Madonna's guitarist dies in poverty

[Jimi75]

David Williams was a very famous session guitar player who played for Madonna and for Michael Jackson. The biggest part of the guitars on Thriller is him playing. Now he died in poverty. Tragic story...

What do you think about this article?
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf...overty_1097210

[Rocket]

David had a stroke... very sad but boring news story.
Most everything else contained in that link is fabricated and unresearched tabloid sensationalizing meant to score media sales and possibly churn emotional response.

[mcgreggor57]

What do you think about this article?

I thought it strange that the pictures on that page were of Madonna and not David (or at least David in a pic w/ Madonna)

[Brian Krashpad]

Jimi probably does not realize that the New York Post, where the story comes from, is a total rag with zero journalistic credibility.

[wingsdad]

...
What do you think about this article?

I copied/pasted this excerpt from it...

...Williams was admitted to the Sentara Hospital in Hampton, Virginia last week, suffering from complications from high blood pressure. He slipped into a coma and passed away on Friday. The circumstances of Williams' death have infuriated his grieving family, who claim he was mistreated by hospital staff because he had no medical cover. A friend tells the New York Post that family members were urged to "pull the plug because he had no medical insurance". ...

...because I think this is the saddest part of David's death at age 58. Even though the source is attributed to a 1st degree fish wrapper & bird cage liner, the NY Post, having no (or minimal) medical insurance coverage in the US today is not necessarily indicative of poverty, just the unaffordability of it to the average middle class Joe American. Or especially to the self-employed or unemployed, status situations which many musicians shuttle between, and with many Americans heading in both of those directions today.

There's not enuff in that story to be certain of just how ill he really was and whether there was a viable chance he could have been saved, but the infuriating irony is that had David been an illegal alien or collecting welfare and living off the taxpayers' dime, his coverage would have been virtually automatic with the hospital guaranteed at least partial state & federal government reimbursement, often MORE than what commercial carriers, notably Blue Cross, pay the provider. And he may have gotten the care he needed, and lived.

The Healthcare System in the US is a sham forged out of greed and corruption.

[Spudman***]

David had a stroke... very sad but boring news story.
Most everything else contained in that link is fabricated and unresearched tabloid sensationalizing meant to score media sales and possibly churn emotional response.

I think you generalize here. Can you substantiate that it is fabricated. Seems like just facts to me.

[markb]

Session players play for a fee, NOT a royalty. That's the contract he signed. Many professional musicians lack adequate health insurance because they just don't earn enough to pay for it. This story is a typical example of poor journalism, simply using a celeb angle to fill space. He'd have gone unnoticed if he hadn't played on a couple of multi million selling albums.

[Rx Tone]

Session players play for a fee, NOT a royalty. That's the contract he signed. Many professional musicians lack adequate health insurance because they just don't earn enough to pay for it. This story is a typical example of poor journalism, simply using a celeb angle to fill space.

Exactly right.

He'd have gone unnoticed if he hadn't played on a couple of multi million selling albums.

Well, yeah...other than that he was quite unremarkable. [/sarcasm]

[markb]

Well, yeah...other than that he was quite unremarkable. [/sarcasm]

I think my preceding sentence puts the one you quoted into context. You're not a tabloid journalist or a book blurb writer by any chance?

[CTROCK]

where is a picture of david?

[Rx Tone]

I think my preceding sentence puts the one you quoted into context.

You know what?..I honestly didn't catch that.
I was reading sentences instead of comprehending the whole thought. :

You're absolutely right.
mea culpa

[Ch0jin]

I think this sums it up...

"News is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising".
former NBC news President Rubin Frank