He was a terrible musician, his guitar and keyboard skills were elementary at best, but he wrote with passion. He had struggles with severe mental illness.
When he was living in Austin (hanging with the Butthole Surfers) it got really bad, so his dad flew down to Austin in his prop plane to carry him home to West Virginia. In mid-flight, Daniel turned the engine off and threw the key out the window. His father had to crash land the plane.
All this is past tense. So, is it safe to assume he's dead?
I'm convinced that many, many professional artists have mental health issues. You've got to be at least a little crazy to be in the industry.
He died of a heart attack a couple of years ago.
He had been raised backwoods Christian in WV. In his teens he fell in love with Laurie, but when she married the local undertaker, it destroyed his world. He began to see his life as the struggle of Good vs Evil, and felt satan was fucking with him.
He moved off to family in Austin to get over his heartbreak, and started handing out homemade tapes of his songs to anyone that would take it. The tapes were completely diy and lo-fi, just him with a chord organ and a guitar, recorded on a jam box (two for overdubs). There were songs about Laurie, Casper the Friendly Ghost, motorcycles and his heroes The Beatles (youtube.com).
He played open mics, and eventually---Austin being the weird culture that it is---he was embraced by the locals. Not because he was a good singer or a good musician, but because his songs were so different. And when MTV came to town in the mid '80s, DJ got on national tv.
In the early cassettes, you can hear the illness. (youtube.com)
He recorded an album in New York called "1990", right before he snapped. You can hear the imminent breakdown in the songs, especially the live tracks. (youtu.be)
He was an artist as well, with a cartoon style. I believe his estate is handled by his uncle. https://www.hihowareyou.com/
The whole thing is this: a mentally ill guy threw a bunch of unfinished songs out there that likely sounded completed in his head. Other people hear those songs, and express them in a more complete manner than DJ ever could.
Fwiw years later, Laurie said she barely recalled DJ and never knew he was infatuated with her.
I might have to have a look at some of his material and put my own touch on it. I do the same for people like Dylan. Sure, I can play it just like Dylan, or I can actually make it 'better'.
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