Vic Chesnutt

James Victor “Vic” Chesnutt (November 12, 1964 – December 25, 2009) was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990, but his breakthrough to commercial success didn’t come until 1996 with the release of “Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation”, a charity record of alternative artists covering his songs.

Chesnutt released 17 albums during his career, including two produced by Michael Stipe, and a 1996 release on Capitol Records, “About to Choke”.

Injuries from a 1983 car accident left him partially paralyzed; he used a wheelchair and had limited use of his hands. At 18, a car accident left him partially paralyzed; in a December 1, 2009 interview with Terry Gross on her NPR show Fresh Air, he said he was “a quadriplegic from [his] neck down”, and although he had feeling and some movement in his body, he could not walk “functionally” and that, although he realized shortly afterward that he could still play guitar, he could only play simple chords.

On December 25, 2009, at the age of 45, Chesnutt died from an overdose of muscle relaxants that had left him in a coma in an Athens hospital.