Jane's Addiction guitarist and former Red Hot Chili Peppers member Dave Navarro spoke to Yahoo about Above Ground , a concert to raise awareness about mental health and suicide prevention. The event will benefit the MusiCares Foundation. The show will feature special guests such as Courtney Love (Hole), Billy Idol, Jesse Hughes (Eagles Of Death Metal), Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), among others. The performance will take place on April 16th in Los Angeles.
“We lost a lot of friends in the last year due to mental health issues ,” Navarro said, referring to Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Chester Bennington of Linkin Park. “I have no idea what their mental health issues were or weren’t, so I don’t want to lump them into that category… I’m not a doctor. I can’t sit here and say what they did and didn’t do, and what led them to do what they did, but I would say that going to Chris Cornell’s funeral and seeing Chester Bennington sing a beautiful song for his friend, and then [Chester] taking his own life a month later, really had a huge impact on me… I couldn’t help but be taken back to times when I felt so lonely, so desperate, so suicidal […] and that people know there are options out there. [Suicide] is not the final answer. It’s okay to ask for help.”
Navarro went on to discuss how childhood trauma affects development and is a strong predictor of depression and suicide.
“In some cases [of rock star suicides], drug addiction was a huge factor, but you need to look at the underlying thing. And, generally, drug addiction comes from some early trauma ,” Navarro explained. “That’s something that lends itself to a mental health problem. I mean, those who suffer from trauma tend to seek out drugs. I can tell you for sure, having suffered enormous trauma as a child, drugs were the natural option.”