DJ AM — the celebrity club disc jockey known for dating starlets, collecting hundreds of sneakers and surviving a horrific plane crash — was found dead an apparent overdose in his SoHo apartment today, police said.
Cops found prescription drug bottles inside DJ AM’s residence at 210 Lafayette St. after the 36-year-old’s lifeless body spotted face-down in his bed at around 5:23 p.m. by a friend, who was concerned he hadn’t heard from the performer in several days, sources said.
Emergency medical workers responding to a 911 call from the friend declared DJ AM dead at the scene. No foul play is suspected.
DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, had twittered recently that he had finished wrapping up an MTV reality show about drug addiction.
Prescription drugs and a crack pipe were found at the scene. Bottles of pills were found in both the bedroom and the kitchen. He was wearing sweatpants and no shirt.
Friends of the disc jockey gathered outside his apartment tonight, hugging each other. They declined to speak with reporters.
The Philadelphia native, whose real name was Adam Michael Goldstein, was a former member of the band Crazy Town, which scored the smash rap-rock hit “Butterfly” in 2001.
His work behind turntables in hotspots around the world paid him up to $25,000 or more per night — helping fund what became a collection of more than 1,000 sneakers.
DJ AM had high-profile romances with Nicole Richie, to whom he was once engaged, as well as with actress Mandy Moore.
Last September 19, DJ AM and former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker were badly burned in the crash of a private plane in South Carolina that killed four other people on-board. The plane crashed as it headed down the runway during takeoff.
Barker’s ex-wife, Playmate Shanna Moakler, responded to news of DJ AM’s death on Twitter, writing, “My deepest condolences for DJ AM, you were a great artist and will be severely missed. My thoughts and Prayers to his family and friends.”
Justin Hoffman, a Las Vegas resident who was a friend of the performer, broke down into to tears as he told The Post how DJ AM “reached out to me four years ago, saved my life. I was dying, I was suicidal, and was down to maybe 130 pounds.”
“He reached out to me, talked to me for hours,” Hoffman said. “He’d be there every single time I would call. He would be there no matter situation, he would answer calls at 5:30 in the morning. He just want to help people out.”
“We all love him and miss him,” said DJ AM’s close friend, New York nightclub entrepreneur Mike Satsky.
Samathan Ronson, another celebrity DJ, tweeted to a friend, “Waiting for someone to say this isn’t true.”
Guitar virtuoso John Mayer tweeted, “We’re supposed to lose our friends to time, at an age when we’re ready to agree to the terms of having lived a long life. Not now.”
Lindsay Lohan wrote, “i can’t believe this … I’m in shock. why? why? r.i.p. adam.”
In his own last post on Twitter, dated Tuesday, DJ AM quoted a Grandmaster Flash song: “New York, New York. Big city of dreams, but everything in New York ain’t always what it seems.”
He was scheduled to have deejayed at Dusk in Atlantic City on Tuesday and then tonight at Rain in Las Vegas.
In a 2007 interview with the New York Times, DJ AM admitted to having begun seriously abusing crack cocaine in his early 20s. But he said he had been sober for the past nine years and had even recently given up smoking.
AltPress.com Exclusive: A conversation with Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus
Posted by Scott Heisel
In case you’ve been living under the world’s biggest boulder for the past few weeks, we have some great news to share with you: After a four-year hiatus, pop-punk kings BLINK-182 have reconvened, with plans for a new album and a summer tour. Alternative Press music editor Scott Heisel recently had the chance to chat with Blink bassist/vocalist MARK HOPPUS about Blink-182’s future, what really went on backstage at the Grammys, the status of (+44) and much more.
What was running through your head the second before you guys walked out onstage at the Grammys? That I wanted a piece of gum. Good thing Travis [Barker, drums] had some because my breath was just rotten. I didn’t want to go out onstage in front of a bunch of people with bad breath, you know? You don’t want that.
Was the reaction there what you expected? To be honest, it was really gratifying that the reception has been so strong since we announced that we were gonna continue with Blink-182. It’s really made me super happy.
