Stephen Bruton's Trip Around the Sun
Funny how life works. Last week, a few days after I got back from my friend Stephen's Bruton's funeral in Fort Worth, I was asked to record some radio spots for Stand Up to Cancer. Recording the spots allowed me to honor my friend Stephen, even in a small way. On May 9th, Stephen Bruton became one of the 1,500 people that die everyday from cancer. That's a mind-numbing statistic. Unfortunately such statistics can go ignored. But people like Stephen Bruton cannot.
Stephen was one of Fort Worth's favorite sons, and one of the most prominent guitar players in the world -- certainly one of the very best to come out of Texas, and that's saying something. He was also a gifted storyteller, a musician's musician, who wrote songs which spoke to, "nothing but the truth" which was the title of one of his albums.
Throughout his illustrious career, Stephen played alongside Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Buffett, Martina McBride, Little Feat, Elvis Costello, Carly Simon, and the list goes on and on. Many of these artists recorded songs Stephen had written. He was a fixture in Kris Kristofferson's music for 40 years -- from the moment he graduated Texas Christian University to working on Kristofferson's latest release that is due in the fall. T Bone Burnett met Stephen as a teenager, where Stephen introduced him to the Appalachian music T Bone would make use of so beautifully in O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
He was a pretty good actor to boot -- Kris Kristofferson got him a part in A Star is Born, and Hollywood kept giving Stephen roles in Heaven's Gate, Michael, Sweet Thing, Miss Congeniality, and The Alamo among others.
Stephen and I remained friends throughout the years. I'd see him in Fort Worth; he'd visit me in LA. I always felt connected to him as you do with the people you grow up around. Our families both went to Holy Family Church; his father ran a local record store, where I took my first guitar lesson. Even if it had been awhile since we spoke, I was always aware of what he was doing. Stephen was a good reminder to do what you love and love what you do. I will miss him dearly. And he was one brave cat in the face of death.
Today, Stand Up to Cancer is announcing the funding of its first Dream Team collaborations which are going to bring doctors together from different disciplines to work on specific projects aimed at eradicating cancer. I admire the work of Laura Ziskin and all the entertainment folks, the doctors and the scientists who are taking a stand against this disease. And they need to win. Why? Because the lives of the other 1,499 people who died of cancer on the same day as Stephen Bruton were just as important and influential to the friends and families that surrounded them. They were no less loved, they are no less missed. They just couldn't play the six string like Stephen.
Until the time when cancer no longer claims the lives of creative spirits taken from this earth way too soon, let us heed the wisdom found in the songs of Stephen Bruton:
"Just enjoy this ride on my trip around the sun. Just enjoy this ride 'till it's done."
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Bill,
Thank you...I am crying a lot right now..did I know Stephen..not really..but in March, in the waiting room at St. John's Radiation Therapy dept. I met a soft-spoken beautiful man with a shock of white hair. We were both there for radiation..we talked (not about our "cancer")..just life. He told me he was a musician (I'm an idiot..didn't know who he was.it didn't matter)...I was somehow moved by him..we were both very sick, very thin (I had just come out of aggressive chemo..he told me I was "pretty" (which a bald woman needs to hear).. I gave him my phone number..not to "date"(last thing on my mind as I was and am fighting for my life)..but there WAS something about him..so polite..and those eyes!... he told me he was working with a friend on some music...I actually wrote my phone number down and gave it to him...(I NEVER do that)..that he didn't call didn't hurt my feelings at all..and today, your post...and am crying a lot...I needed him to live...because then I could believe I'll live... my heart breaks over this.. so now I KNOW who that man I connected with while we were both waiting for radiation is...famous...to me..he was a kind soul who was fighting the same battle as I... God Bless you Stephen...keep a light in the window. Peace
I lived next to Bruton's Ocean Park apartment for many years and he was a generous, compassionate guy who reached out to me when I was needing some help. I'd heard he was sick, but I didn't realize the extent of it. I'm very, very sorry to hear he's gone. They don't make 'em like Bruton anymore.
Having lost my father to cancer before he reached age 50, I sympathize with the loss of kind and loving personalities, especially before they have a chance to live to old age.
Though I don't agree with some issues that President Obama clings to (like prolonged war, lack of accountability, etc.), I am encouraged by his eagerness to fastrack medical research that will add to the quality of life for all of us.
In the past several years, new drugs have been developed that alleviate cancer symptoms and drive the cancer into remission. One of the most exciting advances is the new drug Pixantrone. Anthracyclines are the cornerstone therapeutic for the treatment of lymphoma, leukemia, and breast cancer, but they cause cumulative heart damage and failure. . Pixantrone provides something that anthracyclines and other common chemos do not -- it is not cumulative! With Pixantrone, patients do not have to worry about lifetime limits of the drug. Wouldn't it be exhilarating to have an 80% chance to extend your life without worrying about heart failure due to chemo?
