Drugs behind demise of Newfoundland music legend
It may say cancer on the death certificate but the real killer of East Coast music legend Ron Hynes was his insatiable appetite for drugs.
Friends and family members who watched the artist struggle for years with the disease said the death of one of Newfoundland’s most beloved musicians should serve as a wake-up call to the worsening scourge of drug addiction in the province.
Hynes died at age 64 last week in St. John’s, N.L., following a return of cancer that was first diagnosed in 2012 and which recently spread to his lung and hip.
But his nephew, Joel Hynes, said in a post on his Facebook page that while cancer may have caused his death, it was a persistent drug addiction that was central to his demise.
“He remained a hardcore addict right to his final days. And it killed him,” he said in the message, intended to be a note of thanks to his fans and friends.
“He passed the point where he was strong enough to save himself. And he was surrounded by so much love, so much worry and heartache and concern. ... And in the end he choose drugs over everything and everyone he ever loved.”
Hynes, an actor and writer himself, wrote that his uncle was destitute when he died, going so far as to sell his treasured guitars “for a pittance to feed his demons and line the pockets of drug dealers.”
Sandy Morris, a lifelong friend and fellow musician, said people in St. John’s were heartbroken as they watched the acclaimed singer-songwriter “waste away” from drug use over the years.
Many tried to help by encouraging him to go to rehab centres. But, in the end, Morris said the draw of crack cocaine and cocaine was too strong for the artist known for his gritty folk songs.
White, who goes by the single name and manages The Wonderful Grand Band, said the drugs helped him get through cancer treatments that left him fatigued and sick.
Joel Hynes wrote, “The whole province is privy to what drugs and addiction did to one of its most cherished sons. A brilliant musician who could have had the world in the palm of his hands, but instead chose to hide in the back alleys and bathroom stalls of grungy bars, who sold his life’s blood chasing a darkness that deceived him right to his final breath.”