Richey Edwards: For Real

Richey Edwards was a Welsh musician who wrote lyrics and played rhythm guitar for the alt-rock band, Manic Street Preachers. 

 

    Edwards suffered severe bouts of depression in his adult life, and was open about it in interviews: “If you’re hopelessly depressed like I was, then dressing up is just the ultimate escape. When I was young I just wanted to be noticed. Nothing could excite me except attention so I’d dress up as much as I could. Outrage and boredom just go hand in hand.”

    He also self-harmed mainly through stubbing cigarettes on his body and cutting himself. His problems with drugs and alcohol were well documented.

    In 1991, following questioning from an NME journalist who doubted the band’s authenticity/values and Edwards’ seriousness towards his music, Edwards responded by carving the words ‘4 Real’ into his forearm with a razor blade. The injury required eighteen stitches.

    Edwards disappeared on February 1, 1995, on the day when he and fellow band mate James Dean Bradfield were due to fly to the US on a promotional tour. Despite many alleged sightings, he was never found. His status remained open as a missing person, until November 23, 2008, when he became officially ‘presumed dead’.

    A writer for The Times newspaper said Edwards was, “. . . a cause celebre among depressives, alcoholics, anorexics and self-mutilators, because he was the first person in the public eye to talk openly about these subjects, not with swaggering bravado and a subtext of ‘look how tortured and cool I am’, but with humility, sense and - often - bleak humor.”