Report: Late SLIPKNOT Bassist Was Patient Of Doctor Charged In Prescription Drug Deaths
According to DesMoinesRegister.com, a Des Moines physician has been charged with eight counts of involuntary manslaughter for allegedly prescribing large amounts of narcotic painkillers to patients who later died of overdoses, including SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray (pictured below).
Daniel Baldi, who helped run an Iowa Health System pain clinic, is accused of unintentionally causing the death of Paul Gray by writing "high-dose prescription narcotics to a known drug addict" starting on December 27, 2005, according to charging documents released at the doctor's court hearing today.
The doctor's lawyer, Guy Cook, told DesMoinesRegister.com his client plans to vigorously fight the charges.
"It is unprecedented to turn unfortunate deaths or medical results into a crime against a doctor," the lawyer said. "Unexpected deaths can occur in severe, chronic pain patients, unrelated to medical treatment. This is especially true with patients who are drug addicts or drug abusers."
Gray passed away more than two years ago from an accidental overdose of drugs, leaving behind his wife Brenna and daughter October
Brenna Gray revealed in a 2011 interview with Revolver that her husband had agreed to get help for his drug problem just one day before he died on May 24, 2010. Brenna, who said she had dealt with Paul's drug issues several times over the years, explained, "I realized what was going on when I found things at home — then he passed away that Sunday. So I really had no time to make a move. On the Saturday I said, 'Hey, we need to do something. We need to fix this.' He agreed. He was getting ready to go out on tour with (side project) HAIL! and he said, 'I'll go get help after this tour.' But I said, 'You're not going.' I called his manager and told him to cancel. But I think it was a little too late."
Paul was found dead in a hotel room in a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa, where he and SLIPKNOT were based. He was 38 years old.
Brenna said she didn't know what led her husband to drugs, but thinks it had something to do with his childhood. She revealed that his father, who committed suicide, was also a drug addict, adding, "I never pushed him to talk about it because it was such a burden to him.."
The young widow also said she was shocked by some of the public reaction to Paul's death, saying, "If he could have controlled (his addiction), he would have. He wanted to be done with it. But it's a life-long disease — even if he stayed clean for the rest of his life he'd still have had the disease."
SLIPKNOT co-founder/conceptualist/percussionist Shawn M. Crahan(a.k.a. Clown) told The Pulse Of Radio he tuned out the negative comments people made after his bandmate's death. "I had to finally release myself of any of it, you know. I had to void myself of what people were saying," he said. "I mean, anything that was said negative doesn't even register, because anybody that wants to spend any time on the negative, you know, they're just going to have to deal with it with their own life, when their own father or mother or aunt or brother or sister dies. You're going to have to deal with the negative because it just comes along with death."
Paul and Brenna's daughter, October, was born three months after her father's death. Brenna said, "She went through a phase where she looked just like him . . . She has his smile: she has these huge dimples and when she smiles, that's Paul right there."
SLIPKNOT's SHAWN CRAHAN Reacts To Charges Against PAUL GRAY's Doctor
SLIPKNOT co-founder/conceptualist/percussionist Shawn M. Crahan(a.k.a. Clown; pictured below) spoke to DesMoinesRegister.com about the involuntary manslaughter charges brought against a Des Moines, Iowa, doctor today (Wednesday, September 5) in connection with the death of the band's bassist, Paul Gray. Physician Daniel Baldi is accused of prescribing large amounts of narcotic painkillers to patients who later died of overdoses, including Gray.
Asked about the charges against Baldi, Crahan said, "None of it is going to bring back our brother Paul."
He added, "This epidemic of this sort of activity is becoming more and more … evident. It truly is becoming a problem amongst people. And it trickles all the way down to the youth. And awareness needs to be brought about."
Crahan made it clear that he was referring to "not only substance abuse but the ability to acquire substances, to get chemicals and the efficiency of it."
"Hopefully justice will be served," he said.
According to charging documents released at the doctor's court hearing today, Baldi is believed to have unintentionally caused the death of Paul Gray by writing "high-dose prescription narcotics to a known drug addict" starting on December 27, 2005.
Paul was found dead in a hotel room in May 2010 in a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa, leaving behind his wife Brenna and daughter October. He was 38 years old.
