Tunnel 10
MARTY MCMASTERS died today, April 7th, at around 2:00 in the A.M. He was 42. Drummer for the band Tunnel 10, who rose to moderate fame in the U.S. and parts of Europe during the early 90’s, McMasters decided to take his life into his own hands. In other words, he killed himself. Dead by a self-inflicted gun shot wound.
A private memorial service will be held on Saturday in Virginia Beach, VA. It is expected to be attended by the likes of Geddy Lee, Dave Grohl and Larry Mullen Junior (who is taking precious time off from U2’s Vertigo tour to pay his respects.)
Tunnel 10 has not had an album out since 1999 and there have been questions in the press for some time as to whether there would ever be new material released. The lead guitarist for the band, known only as Automatic, made a statement to the press in 2002, promising that their long-fabled album of earlier material and demos, Chinese Republicans, was completed and that Tunnel 10 was merely working out some logistics with their record label. However, this has been disputed countless times by the label, claiming that this record of “mystery material” does not exist. And let’s be honest, we, the general public, have still not seen song number one.
While Automatic confesses that he has had no official contact with McMasters since 2002, the other remaining member of Tunnel 10, bassist and keyboardist, Zoy Quoi, was in communication with him up until 2 days ago.
“I have no idea why he did it. As far as I could tell, Marty was fine. We were talking about finding distribution for the album. A possible tour. Things were great. At least, I thought they were.”
When asked whether McMasters suffered from depression, (the leading cause of suicide), Quoi said, “Absolutely not! Marty was so even keel. He never did any drugs either. He was clean. The man was practically a saint.”
Even if Chinese Republicans is released, (which now I am positive it will be, given the fact that dead people sell lots of albums), we will probably never know what was going through the mind and heart of Marty McMasters. Those mysteries are for God to sort out. What we do know is that the rock world lost a genius today. I guess the statement that nobody alive could hold the beat on a song like “The Salvation Navy” really holds true now.
Even though the band was never able to keep it together past a span of 5 short years and 2 albums, they were an amazing five years in the world of popular music. And even though today brings the sad news that McMasters couldn’t keep it together himself and felt he had to resort to suicide to solve his problems, we can’t help but feel sorry for him. I only hope that whatever demons plagued him, they have now been absolved. Rest in Peace.
A private memorial service will be held on Saturday in Virginia Beach, VA. It is expected to be attended by the likes of Geddy Lee, Dave Grohl and Larry Mullen Junior (who is taking precious time off from U2’s Vertigo tour to pay his respects.)
Tunnel 10 has not had an album out since 1999 and there have been questions in the press for some time as to whether there would ever be new material released. The lead guitarist for the band, known only as Automatic, made a statement to the press in 2002, promising that their long-fabled album of earlier material and demos, Chinese Republicans, was completed and that Tunnel 10 was merely working out some logistics with their record label. However, this has been disputed countless times by the label, claiming that this record of “mystery material” does not exist. And let’s be honest, we, the general public, have still not seen song number one.
While Automatic confesses that he has had no official contact with McMasters since 2002, the other remaining member of Tunnel 10, bassist and keyboardist, Zoy Quoi, was in communication with him up until 2 days ago.
“I have no idea why he did it. As far as I could tell, Marty was fine. We were talking about finding distribution for the album. A possible tour. Things were great. At least, I thought they were.”
When asked whether McMasters suffered from depression, (the leading cause of suicide), Quoi said, “Absolutely not! Marty was so even keel. He never did any drugs either. He was clean. The man was practically a saint.”
Even if Chinese Republicans is released, (which now I am positive it will be, given the fact that dead people sell lots of albums), we will probably never know what was going through the mind and heart of Marty McMasters. Those mysteries are for God to sort out. What we do know is that the rock world lost a genius today. I guess the statement that nobody alive could hold the beat on a song like “The Salvation Navy” really holds true now.
Even though the band was never able to keep it together past a span of 5 short years and 2 albums, they were an amazing five years in the world of popular music. And even though today brings the sad news that McMasters couldn’t keep it together himself and felt he had to resort to suicide to solve his problems, we can’t help but feel sorry for him. I only hope that whatever demons plagued him, they have now been absolved. Rest in Peace.
posted by The Passenger at 8:57 AM
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