Reading and rock 'n' roll

Finishing a book has got to be one of my favorite feelings. You turn that final page, close the back flap, and for that one split second there is this feeling of completion. This summer, I started my second Chuck Klosterman read, "Killing Yourself to Live." I've always loved Klosterman's odd observations. Only a music writer could compare all of his past relationships to the members of KISS. It's so off the wall that I find his words hard to resist.

Chuck was my summer companion. For one week, I lounged on the beach with this book and read about 3/4 of Chuck's tale in between family fishing trips, jet skiing excursions and putt putt. But until a week or so ago, I'd left the other 1/4 hanging. I finished the book last night.

In "Killing Yourself to Live," Klosterman spends a little over two weeks in a rental car, driving across the country to visit the spots where famous rock stars have died. The concept of the book is that the tragic deaths of these musicians elevated their fame. Klosterman's journey fittingly ends in Seattle -- the location of Kurt Cobain's suicide. The book also reminded me of my visit to the grave of Blind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon.

I was in Lafayette, Ind., on loan to another newspaper for two weeks, when a fellow loaner told me that Hoon's grave was only 15 minutes from where we were staying. We hopped in the car, drove to the cemetery and walked around checking headstones in search of Shannon Hoon.

We'd walked through the upper part of the cemetery before making it to the far back corner, where we found Hoon's grave. Trinkets, notes, flowers, cigarettes, rocks and more were scattered on and around his grave. I'll never forget it.

In the far back corner of a dirt-road cemetery in rural Indiana, I was looking at the grave of one of the most legendary voices of the '90s. He was someone with so much promise and such a unique voice. It didn't feel like he belonged where he now and forever would be.

The headstone reads lyrics from Blind Melon's song "Change": I know we can't all stay here forever so I want to write my words on the face of today and they'll paint it."

This is why I've listened to almost nothing other than Blind Melon for the past week.