Doesn't anybody care about Pete Doherty?

So, Pete Doherty got busted at Oslo Airport. So, Pete Doherty's been cutting himself.

Will NOBODY save him, even if it's from himself?

You know, I'm something of an expert in these matters. I've studied the spiral downwards. I've just spent the last couple of days listening to the entire Thin Lizzy catalogue in order on my iPod. I've seen the toll the fast-burn death took on the face and eyes and body and soul of Jim Morrison. I've seen the slow-burn death in Elvis. I've seen the one in between in Philip Lynott. The rock and roll graveyard is full of cretins, morons, tragic clowns, tragic heroes, junkies, wankers, bastards, wifebeaters, demons and evil fuckers.

You would think we would've learned by now. What have we learned though? That a nasty publicity-seeking missile of a junkie with, at best, mediocre skills would be on our front pages while the decent musicians languish in anonymity?

Mind you, I find it just as offensive that right-wing bigots still try to demonise the rock element to get votes and support.

If Pete Doherty wants to survive (and let's face it, he doesn't seem to), he needs to fuck off. He needs to disappear. You cannot save yourself while you're in the spotlight. If he wants to live, he must give up his infamy and the attention of the guttersnipe press. He must have the courage to step away. He must have the courage to live without his pharmaceutical crutches.

He must have the courage to dismiss the liggers, hangers-on and parasites who flock to boys like him, and dismiss them for good. These are people who care nothing for him as a person but care about the money and reflected glory hanging around him brings. He must be strong and tell them to fuck off.

I'm sure there are people who have tried to help him, people who love him. I'm sure there are a great many people who love him but have been pushed beyond a point where they will endure his 'antics'.

If Pete Doherty marks out his spot in the graveyard of the inglorious dead, I will feel great contempt for him for the rest of eternity. It is the people who love us that are hurt first and who hurt the longest, and there are people who I'm sure love him a great deal.

But if he has courage and respect for himself and the people who love him, if he gives up the measure of fame he has been granted for a higher purpose (ie, not dying), then I will find oceans of respect for him.

Any rock star can die. Any rock star can join the live fast, die young club. Surely the greater achievement is to live? To live and be and take the unbearable pain and undying heights of life.

I'd do anything to have Jim Morrison and Philip Lynott alive and well, to have this Saturday's concert in Dublin be some great homecoming instead of a tribute, but I don't get to make that choice. Pete still has something of a choice. It's not an easy one, but it is a choice. Eric Clapton survived, the rest of Thin Lizzy survived. Aerosmith and Velvet Revolver survived. They're still a minority really, but they did survive.

Is there nobody that will help Pete to take the road less travelled?

Doesn't anybody care about Pete Doherty?

So, Pete Doherty got busted at Oslo Airport. So, Pete Doherty's been cutting himself.

Will NOBODY save him, even if it's from himself?

You know, I'm something of an expert in these matters. I've studied the spiral downwards. I've just spent the last couple of days listening to the entire Thin Lizzy catalogue in order on my iPod. I've seen the toll the fast-burn death took on the face and eyes and body and soul of Jim Morrison. I've seen the slow-burn death in Elvis. I've seen the one in between in Philip Lynott. The rock and roll graveyard is full of cretins, morons, tragic clowns, tragic heroes, junkies, wankers, bastards, wifebeaters, demons and evil fuckers.

You would think we would've learned by now. What have we learned though? That a nasty publicity-seeking missile of a junkie with, at best, mediocre skills would be on our front pages while the decent musicians languish in anonymity?

Mind you, I find it just as offensive that right-wing bigots still try to demonise the rock element to get votes and support.

If Pete Doherty wants to survive (and let's face it, he doesn't seem to), he needs to fuck off. He needs to disappear. You cannot save yourself while you're in the spotlight. If he wants to live, he must give up his infamy and the attention of the guttersnipe press. He must have the courage to step away. He must have the courage to live without his pharmaceutical crutches.

He must have the courage to dismiss the liggers, hangers-on and parasites who flock to boys like him, and dismiss them for good. These are people who care nothing for him as a person but care about the money and reflected glory hanging around him brings. He must be strong and tell them to fuck off.

I'm sure there are people who have tried to help him, people who love him. I'm sure there are a great many people who love him but have been pushed beyond a point where they will endure his 'antics'.

If Pete Doherty marks out his spot in the graveyard of the inglorious dead, I will feel great contempt for him for the rest of eternity. It is the people who love us that are hurt first and who hurt the longest, and there are people who I'm sure love him a great deal.

But if he has courage and respect for himself and the people who love him, if he gives up the measure of fame he has been granted for a higher purpose (ie, not dying), then I will find oceans of respect for him.

Any rock star can die. Any rock star can join the live fast, die young club. Surely the greater achievement is to live? To live and be and take the unbearable pain and undying heights of life.

I'd do anything to have Jim Morrison and Philip Lynott alive and well, to have this Saturday's concert in Dublin be some great homecoming instead of a tribute, but I don't get to make that choice. Pete still has something of a choice. It's not an easy one, but it is a choice. Eric Clapton survived, the rest of Thin Lizzy survived. Aerosmith and Velvet Revolver survived. They're still a minority really, but they did survive.

Is there nobody that will help Pete to take the road less travelled?