Invest in green technology and preventative health, but also invest in biotechs that are developing medicines to further the quality of life. You can't avoid death, but you can cheat it. In the end, your loved ones will treasure the extra time you will share with them. I wish that the newer drugs for cancer were available when my father was alive. He died too young, and I have really missed him.
Wow. I just went to his website and was amazed at his talent on the guitar and his songwriting. I'll be sure to buy his albums. Sorry to have missed him in his life. Beautiful tribute.
Bill, thank you very much for sharing this with us. I lost my mother to lung cancer on May 7.
One of the visitor's at her wake said that mom was sure that science would cure her cancer. Watching a loved one go through their last week of life was awful.
To all of the survivors who have responded to this post, keep up with the positive, don't let your treatment get you down, and always remember that each day you have is special to you and to your loved ones.
Melissa
Well and thoughtfully written, Bill.
Thank you for sharing these memories with us.
We have already available in this country some simple and extremely effective tests which can find cancer in its early stages, and dramatically increase the survival rate. These include mammograms and the colonoscopy. Yet for people who have deductibles on their health insurance, the costs of these tests are essentially not covered. And of course for people who don't have insurance, nothing is covered. The mammogram can be $200-$300, and should be given every year. The colonoscopy is over $1,000, and recommended every 5 years beginning at 40.
So why don't we as a nation put our money where our mouth is. Instead of having fundraisers for research or victims, why doesn't our nation have a single-payer healthcare system so that we call can go get these types of tests and screenings. That would radically cut down on cancer deaths. And we don't need any more "research" on this subject -- we just need a healthcare system that delivers to the people of this country the developments in the field.
What good does it do most people if somebody finds an amazing screening process if we can't afford it? It does us no good at all. So let's set up the system to pay for healthcare, and see how much we could cut down on cancer rates just by making healthcare available to all Americans.
What a lovely eulogy you have given for your dear friend.
I am a cancer survivor and I pray I don't have to go through it again. Thanks for remindng us that we need to work harder to defeat this horrible disease that robs the world of so many good people way too soon.
Nicely done. Thanks for telling us about Stephen Bruton & we
need to hear from you more often.
Thanks Bill for the great tribute to Stephen Bruton. Stephen was one of my favorite musicians in Austin and I was greatly saddened to hear he had lost his battle with cancer. The Saxon Pub just won't be the same without him. I lost both my parents to cancer and join with you in hoping that new treatments and cures can be developed so we don't lose anymore wonderfully talented folks, or just plain ordinary folks, to cancer.
I'd never heard of Stephen Bruton until now. It sounds as though he was a great guy.
Thanks, Bill. A fitting tribute to a wonderful, sweet, talented guy....gone much too soon. My best to the lovely Louise.
I lost my mother to secondary cancers spawned from a fight with breast cancer. I wouldn't say she was a great creative mind. But she was a light in my life.
I hope I die quick when my time comes. What I saw my mother go through does not bear repeating.
First off....I love your show, never miss it....love the stories,characters etc.
Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend...it actually drives me crazy, and I've been saying this for sometime......forget about thr friggin swine flu BS -- CANCER is a EPIDEMIC in this country.....and people just seem to have a "non-chalant" additude about it...like " oh well, my friend has cancer"...my blah blah was diagnosed with Cancer......EVERYONE knows someone - who knows someone with cancer,who's had it - or died from it!!!!!!!
As much as I sympathize... but cancer is not an epidemic. One can not "get" cancer from another person (although one can get a few viruses that can cause cancers and one can cause ones own lung cancer by smoking). Cancer is simply evolution's omission to select us for a longer biological life than is necessary to procreate and continue the species. We are living long past our natural lifetime of 25-35... and cancer is just one systemic failure that happens to kill us in the end.
I know cancer patients and their families do not see it that way. How can they? It's a horrific disease in any of its many variations. And we spend plenty of money on beating it, one tiny step at a time. But it's a very hard battle and it won't be won for many decades to come. For now we will have to live with it. Having said that, I wish that nobody here will ever be exposed to it.
HPV, a STD, 'is' considered the direct cause of some types of cancer, and is also 'caught' from someone...
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/risk/HPV
Your second sentence contradicts itself with FACTS - (inside the parentheses).
I had a strange connection to the very talented Turner Stephen Bruton.
I am a cancer survivor (multiple times) and I also play in a band with the guy who co wrote "Trip Around the Sun". We'll be playing that song together this Monday and will, no doubt, dedicate that song to one of the folks who birthed it - the amazing Stephen Bruton.
"cause this year gone by was no piece o cake"
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