First of all let’s state this right up top. My condolences to the family and friends of David Carradine. Loss is never easy or funny.
The circumstance of death and the back story are of course another story. David Carradine’s unfortunate death reminded me of what I said about Michael Hutchence’s death a few years back.
I must have hit on something because a friend of mine emailed earlier today referencing the comments I’d made when the INXS frontman died a little over 11 years ago. Like Carradine’s family now, at the time of Hutchence’s death, his relatives and friends were adamant that he had NOT committed suicide. Their theory was autoerotic asphyxiation.
If you don’t know what autoerotic asphyxiation is I’m not taking time to explain it here. I’m sure it’s out there on the internet somewhere. Let’s just say it’s for people who have just had it with run of the mill self-gratification.
But anyway, my reaction to Hutchence’s family fighting against suicide theories in favor of their explanation was a complete inability to understand their logic.
What I told anyone how’d listen to me go on about this (and trust me I did go on) was the following… Should I ever become a public figure who goes on to die a suspicious death that could be suicide or autoerotic asphyxiation, push the suicide theory. Push suicide REALLY hard.
Here’s why… As an accomplished actor like David Carradine or a charasmatic lead singer like Michael Hutchence, I would rather people think that I was too fragile, too sensitive, too pure, too creative for this earth and I’d just given all that I could, rather than I simply couldn’t stop touching myself.
I like to set small goals as I travel through this life. One of them is to not die in an embarrassing enough way to make the papers. With any luck and some self control, I just might achieve that one.
As for Carradine and Hutchence, I hope they’re resting in peace, all their cares and worries behind them and maybe even enjoying a chuckle together over this post.
PS – Let me hear from you. If you were in their shoes, would you want people to think it was suicide or AA?
