The Depressing Case of Richey Edwards

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The Depressing Case of Richey Edwards If you asked even the most passionate American music buff who Richey Edwards was the answer would most likely be a resounding “I’m sorry, who?”. However, in the United Kingdom he is known as the lead guitarist and musical genius behind the notorious Welsh band, the Manic Street Preachers. He also suffered a terrible array of demons that can be derived from clinical depression. “People say to the mentally ill, ‘You know so many people think the world of you.’ But when they don’t like themselves they don’t notice anything. They don’t care about what people think of them. When you hate yourself, whatever people say it doesn’t make sense. ‘Why do they like me? Why do they care about me?’ Because you don’t care about yourself at all.” Whether Edwards realized it or not, he never tried to hide his depression from the public as shown in the above statement, often using his music to express himself. Culture, alienation, boredom, and despair were themes that remained constant in Edward’s music; although one could argue that his lyrics were the subtle signs. It was Edward’s very public shows of self-mutilation that made his depression most apparent. One of his most notorious moments came in 1993 during a show in Bangkok, Edwards removed his shirt to display brutal slashes across his chest after being given a cutlery set by a fan. Another notable moment was when Edwards carved “4Real” into his arm with a razor blade in front a reporter who dared to question Edward’s artistic convictions. Fellow band mate, James Dean Bradfield once described the consequences of Edward’s actions in terms of the band’s image he stated “The bad thing is, you don’t only feed your own self-image you want to feed other images people have of you,” On a personal level, Richey Edwards proved each day the façade that many of Edward’s naysayers claimed his

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