DJ AM - a bittersweet story.

Adam Goldstein (AKA DJ AM pictured here with ex-girlfriend Nicole Richie) is all over headlines this week. This guy had a tough life. He was emotionally abused by his father and was addicted to drugs by the age of 12. Yes, you read it right. 12. By 16 he was addicted to cocaine and ecstasy and with the help of his mum, booked into rehab until he was 18. I don’t know if he was there for all that time, between the ages of 16 and 18 but if he was, that’s a very long time to be in rehab.

By the sounds of it Adam didn’t want to be on drugs and desperately wanted to rid his life of them. “I’d go in the bathroom, break [my pipe] on the toilet and swear to never do it again,” he said in 2005 according to Who. He attempted suicide in 1998 but was saved by a jammed gun. Who reported that Adam was clean for a while but that just days before his passing, he began to spiral downwards and into the waiting arms of narcotics.

One thing I didn’t realise was that he was onboard the fatal September 19 plane crash that took the lives of four people and seriously injured Travis Barker of Blink 182. How anyone could ever recover from this level of trauma I have no idea, let alone someone who had already travelled along such a difficult path. My saving thought is the kind and gentle mercy of God. There’s just no way that physiologists and therapists and certainly not drugs could have ever helped him see a full recovery.

I feel really sad for Adam and his family. For his family - what a sad, sad way to lose someone you love so dearly. For Adam, it’s such a tragedy that his love/hate affair with drugs plagued him right to the end. I would love to be able to believe that we all work out our demons before we die, but unfortunately that’s not always the case.

On the brighter side, his friends are apparently taking comfort in the fact that he spent his last few days mixing which was undoubtedly his passion. That’s certainly a wonderful thing. To be able to find your passion, become really good and it and make a life out of it is something that many are unable to ever do. For this, I’m so happy for the guy. He knew what he wanted to do and he went out and did it.