Ian Curtis, Johnny Thunders & Roky Erickson all were hugely important in their own way and all had tragic stories in their personal lives as well.

Ian suffered from crushing depression as well as epilepsy and a failing marriage, and took his own life at a very young age. This is reflected in his incredibly dark and brilliant lyrics, some of the best ever written. An old soul in a young body.

Johnny Thunders' guitar style & sound was SO badass. If you haven't heard the first New York Dolls album, your musical education is incomplete. He also died before his time due to drug addiction. Trivia: if you've been to New Orleans you might know where the St. Peter Guest House is in the Quarter, I stayed there for the '95 Sugar Bowl trip. That's where Johnny was found dead back in the 80s, he lived there during his final days.

Roky Erickson could be called the American Syd Barrett. Fronted an influential psychedelic band - the 13th Floor Elevators, not as big as Pink Floyd obviously but a great band - but had mental health issues and ended up confined to a psychiatric hospital that was basically a prison after a drug bust, and all sorts of bad stuff happened to him there. Unlike Syd, Roky got some successful treatment & made a comeback later in life. His best album is "The Evil One" from 1983, a great guitar rock album with totally weird lyrics about monsters, demons, aliens etc. Roky died a couple years ago at a fairly ripe old age.

Some of my fave musicians on the list today, maybe you can tell.