Smith demanded that Dreamworks release him from his contract or he would take his own life. He rarely slept and barely ate, living on ice cream. He began having difficulties performing live, forgetting lyrics. He also thought Dreamworks was trying to steal music from his computer.
Neighbors reported seeing him walking the streets alone late at night muttering to himself.īy 2001, Smith displayed signs of paranoia, believing a white van was following him wherever he went.
His condition deteriorated as he began using crack cocaine and became addicted to heroin. He released the album Figure 8 in 2000, the last one completed in his lifetime. In 1999, he moved to Los Angeles, settling in Silver Lake. “I threw myself into it because it seemed to make my friends happy,” he said. XO would be the best-selling album of his career but Smith was suspicious of commercial success and disliked his experience with a big label. His first Dreamworks-era Album was XO, written over many nights at the Luna Lounge in Manhattan. Around this same time he fell into a depression and spoke openly about suicide. In 1998, Smith signed with Dreamworks Records. He was terrified until fellow nominee Celine Dion told him, “You’re going to do great, sweetie.” This calmed him down and he enjoyed himself saying, “I wouldn’t want to live in that world but it was fun to walk around the moon for a day.” The song “Miss Misery” was nominated for an Academy Award leading to the surreal scene of Smith, in a rumpled white suit and greasy hair, playing live at the 1998 Oscars. By 1996, Smith was drinking heavily and taking anti-depressants friends attempted an intervention but he rebelled, moving to Brooklyn.įilmmaker Gus Van Sant used his music for the soundtrack of Good Will Hunting. His third album Either/Or came out in 1996: the album name came from a book by Kierkegaard dealing with existential angst and despair. The album cover featured fuzzy images of bodies falling from a building. He followed this up with the self-titled album Elliott Smith in 1995. In 1994, Smith released his first solo album Roman Candle. Smith worked odd jobs to survive: construction, house painting and transplanting bamboo trees. They moved to Oregon and released four albums. After graduating from Hampshire College in 1991, he formed the band Heatmiser with classmate Neil Gust. Around this time he began experimenting with drugs and alcohol. At 14, he moved to Portland, Oregon with his father Gary Smith, a psychologist. Smith learned to play piano and guitar by the time he was nine, and wrote his first song “Fantasy” at 10. The events later appeared in his song “Some Song” which featured the lyrics “Charlie beat you up week after week and when you grow up you’re going to be a freak.” He had a difficult childhood, saying he might’ve been sexually abused by his stepfather. His parents divorced when he was six months old and he moved with his mother Bunny, a music teacher, to Duncanville, Texas. Smith was born Steven Paul Smith in 1969 in Omaha, Nebraska. As his ex-girlfriend musician Mary Lou Lord said, “Elliott made music for the sad kids.”
He was one of us and his pain was our pain. He possessed a soft tenor whisper in contrast to his weathered face and melancholic lyrics. His music was intricate and gorgeous with layered vocals and sweet melodies worthy of Brian Wilson.
Smith wrote intensely personal songs about his struggles with depression, alcoholism and drug addiction. This past October marked the 10-year anniversary of singer/songwriter Elliott Smith’s death.