But at the actual ceremony, did you feel like the people in the audience responded the way you wanted them to, or was it awkward? [Laughs.] The most awkward thing is that they sent us out onto the stage and we didn’t know where we were supposed to go. There wasn’t, like, a podium or anything. I was the first one walking out there, and if you watch the tape, I’m kind of walking around aimlessly for about five seconds. There was a microphone that came up out of the floor and then I realized that’s where we were supposed to go. But I walked out and looked at the camera people and I looked all around the stage and had no idea where I was supposed to go, and I knew it was on live TV, so good thing I eventually saw the microphone.
Obviously this was in the works more than a few days before the Grammys, but it began to leak out that you guys would be presenting an award at the ceremony about three or four days beforehand. Were you disappointed that the news snuck out? No. To be honest, I was really surprised that the secret kept as long as it did. There were so many people that had to know what was going on for us to be there that for it to come out two or three days beforehand, it was pretty cool, actually. Because then people watching didn’t know exactly what we were gonna say or if we were gonna perform live or what the deal was, so it was good to have everyone watching when we finally announced it.
Was there anyone backstage saying, “No dick jokes. No fart jokes”? [Laughs.] No, but we were backstage and they wanted us to rehearse our lines, and we had like three sentences that we said. They kept telling us, “Please, please just say what’s on the screen.” They didn’t want us to go rogue.
So when did talk of a reunion first commence? Probably a couple weeks after we first started talking. I dunno, maybe it was longer than that. But I remember sitting in our studio–me, Travis and Tom [DeLonge, guitar]–and we were just talking and hanging out. Tom had just kind of come out to L.A. for the day, and I remember he said, “So, what do you guys think? Where are your heads at” And I said, “I think we should continue with what we’ve been doing for the past 17 years. I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing.”
Was that verbatim? I don’t know if that’s exactly what I said. But it was something like that.
Was that feeling mutual or was there some trepidation? There wasn’t any trepidation. I think all of us had come to the point that we wanted to continue with what we started. It was just a natural thing. It’s been, knock wood, a really positive experience so far. Everybody’s in a really good place, everybody is really supportive of each other and it’s probably the most supportive we’ve been as a band in a really, really long time.
What was the first song that you guys played once you got back together in one room? We still haven’t. We haven’t been in the same room playing instruments together at the same time. The way that we’re writing songs now is coming up with different ideas. We’re still in the beginning stages of writing the album. We have a handful of songs that we have in many stages. I have probably 10 different song ideas that I’ve brought to the table, and Tom has a bunch of ideas, and Travis has ideas. So we kind of start off with something that maybe I’ll work on in the studio for a while and I’ll show it to Tom and he’ll jump on that. Same with Travis. But we haven’t sat down as a band together and been three people in a room playing the songs together.
Is that strange for you? No, it’s just kind of the way that recording works now, and the way that we work as artists. It was like that on the last Blink record, too. We had played some of the songs together live, some of the songs we wrote parts of and kind of built songs and played as a unit afterwards. And I’m sure that we will continue to write songs. It’s really cool to have both tools at hand, where you can get in a room and everybody works together on things or you can go and just basically sketch out a song and build it from there. There’s a lot of tools that we can use creatively. I guess that’s a long answer.
Producer Jerry Finn, who passed away last year, was obviously a huge part of your band over the past decade. How have you guys broached the idea of recording a new record without him? To be honest, we were just in the studio right now going through old Blink songs and just remembering Jerry being in the studio with us. I honestly still feel like he’s in the studio with us, because for me, personally, everything that was about recording and being in a studio, I learned from Jerry. He was such an amazing producer and friend and collaborator and he was so open with his knowledge and his love of music and the way that things worked. He wasn’t a producer who sat in the background and did his thing or whatever. He was always just right in the mix with everything. He really was generous with his knowledge, and I feel like we learned everything from working with him. So I still feel like he’s with us.
