Corey Feldman on the Today Show

[Goblin19]

Not great, but I've seen worse performances from established pop stars.

[huedell]

[MIB41]

^^^ That was a good interview. That certainly gave me a different perspective to consider. Thanks for posting Huedell.

[Brazoo]

Yeah, Feldman has had 30+ years experience creating music — he even tried to involve music/dance into his pet movie projects. He is obviously dedicated to music and dance. But, so what? Lots of people are. His celebrity status has also given him nearly every advantage over other artists in that whole time.

To be honest I don't even care much about how he justifies his clownish behaviour - the thing that really bothers me in Feldman's statements in this interview is what he said about Corey Haim. It's very dishonest and white-washes Haim's reputation for very shallow reasons, in my opinion.

It's tragic that Haim's mother had to bury her son, it's a terrible thing nobody should have to go through, but instead of using her son's struggle with drugs to promote some awareness for issues related to prescription drug abuse she's been fighting allegations that he died because of drugs out of some bizarre vanity. She's got a whole long history of shallow and sick behavior, and I don't have much respect for her, but this aspect of her personality really bothers me. She could be trying to help people, but she's only interested in her own reputation.

Haim's toxicology report didn't show drugs in his system at the time of his death, but all the other symptoms that contributed to his death can be linked to a verified longterm struggle with drug addition. Feldman purposefully mentions Haim's pneumonia and alveolar damage, but leaves out the artery damage and heart enlarging that were also major contributors to Haim's death.

When Haim was found police also found fraudulent prescription pads and unauthorized prescription pills. The investigation involved dozens of doctors he conned and connections to a large prescription drug ring. Investigators concluded that Haim obtained THOUSANDS of pills over the last year of his life.

Haim is one of two people who I knew that died because of prescription drug abuse, and parallel stories are painfully mind boggling. MUCH MUCH more needs to be done about this.

Health professionals have been saying for years that there are too many assumptions about cause of death based on toxicology reports alone, that one of the reasons the opiate epidemic is so bad is that people tend to only look at direct causation and not longterm damage.

Sorry if I brought down the mood of this thread a bit, but this interview really depressed me. 6 years later and how many more prominent deaths have to happen before people start talking more seriously about prescription pill addiction?

[huedell]

Yeah, Feldman has had 30+ years experience creating music — he even tried to involve music/dance into his pet movie projects. He is obviously dedicated to music and dance. But, so what? Lots of people are. His celebrity status has also given him nearly every advantage over other artists in that whole time.

And we all need every advantage we can GET.

As far as the "prescription pills/Haim death" thing.... it IS a serious subject (and wouldn't be surprised if they contributed to my OWN death).... but, I'm not gonna judge Feldman on using his on-air time as he sees fit (especially after the recent debacle).... and, yes, to concurrently suffer the criticism of his on-air actions, I suppose (just as before). So, have at him if that's your game.

^^^ That was a good interview. That certainly gave me a different perspective to consider. Thanks for posting Huedell.

Sincere welcome to you MIB... I, too, found that interview to be interestingly complimentary to the previous footage and discussion.

Not everyone will attempt to give artists' a certain leeway to "fail" (so to speak), and I can be a harsh judge myself, but I have a lot of creative passion in me and, so I try (viciously sometimes) to examine the "darker side" of skill vs. bravery in art... and all that related jazz

[Brazoo]

And we all need every advantage we can GET.

I totally agree with you, I think the point I was trying to make wasn't clear. I don't begrudge him using his celebrity status to his advantage at all. Normally an artist builds a career with smaller shows and gains a following before they get an opportunity to be on national TV - there's a chance to get critiques, try out what works and what doesn't, grow creatively. Personally, I don't think years of practice alone does it, even 30 years worth, I think an artists misses that growth from feedback when they skip some of the steps, and I don't think a real artist should shield themselves from criticism just because it stings.

Though, some of the criticism was excessively cruel. He's just singing and dancing - he's not stabbing kittens.

As far as the "prescription pills/Haim death" thing.... it IS a serious subject (and wouldn't be surprised if they contributed to my OWN death).... but, I'm not gonna judge Feldman on using his on-air time as he sees fit (especially after the recent debacle).... and, yes, to concurrently suffer the criticism of his on-air actions, I suppose (just as before). So, have at him if that's your game.

Again, I think my point wasn't clear. I probably shouldn't have said anything, to be honest. I wasn't trying to have at him — so thanks for calling me out on that a bit and making me re-think my tone. I don't even think Feldman's a bad guy and I was probably just reacting a bit too quickly after the interview set me off a bit.

Without going into more details please keep in mind I think we all do stuff that's bad for us on some way or another, none of us is perfect. 39 is just too damn young. I didn't mean to get preachy, or whatever. It's just sad and gets me a bit angry.