lennon are forming. Some are holding candles, or posters, or records. Many with tears on their face—
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't. I can't. I’m sorry…
Good evening. That was Michelle on the ground in New York City, and we’re now switching back to here in the main studio. And I think I speak for all of us here when I say we all feel the sense of loss and helplessness that Michelle and everyone else is feeling right now. There are no words. There are simply no words to describe this profound loss that the music world, and the world at large has experienced tonight.
Again, Iggy Watts, founding member and drummer for Velvet Guillotine, is dead.
Ten years ago, Los Angeles:
This isMatt Carver with The Hollywood Reporter, comin’ at youlivefrom the Hollywood Bowl. We are seconds away from jumping into the live broadcast of the very special and very intimate “Concert for Iggy”—the memorial show being put on by some of music’s greatest, including Robert Plant, Bono, Bob Dylan, Dave Grohl, Jay-Z, Kurt Harrison, and Mark Cooper.
And, of course, iconically, the very first public appearance and performance by Velvet Guillotine frontman Jackson Havoc since the loss of his long-time friend and musical collaborator one year ago to a heroin overdose.
Billed as a solo act for this show in light of Velvet Guillotine’s unofficial breakup following Iggy Watts’s passing, Havoc is here alone to open this live-streamed memorial show to his friend.
It's been a hard year for Havoc and the surviving members of Velvet Guillotine. Rhythm guitar player Will Cates has been dogged since last year by a series of legal battles as well as an apparently on-going public feud with Vegas mob prince Luca Carvelli. Bass player Asher Sins followed the loss of his friend Iggy Watts with the death of his father and mentor, the jazz great Leonard Sins, and has chosen to step out of the limelight.
And of course, just six months ago, we saw Jackson Havoc—voluntarily, it would seem, for the first time in his entire career despite his very public abuse of substances—checkinghimselfinto a Santa Monica rehabilitation center, where he lasted just two days before leaving of his own accord.
Speculation has run rampant as to the future of Velvet Guillotine. Will there be a new drummer? Will the band finish the allegedlyunfinished, highly anticipated new record? And what about the upcoming tour next year?
These are all questions many hope will be answered tonight with this first appearance by Havoc in almost six months.
And…there we are. We're getting the go-ahead, and the house lights are dimming behind me here on stage. This isveryexciting, and you can tell the crowd is on their toes ready for their first dose in months of that dark magic only Jackson Havoc seems to be able to bring to a stage.
Okay, and we are going live to the stage where the backing band is starting to play. Of course, this is not theactualVelvet Guillotine, merely a house band backing Havoc tonight. They’re playing what appears to be the intro to…wait, hang on. The band just stopped playing abruptly.
Folks, I'm not sure what we're seeing here. But the backing band hasstopped, and there seems to be some confusion. Okay, the house lights are coming back on and there seems to be a flurry of activity happening in the wings of the stage. There is shouting and…
Oh myGod. Ladies and gentlemen, afighthas just broken out on stage left between what appears to be the Hollywood Bowl stage manager and Havoc’s longtime manager, Cliff Jenkins.
And yet... there seems to be no sign of Havoc himself. I repeat, there is no sign of the legendary rock star….
Okay, okay, the stage manager has distanced himself from Cliff Jenkins and is walking out to center stage. The house lights are on and…Oh my God. Oh myGod. We're being told…
I…I don't know what this means, but we're being told that Havoc willnotbe playing tonight, because he cannot befound.
I repeat; rock icon Jackson Havoc has apparently disappeared.
1
