Can't say I'm surprised either, don't know why anyone is. Given his huge appetite for drugs, alcohol and unrestricted firearm usage, and the mood swings attendant on the first two, I'm only surprised he lived this long, to 65 or 67 depending which news report is correct.

As with many of us who came of age in the 70's, he was a big influence on my writing in my younger days. Makes me nostalgic for Rolling Stone back then, with its propensity for huge long articles that rambled and took chances and stances, but actually mattered.

I have a cherished but not well-protected stack of old issues from that era--last year we had a neighbour lad looking after the house while we were away at Christmas and I came back and found he'd been using them to start the woodstove with...ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!