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The pantheon of acid casualties in rock is a hallowed and tragic honor.
As frontman for the 13th Floor Elevators, Erickson birthed the very idea of psychedelia in the 1960s.
In that tragic sense, Roky embodies the American story.
Roky fully embraced that philosophy and became its mouthpiece.
He was possessed, so vivid and mesmerizing.
His voice was so sharp and cutting sometimes hed get lost in his screams.
But within a year, Ericksons high intake of LSD exacerbated latent schizophrenia.
At other shows, he would be in a vegetative state.
Friend Terry Moore toldTexasMonthly, Everybody treated him like a god.
Nobody would say, Roky, you should probably straighten up.
He was dosed with another antipsychotic, thorazine, and was subjected to three years of electroconvulsive shock treatment.
Such were his gifts that he could make you tear up at the recital of the pledge of allegiance.
In 1972, a judge deemed Rokys sanity restored and he was sent home.
Paranoia and delusions consumed his new music.
As R.E.M.s Peter Buck recently toldthe WashingtonPost, Rokys songs are concise and terrifying in their power.
It would take decades for him to start seeing payments for his decades of music.
And then the third where I know who I am.
I feel like Im a monster.
He hoarded mail and wound up charged with a federal offense for mail theft.
Roky received dental care and drug treatment that brought a sense of stability back to the man.
He even made a late-career highlight with Okkervil River, 2010sTrue Love Cast Out All Evil.
It made reset the genius of Roky, wherein forces in eternal conflict co-exist.