Source: Blabbermouth
MTV Video Music Awards Airs Thursday Night Featuring Green Day Performance
While Young the Giant rocked last year’s MTV Video Music Awards with their performance of “My Body,” this year the spotlight belongs to Green Day. According to MTV.com, the band is expected to perform new songs from their upcoming trilogy of albums, ¡Uno!,¡Dos! and ¡Tré! on Thursday night’s show, which begins at 8 p.m. ET/PT. In the past, the show has started at 9 p.m. but has been moved ahead an hour this year so as not to conflict with President Obama's speech Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
As usual, the nominees are mostly pop, hip-hop and R&B, but there are a fair few rock acts in the mix, most notably fun. The band's up for Best New Artist and Best Pop Video for their hit single "We Are Young," featuring Janelle Monáe. In the Best Rock Video category, The Black Keys will go up against Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Jack Whiteand Linkin Park. Gotye will be battling it out for the top award, Video of the Year, for "Somebody That I Used to Know" against videos from M.I.A., Katy Perry and Drake and Rihanna. If you're judging by number of Internet spoofs, Gotye would win the category hands down. And believe it or not, the eye-catching clip, which features the Australian singer and his duet partner Kimbra naked and covered with interlocking colored squares of paint, wasn't as difficult to film as you might think.
"I took a lot of concentration and...standing still just for very long periods and focusing for long periods," Gotye tells ABC News Radio. "But, in the end, you know, I'd do it again. It was enjoyable."
Gotye didn't even mind being covered in paint while nude. "It wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it might be," he recalls. "It was actually very thin, water-based paint. So, it wasn't...weird and tickly or difficult to keep on the skin for hours as I thought."
Tune in to see who'll take home those Moonmen trophies on Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Here are a few of the nominees: Video of the Year
Drake f/ Rihanna, "Take Care"
Gotye, "Somebody That I Used to Know"
Katy Perry, "Wide Awake"
M.I.A., "Bad Girls"
Rihanna, "We Found Love" Best Pop Video
fun. f/ Janelle Monáe, "We Are Young"
Justin Bieber, "Boyfriend"
Maroon 5 f/ Wiz Khalifa, "Payphone"
One Direction, "What Makes You Beautiful"
Rihanna, "We Found Love" Best Rock Video
The Black Keys, "Lonely Boy"
Coldplay, "Paradise"
Imagine Dragons, "It's Time"
Jack White, "Sixteen Saltines"
Linkin Park, "Burn It Down" Best New Artist
Carly Rae Jepsen, "Call Me Maybe"
Frank Ocean, "Swim Good"
fun. f/ Janelle Monáe, "We Are Young"
One Direction, "What Makes You Beautiful"
The Wanted, "Glad You Came"
Muse Provides Soundtrack to Subway Battle in "Madness" Video
Muse has unveiled the new video for “Madness,” the first single from their sixth studio album, The 2nd Law. The video’s storyline focuses on a couple wandering through a subway station as an angry mob fight an army of police in riot gear. In addition, the clip also features scenes of the band performing the song using futuristic instruments.
You’ll get your first chance to hear the song played live when the band takes the stage later this month as part of the iTunes Festival. The band is scheduled to perform at London’s Roundhouse on September 30, just two days before the release of The 2nd Law.
Deftones Go “Back to Basics” for Koi No Yokan
Deftones fans can expect the band to head for familiar territory on their upcoming seventh studio album, Koi No Yokan, due in stores on November 13. Frontman Chino Moreno says the band has refined their songwriting process so their new album will sound more like their earlier work.
"Our goal was to kind of rebuild what we created over all the years,” Moreno tellsNoisecreep. “We'd taken so much time between records, had some inner turmoil, and our records were starting to get pieced together versus really being created together, so for us it was a chance to get back to basics.”
Moreno added that Chi Cheng -- the band’s bassist who's still hospitalized in a minimally conscious state after receiving a critical head injury in a car accident in November of 2008 -- was always present in their thoughts during the recording sessions for Koi No Yokan.
“The whole band feels very strongly about him and he's always been a part of things,” explains the singer. “The main thing we try to do is keep a positive attitude because it's not like he died -- it's more or less he's still alive and fighting and we all have hope -- that's the way we handle things."
