Sad news about TM Stevens

[Basvarken]

I've been reading sad news about TM Stevens.
Several websites are mentioning he is suffering from dementia and won't ever play again.

https://forum.bass-arena.com/threads/about-tm-stevens.18089/

https://www.bonedo.de/artikel/einzelansicht/tm-stevens-leidet-an-demenz.html

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/312105-recent-news-about-tm-stevens/

[gearHed289]

Terrible. 66 years old. 

[Dave W]

Very sad. One of the posts on his FB page says he's in the final stages.

[Chris P.]

I met him several times and the last couple of years he was hard to love. Drinking an awfull lot, being drunk in an hour, not functioning and leaving the party after an hour and a half, shouting, ... Maybe his abuse of alcohol has something to do with it. Still very sad.

[4stringer77]

I met him once at Berklee when I was 17 when he did a clinic there. He gave out a bunch of sets of Dean Markley blue steels to all the students. He was very kind and talked to a number of us. He was a larger than life presence but radiantly happy, enthusiastic and good natured from what I could see. This was the summer of 1994. Perhaps his drinking developed as a coping mechanism because he may have already known he was deteriorating. Really cool Deep Purple cover album he put out, aside from his solo and session work.

[westen44]

I met him several times and the last couple of years he was hard to love. Drinking an awfull lot, being drunk in an hour, not functioning and leaving the party after an hour and a half, shouting, ... Maybe his abuse of alcohol has something to do with it. Still very sad.

I know someone with it and alcohol was definitely not the cause since she never drank at all her whole life. 

[uwe]

I have his 8-string custom shop LP Standard bass - one of two he owned. Very sad.  Had no idea, but had wondered why he was no longe heavily featured at Warwick bass clinics. I thought he was iconic in this vid here:





What a kick-ass band that was. Should have continued, it really was thinking man's metal (bit like Alcatrazz and Judas Priest having illicit sex with one another and that can't be a bad thing) and we all know how prolific the Vai-discovered singer (Devin Townsend, yes him!) became.

[Dave W]

I met him several times and the last couple of years he was hard to love. Drinking an awfull lot, being drunk in an hour, not functioning and leaving the party after an hour and a half, shouting, ... Maybe his abuse of alcohol has something to do with it. Still very sad.

I know someone with it and alcohol was definitely not the cause since she never drank at all her whole life. 

There is such a thing as alcoholic dementia and there are other alcohol related brain disorders. I've seen a few affected persons, including a relative. It's not Alzheimer's, but the symptoms can be the same. After all, alcohol is a neurotoxin.

Whether TM's current condition has anything to do with alcohol, it's a pity that he let drinking interfere with his music to that extent. He certainly isn't the first.

[Basvarken]

There is such a thing as alcoholic dementia and there are other alcohol related brain disorders. I've seen a few affected persons, including a relative. It's not Alzheimer's, but the symptoms can be the same. After all, alcohol is a neurotoxin.

Korsakoff

[uwe]

You can no doubt drink yourself dumb, there is even a German expression for it ("Er hat sich blöd gesoffen."). And some people can't handle an alcohol dosage healthwise that has no impact (or not one as severe) on others. And there are studies according to which, while African-Americans drink less alcohol than whites across the board, they handle alcoholism (when and where it does occur) worse. Judging from my time in Africa, I would also say that black men aren't as alcohol-hardened as white men.

And all those rock star deaths due to pancreatic cancer, there wasn't a single one of them that I heard of who was not a heavy drinker at a certain time in his life (Jon Lord, Trevor Bolder, John Wetton, David Bowie - he first drank heavily before the US tours got him on coke, he would see the aftereffects of both) - just like the severe coke users died of heart attacks decades later (even after they had kicked the habit), Robert Palmer, Rick Parfitt, John Entwistle ... Some damage you do to yourself cannot be repaired.

[westen44]

There is such a thing as alcoholic dementia and there are other alcohol related brain disorders. I've seen a few affected persons, including a relative. It's not Alzheimer's, but the symptoms can be the same. After all, alcohol is a neurotoxin.

Whether TM's current condition has anything to do with alcohol, it's a pity that he let drinking interfere with his music to that extent. He certainly isn't the first.

The relative has just straightforward dementia which I suspect may have been related to some other problems, but alcohol or drugs were not involved. 

I have a friend who works as a therapist and she has mentioned treating Karsokoff's Syndrome patients, but I've never been around anyone with that. 

[ilan]

That's harsh news. The worst moments for a dementia patient are when he's aware of his condition. And they are from time to time.

[gearHed289]

What a kick-ass band that was. Should have continued, it really was thinking man's metal (bit like Alcatrazz and Judas Priest having illicit sex with one another and that can't be a bad thing) and we all know how prolific the Vai-discovered singer (Devin Townsend, yes him!) became.

I saw that tour, but sadly neither Stevens or Bozzio were on it (it was Scott Thunes from Zappa, and Abe Laborial Jr.). Regardless, the show was surreal. Townsend blew my mind.

[uwe]

Townsend is wacky, but extremely gifted. Vai succumbed to public pressure because the world wasn't yet ready for someone like Townsend - they could have created a handful of creative albums that would have stood the test of time.

Unlike Vai-era Whitesnake!  That album is living proof that even stadium rock needs to be played with a heart to be convincing.

[Basvarken]

Imagine the frustration of Adrian Vandenberg, when he had to watch Vai butcher his songs on the entire album...