Jeff Tweedy Has Migraines
Ever go to a Wilco show and watch Jeff Tweedy puke sidestage, and just assume it was the drugs? OK you may have been right about that. But also there's a chance you were making an ass out of u and me; today thanks to LHB we are reminded that Jeff Tweedy is a life-long migraine sufferer, via his guest post on the New York Times migraine blog. Also, today we learn the New York Times has a migraine blog. NYT's been good to Jeff Tweedy the writer (remember when he confessed his dreams of being a rock critic and wrote a column for the paper about his favorite new bands?).
So this is some soul baring stuff, though -- Jeff's had a rough go with migraines (and panic disorder) since childhood; his post reads like a migraine memoir, tracing his confusion and pain as a young boy and how that shaped his issues later in life. We learn that it shaped A Ghost Is Born's "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" and "Less Than You Think (which "ends with a 12-minute drone that was an attempt to express the slow painful rise and dissipation of migraine in music"), helped him justify his drug use ("for me, having very real physical pain was a very easy way to convince myself (and a lot of doctors) that there was something different about me"), and perhaps the saddest fact of all: "[That people assumed he was] completely out of my mind on drugs or strung out ... didn't have any kind of long term impact on how people perceived the band, though. Crazy in my business, that sort of thing is considered an asset. Sick but true."
Posted at 4:44 PM
Tags: Wilco
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This was documented really well in 'I Am Trying to Break Your Heart' in 2002 and then again when A Ghost is Born came out when he went into rehab because of the drugs he was taking for his headaches.
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Yeah, I think this was pretty-well known information, especially when AGIB was released, but a good read nonetheless.
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Everyone knows this already. They even show him puking in I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.
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your a gigantic music blog and this is common knowledge people. like 'aphotus' pointed out, you see tweedy throwing up in a bathroom in the doc. and then regaling his migraine stories. nice of ya'll to point it out but this isn't exactly new
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yes! only feed us new information! we are whiny little trivia-obsessed bitches who care about nothing except what is new! yay!
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The chapter on Tweedy in Chuck Klosterman's "IV" is also telling along these lines. Good reading.
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Did you guys hear that Britney Spears is crazy?
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I guess this is for those who hadn't heard of Wilco until last Saturday night and wanted to know more about that guy in the rose suit.
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i heard jeff tweedy of wilco has migraines. any truth to it?
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Yes, everyone has known for many years that Tweedy has migraines. But the piece for NYTimes' migraine blog is new if you want to read more about it.
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Blogs give me migraines..
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yo. did you mean to say "less thank you think?" i like to call the song "less THAN you think," personally...
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GOD Stereogum! Why didn't you think ahead! Us obsessive commenters know everything there is to know about everything. Why even write articles when you can instead tap into our superior collective knowledge?
I mean, Jeff Tweedy threw up in a documentary! There you go!
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Had to check out your site. I always have fun reading your comments on hype. But anyway, that's too bad about Jeff. I wonder if all of that suffering makes him a better writer? It's that classic paradox of the artist...suffering=good art I wish him the best. That must be rough...
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Hmmm... A Ghost Is Born was a huge disappointment compared to Summerteeth and YHF, and Tweedy made that one while he was sick. Sky Blue Sky was even worse, and he made that healthy. So should i be rooting for an opiated Tweedy or a drug free healthy Tweedy? Maybe Jay Bennett was right... HE was the real Wilco.
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Is Jay Bennett even alive anymore? I thought he was nothing more than a parasitic lifeform attached to Tweedy's behind.
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While this is old news, I do think it's worth noting that he STILL suffers from migraines after his treatment (as stated in the migraine blog article), and that it's still a problem he has to deal with minus the painkillers.
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I'm going to make a shirt that says:
"Jeff Tweedy has Migraines"
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i would seriously buy that shirt... it has to look like this though: ugliest headshot of jay bennett you can find with a cartoon dialouge bubble saying "Jeff Tweedy Has Migranes"
sold
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I heard jay "real wilco" bennett suffers from migraines, confirm/deny?
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your mom gives me migraines.
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Your mom gives me migraines.
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This heaven gives me migraines.
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I think its nice you posted this. I get migraines and its nice to know other people suffer from them and can lead rather normal, even successful lives.
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I get those freaking things! I hate them with all my hate!
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Is Jeff Tweedy the guy from Vampire Weekend? Because I hear he gets migranes.
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this article is basically like the same thing as vampire weekend, old and played out...snood snood. im so much better than all of you.
(leaves and locks bathroom door to secretly listen to a-punk)
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I did blow with Tweedy at a concert once.
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