By shelz.

We all sit here and ponder what to say.  Kennedy is lying in state. Michael hasn’t been buried.  Vernon Forrest’s alleged killers haven’t been tried and the Baatin articles may still be sitting on website front pages, or just getting settled into the archives. Yet here we are again.  Pondering . Wondering how many times we will be forced to bid a sad farewell this year and how many different ways we can say goodbye.

DJ AM was the kind of guy you would root for whether you knew him or not.  His back story was littered with tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.  Child abuse, depression, and drug abuse all had a hand in dismantling his youth, but from the rubble of that distorted childhood grew such an amazing talent. Despite his previous setbacks, his career as one of the world’s premiere DJ’s flourished.  He was jet setting around the world for gigs, dating starlets, living a life he probably never thought possible when he was sitting in his apartment contemplating suicide in his early 20’s.

Then there was the plane crash.  The accident claimed four lives, but AM managed to survive.  The unrelated blood clot the doctors found in his leg after he was treated for burns to his head and arms could have killed him, but it was thinned and dispersed.  AM was starting to look like a man with a never ending supply of sand in his hour glass. But looks can be deceiving.

On Friday afternoon DJ AM (Adam Goldstein) was found dead in his apartment.  The why’s and the how’s aren’t known and don’t really matter right now to Adam’s friends, family and a generation of music lovers who will miss him dearly. What does matter is that he had a hustle that could put most of our alleged 24/7 grinds to bed, a ridiculous cross-genre knowledge of music that could keep you scratching your head through most of his and Travis’ mash-ups and a way with two turntables that mystified other DJ’s. He could bend and twist and mold any track into whatever form he wanted with the touch of his finger tips and music loved him for that and always will.

So as you sit back and ponder AM’s life, know that it was a life to be respected.  He came from depths that most of us never had to fight our way out of and achieved heights that most of us will never reach. He managed to do all of that in a mere 36 years. His artistry would have provided him with such a bright future, but unfortunately now all we can do is wonder how far he could have gone. So dim your strobes, put your lighters up and fly your Famous Stars and Straps rags at half mast because music just lost.

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