A huge part of why you guys reconnected was Travis’ plane crash, but was there any initial conversations after Jerry passed? Not really. We’ve talked at great lengths, obviously, about Jerry’s passing. When Jerry’s service was, Travis was still in the hospital and not able to go, so I was the only one that was actually able to be there.
Looking at the music that both you and Tom have made since Blink went on hiatus, is there a specific song that Tom wrote that jumped out at you as a really good song? I thought that “The Adventure” was a really cool song. I thought that was a cool jam.
How long did it take for you to listen to Angels & Airwaves objectively after it came out? The first time I heard it I feel like I listened to it objectively. With all the other stuff aside, as a fan of music and as a fan of Tom’s music, I hope I was able to listen to it objectively.
Are the new Blink-182 songs you’re working just general song ideas, or did you think of them specifically for Blink? The songs that I’m bringing to the table are song ideas that I’ve been working on for the past couple of years. I think that it’s the same with Tom and Travis as well. And that’s kind of how we’ve always worked-everyone brings their initial ideas to the table, but the magic happens when the other two people get their hands on an idea and change it into something better than it was. That’s something I’ve always loved about Blink: I can have an idea and the final result is so different from where I thought the song was going. The way that Travis deals with arrangements and rhythms and different ideas that he brings to the table is something that I would never think of. It takes all of our ideas to a higher level. Same with Tom. He’ll come up with an idea for a song and for me, personally, if I write something, I love handing it to Tom and Travis and seeing what they do with it. That’s the strength. There’s this battle within Blink-182 with these ideas and what everyone brings to the table, and there’s this tension–not in a negative way–but this pulling of ideas between the three of us that’s exciting to me.
Is there a previous Blink-182 album that you’re guiding this album toward? I think we’re all in the mind space of anything is possible with this record. It’s just like we felt with the last Blink record. If we want to write a song that’s inspired by electronic stuff, we’ll go that way. We still love playing straightforward rock songs on drums, bass and guitar, so there’ll always be a lot of that. We’re not really feeling really restricted in any way, and that’s what felt really great about the last Blink record. I think this will be a continuation of that.
When do you think the first performance will be? I don’t know yet. We’re talking about touring this summer. We’re still working on that. I don’t know when the exact first date will be. We’re actually just this week starting to get into the phone calls and conversations about where our first show will be and how that’s all gonna come together. It’s really exciting for the three of us to be back in this world and doing what we love and doing what we’ve been doing for so long.
Back in December, Forever The Sickest Kids announced at one of their shows that they’ll be back next year with Blink-182. FTSK singer Jonathan Cook later announced that it was just a joke. Was he in the know, or was that just a complete coincidence? That was just a complete coincidence.
Have you heard that band? I have not. I’ve heard a lot about that comment and whether we were going to be touring with them, but I have not been able to listen to the band yet. It seems like I don’t listen to a lot of new music lately, and I’m kind of ashamed of that. I kind of stick with a few CDs that I love and I end up listening to those over and over again.
Are you still a CD man or have you gone over to digital? I’m totally digital. I haven’t bought an actual, hard CD in a couple of years. I buy everything through iTunes pretty much.
Have you made an official decision on what the future of (+44) will be? I don’t consider it done. We’ll never say never with anything. As soon as you say, “I’m not gonna do that anymore,” you find yourself in a situation where you wanna do that. Shane [Gallagher] and Craig [Fairbaugh] are awesome guitarists and great fun to play in a band with, so we definitely won’t say that the band is done. But obviously, for the foreseeable future, all of our energy is going into Blink-182. This isn’t a temporary thing. We aren’t even calling it a reunion. It’s more of a continuation. When I hear a band are doing a reunion, it just sounds fake to me, and that’s not how we are with this. Everybody’s putting 100 percent of their effort into continuing what we’ve always done. It’s not like we’re just gonna do a tour and then call it for a while and then do another tour and then call it for a while. We’re just continuing Blink-182 as we always have.
