He was admired for his wild onstage persona and became a role model for gay youth in the subculture, but offstage he struggled with addictions and mental health
Lee Brown/The Canadian Press
Mr. Chinn formed SNFU with friends in 1981, and by 1985 the group put out their first full album and began touring.Mr. Chinn once said he started writing songs when he was eight, and, Mr. Bacon says his friend’s life changed when he saw the Sex Pistols on television during dinner one night.Mr. Chinn formed SNFU with friends in 1981, and by 1985 the group put out their first full album and began touring.
In the days since his death, the impact and influence of his work and performance has been clear. Among the tributes, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong called Mr. Chinn “one of the greatest front people I’ve ever seen.” Without a major label behind them and before the internet, word about SNFU and its shows spread largely through buzz, merch and marathon tours, to staggering independent success. By the late 1980s, the band had sold a reported 50,000 records and 20,000 T-shirts. Still, several years in and broadly considered to be one of the best hard core bands in the world, Mr. Chinn sometimes asked from the stage whether anyone could give them a place to stay.
But his mental health problems, and soon addictions to both alcohol and serious street drugs, were starting to take hold. Mr. Chinn was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and friends say he struggled with trauma from his childhood. He also wondered whether having hit his head hard on stage during a concert had had an effect. He was homeless at times, and suicidal.
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