Ideally, when would you like to have the new record out? Hopefully in 2009. That’s what we’re talking about and everything is moving so much faster than I ever even imagined that it could possibly happen. A couple months ago we were barely talking and now we’re six songs into a new album and planning a tour and things seem to be falling into place. So I don’t know when the record will actually be out. We’re still discovering. It’s been very comfortable to be back working as our band–as Blink-182. It’s gonna be a process, but it’s been a very positive process. We don’t feel pressured to have an album out by a certain date. We’re just gonna record on our own terms until we have album that we absolutely love.
Is there any goal from the first incarnation of Blink-182 that you really want to get to the second time around? That’s a difficult question because everything we achieved with Blink-182 is a thousand times more than any of us thought was possible. We really always feel lucky to be able to do what we do on our own terms and that we’ve always been able to handle our band that way. We just want to continue writing great music and touring and playing fun shows and doing what we’re doing and have a great time as friends. That’s the highest goal that any of us have ever had for the band
These skin pounders keep the frenzied rhythms on tilt.
by Carlos Ramirez
February 13, 2009 - Historically speaking, music journalists haven’t been known for pointing out the musicianship in punk rock. For some reason there’s always been this stigma that the sound didn’t really require all that much talent to perform.
Sure, a lot of the appeal punk had in the beginning was that you didn’t need to be a maestro at your instrument to play it. It was a reactionary move in stark contrast to the popular progressive (Genesis, ELP, Yes) and arena rock (Crosby, Stills, and Nash, The Eagles) bands of the time.
As punk started developing, the guidelines for what the genre actually meant began to widen. Players started coming into the scene who had been playing in everything from jazz to rockabilly bands and that’s when things got really exciting. Besides, why shouldn’t punk rock have incredible musicians too?
IGN has put together a list of 10 great punk drummers who should get highlighted for their stellar work and influence on genre (and music in general).
Some of the guys on the list are millionaires while some still have to work day jobs to pay the rent so we’ve run the entire gamut. Let us know what you think…we can take it.
Bill Stevenson The Descendents/ALL/Black Flag/Only Crime/The Lemonheads
This punk rock veteran is one of the most creative players you’ll find in the genre. Being clever and gifted in his own right, Stevenson knows how to truly serve a song while always keeping things interesting. His early work with The Descendents has influenced legions of punk drummers and his more recent performances with ALL and Only Crime prove that he’s always injecting his style with new flavor and techniques. These days he’s been concentrating more time on producing acts like Rise Against but here’s to hoping Stevenson gets back on the drum throne sooner than later.
Although he’s become a reality show star and tabloid target in the last few years, that doesn’t mean Travis Barker still isn’t one of the greatest drummers the punk world has yet to birth. In the span of a 3-minute pop/punk song, he’ll rock as hard as a death metal drummer in one section while flipping it over to a jazz styled backbeat the next. His fluidity knows no boundaries. It’s no wonder he looks up to forward-thinking musicians like Stewart Copeland (The Police) for inspiration. If you really want to hear Barker let loose, seek out Blink-182’s The Mark, Tom and Travis Show. On the disc it’s almost like someone told the guy he had one night left to play before he died; it’s that relentless.
Earl Hudson Bad Brains
Hudson’s wild playing style has been informed by reggae, go-go music, and even heavy metal but his early material is pure punk rage. On their seminal self-titled debut album he lets loose with little mercy but there’s always a steadiness lurking behind it all. On songs like “Banned In D.C.” and “Sailin’ On,” Hudson sometimes seems like the only guy in the band gluing the chaos together. The way he locks in with bassist Daryl Jenifer on the more mid-tempo sections also shows he was capable of way more than just balls-out velocity.
Tre Cool Green Day/Foxboro Hot Tubs
Punk went multi-platinum crazy in the ’90s and Green Day were one of the biggest reasons for it. Everyone knows Billy Joe Armstrong is a wonderful singer/songwriter but rarely do you see anyone talk about GD’s drummer, Tr? Cool. Record after record Cool lays down track after flawless track of pop/punk gold. It’s his attention to detail that makes him so important to the California band. He never gets in the way of the group’s gigantic hooks but he sneaks in interesting little flourishes that always make the songs better. What more can a band want?
Josh Freese The Vandals + a lot of other bands and session work
Freese is one the most sought after session drummers in rock today. Some of his credits include Nine Inch Nails, The Offspring, and Guns N’ Roses among countless others. But Freese got on the map in the first place through his work with punk jokesters The Vandals. On albums like Hitler Bad, Vandals Good he proves that even lighthearted punk rock doesn’t have to feature lightweight playing. His footwork is impeccable and his metronome-like is nothing short of dazzling. Freese truly earns the big money his drumming has brought him.
Tommy Ramone The Ramones
Where else would most of the drummers on this list be without Tommy Ramone? The Queens, NY legend pretty much wrote the blueprint that 9 out of 10 punk drummers follow to this day whether they know it or not. Ramone took the raw and loose feel of his garage-rock origins and coupled it with the speed kicked guitars of bandmate Johnny Ramone and helped invent an entire style of music. If you don’t own the first three Ramones albums, your punk collection just isn’t complete yet.
Jordan Burns Strung Out
Any metalheads reading this who question whether punk drummers can throw down definitely need to check Jordan Burns out. His catalog of work with Strung Out will satisfy even the staunchest critics. His precision never wavers; even during the fastest and most frenzied moments. Where a lot of their peers slow down and simplify their material with age, Burns and Strung Out seem to do the complete opposite. On 2007’s Blackhawks Over Los Angeles the band stepped further into their marriage of punk and speed-metal influenced technicality coming out with the most exciting songs of their career. They couldn’t have done it without a pro like Burns keeping it all together.
Dave Wagenschutz Lifetime/Kid Dynamite/Paint It Black/Good Riddance/Ink & Dagger
One of the hardest hitters on this list, Wagenschutz has cut his teeth with some of the most celebrated punk bands of the last 10-15 years. Everything about his style is no-nonsense. Some of his performances even border on primal. He might not be name-checked in interviews all that often but that doesn’t mean his work on essential albums from Kid Dynamite and Good Riddance hasn’t helped an army of Warped Tour drummers learn their trade. Maybe it’s his difficult to pronounce last name or that fact that none of his bands have had a hit record, but this punk rocker deserves some respect.
Pete Finestone Bad Religion
Throughout the mid to late ’90s the “Fat Wreck” sound was all the rage. The tag was named after the bands who recorded for the Fat Wreck Chords label, namely Lagwagon, No Use For A Name, and Strung Out. Most of the drummers in these outfits grew up on a steady diet of Bad Religion. The L.A. band fought through the ’80s while most of the bands they were surrounded with were playing pop kissed hard-rock, these old-schoolers stubbornly let their punk flag fly. Bad Religion’s drummer throughout the entire period was Pete Finestone. Sure, the guy was never on the cover of Modern Drummer or anything but his hypersonic playing style has been copied so many times he should be getting some kind of special royalty for it.
Nicky “Topper” Headon The Clash
The Clash really understood the rebel spirit of punk. In true middle finger fashion, the UK troublemakers never stuck with any one sound for very long. In their short but brilliant career they would go on to help introduce brigades of disenchanted listeners to reggae, Latin-jazz, hip-hop, and whatever else songwriters Mick Jones and Joe Strummer felt like injecting into their songs. There weren’t many drummers who would be up to the task of following whatever style those two songwriters threw at them. But Nicky “Topper” Headon seemed to revel in the challenge. His pedigreed influences certainly helped his confidence. When you grow up and you’re favorite drummer is Billy Cobham (Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra), you’re definitely on the right track. Unfortunately Headon would be kicked out of the band for his drug use in 1982 but not before he would leave a legacy of thrilling drum performances behind.
“So this is a picture of what happens when your” ulner nerve” is compressed by your “guyons canal”. The procedure i just had released my ulner nerve in hopes that i can feel my left hand and fingers again.The doctors say this happened on “impact” or could be cause because of the heat of the burns. Dr. Kulber performed my surgery and was really kool, and thanks for the pictures Doc. See you all in about 8-10 weeks”
-Travis
***courtesy of www.182online.com (travis’ blog)***
Revisiting the trio makes our rock writer feel like a fan again, in Bigger Than the Sound.
By James Montgomery
I’ll be the first to admit that I am irrationally excited about the possibilities of a Blink-182 reunion. There are many reasons for this, almost all of which fly directly in the face of why I became a rock writer in the first place. So, naturally, in addition to being irrationally excited by the prospects of a reunited Blink, I am also irrationally terrified by them. This is a complicated matter. These kinds of things usually are.
See, I grew up a Blink fan. I had Cheshire Cat before they added the “-182″ to the cover. I used to blare “Wasting Time” in my 1988 Caprice Classic and put it on a mixtape for my high school girlfriend. When Dude Ranch came out in ‘97, I had split up with said girlfriend under less-than-ideal circumstances and enrolled at a sh–ty community college, so I was really into “Dammit,” as this was clearly the nadir of my life.
By the time Enema of the State came out, I had moved on to a new girl and a new college, and I wasn’t as into Blink anymore (I was into more importantthe video stuff, like the Party of Helicopters), but I still appreciated the singles and the videos. The same thing repeated itself — to a lesser degree — with each subsequent release. I distanced myself from them, because Blink-182 were a stupid pop-punk act. I was an indie-rock guy. I was a budding rock critic, which means I was growing old and jaded. Clearly there was no room in my life for the blissed-out stupidity of something like “First Date” (though was amazing.)
As the years went by, I forgot about Blink. I built up my hatreds, little by little (just like Daniel Plainview!). I bought Velvet Underground records. I became cynical and mean and started smoking clove cigarettes and using expressions like “seminal” and “post-rock.” I became a rock journalist. And I forgot what it was like to be a fan.
Over the past few years, as I got older and more established (snicker), those negative qualities only grew. Partially because, as a rock journalist, I felt it was my duty to point out why I thought Britney Spears was made of adamantium or why Soulja Boy Tell’em was the greatest performance artist of our generation. I believed that everything had to mean something … or else it was meaningless. Garbage. Not art.
When I reported that Blink were going on “indefinite hiatus” in 2005, I did so as a journalist, not a fan. When I began e-mailing with Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus, I treated them as sources, not as the creators of some of the most important songs of my really dumb years. This is sort of a shame, in retrospect.
Because when Blink announced they were reuniting, with plans for a new album and a tour, something snapped inside me. I was overcome with a wave of positivity, of unbridled excitement. It was sort of frightening, to be honest. After thinking about it for a few days, I came to the realization that there is absolutely nothing negative I can say about a reunited Blink-182. And coming from a guy who trades almost exclusively in the negative, that means something.
I’ve relistened to all my old Blink records. The early stuff is still great, and I’ve found a new appreciation for Enema and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Their self-(un?)-titled fifth album — the much-discussed “mature” one — is really great. Even the +44 album was better this time around; it sort of sounds like their fifth album, only without DeLonge’s singing, which is to say that it’s pretty great in its own right. I even made it through both Angels & Airwaves records, and while I found … actually, screw it, they’re OK with me too.
It’s a new era: one of positivity, one of unbridled fandom. Perhaps the reunited Blink will serve as a beacon of light, cutting through the dark fog of negativity that envelops me and pretty much this entire industry. Or maybe they’ll just call their new album Boner Jams. Either way, it’s fine with me.
Because the Blink reunion is a good thing. It will be liberating. It will remind me of what it’s like to be a fan again, of why I got into the business of writing about music in the first place. It will give me something to talk to my 16-year-old nephew about. Perhaps I will no longer be a curmudgeonly rock journo. I will ditch “seminal” from my vocabulary (”chops” and “twee” too). I will be positive. I will be excited.
Who knows? Clearly, though, the stakes are high. So Mr. Hoppus, Mr. DeLonge, Mr. Barker, I urge you to tread lightly. Let’s be careful … let’s remember that you’re playing with my emotions. Let’s make this last forever (and ever).
