What did Kevin Ayers die of?

[rcarlberg]

Was talking with Jeff Sherman today, and he mentioned Kevin seemed kind of depressed or sad at the 2003 Progman concert. He wasn't interested in 'hanging out' with the rest of the musicians, and seemed withdrawn.

I remember seeing him breakfasting in the hotel across the street. I said "Good morning Kevin" as I sailed by and he about jumped out of his skin. Wasn't used to being recognized I suppose.

Online sources indicate a neighbor found him dead in his bed in Montolieu, France, around lunchtime on February 19, 2013, having probably died the previous day. Cause of death was listed as "natural causes," though he was only 68. A heroin addiction had apparently been with him for years in Ibiza, but that was decades before. One obituary said he had "been ill" (without specifying) and another said he hadn't been ill, but had "lived a rock 'n roll lifestyle."
https://louderthanwar.com/kevin-ayers-dies-aged-68/

So Aymeric? Anybody?

This website apparently hasn't been updated since he passed:
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~marwak/

[calyx]

Sorry, I've had no real interest in trying to get to know the exact cause. When someone who's had Kevin's life dies aged 69, I don't really treat it as an untimely or "mysterious" death. As far as I remember, he was found dead some hours after he had probably died. He lived alone in that village house. I was once treated to an English breakfast in that house when I interviewed Kevin there. He was very friendly with the people at the restaurant next door, and I seem to remember he had a "thing" with a pretty, young waitress there. Whether that was still the case 13 years later, I don't know. I guess someone worried after a while that he was nowhere to be seen. Other than what I perceived as existential depression (not being terribly enthusiastic about life and what lay ahead) when I met him, I don't think it was more than ill health caused by both lifestyle and advancing age (he lived longer than Elton, Hugh, Pip and Phil).

[Mister Triscuits]

Ennui.

[Quantum Cat]

I understand the fascination. The older I get, the more I can understand such existential angst and ennui. I only hope that Kevin found some solace and comfort in his final years of self-exile. Perhaps some of it came from being at the center of popular youth culture and all the expectations hoisted upon him while simultaneously being an outsider and an insular person ill-equipped by temperament to deal with the attention and demands. Getting old and facing one's own mortality is not easy, particularly if one is isolated literally or physiologically. Sorry for waxing ineloquently, but I have found myself thinking time to time about Kevin's later years with empathy and the proverbial pang in the in the pit of my stomach.

[Sunlight Caller]

I have no knowledge to add to the question raised, but I recently re-read this ”final” interview with Kevin that first appeared in Word Magazine, it is quite a poignant article …

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...e_iOSApp_Other

[rcarlberg]

68 seems young, too young, now that I'm past that age myself...

Ennui.

Probably the closest explanation we'll get. And he didn't even make it to 2016!

[wideopenears]

Poignant, indeed.

[infandous]

I have no knowledge to add to the question raised, but I recently re-read this ”final” interview with Kevin that first appeared in Word Magazine, it is quite a poignant article …

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...e_iOSApp_Other

Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious what killed him...himself (though I suspect not deliberately). Sad, but not surprising given the article and his past history.

[Trane]

Ennui.

I think in some ways, that's it.

I have no knowledge to add to the question raised, but I recently re-read this ”final” interview with Kevin that first appeared in Word Magazine, it is quite a poignant article …

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...e_iOSApp_Other

No mention of the few years he spent in Flanders (not a particularly sunny place), which meant I saw him a few times on stage (3 or 4, can't remember exactly). His shows were not inspiring and he was not very communicative and just going thru the motions. He seemed quite bored to be there.

"The thing about Soft Machine and me," he goes on slowly, "was that I never considered another profession. My only other desire was to do as little as possible. Honestly, I just assume that whatever is going to happen to me is going to happen.

That's quite revealing.
I another way, one could also say that life killed him.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Wikipedia says he "died in his sleep," so unless he OD'd on sleeping pills, he probably didn't top himself.

[rcarlberg]

Wikipedia says he "died in his sleep," so unless he OD'd on sleeping pills, he probably didn't top himself.

Wikipedia doesn't know that. Kevin wasn't found for 36 to 48 hours, he was found in bed but there's no record of an autopsy.

With newborns, there's a category of death when the cause isn't clear, they simply call it "failure to thrive." Kevin failed to thrive.

[Mascodagama]

One of the comments on the Guardian article was interesting I thought, giving a slightly different perspective on his later years:

I met Kevin late in his life when he was living in Montolieu and I'd like to correct some impressions from this article. Montolieu itself is a lovely village in the Black Mountains with over a dozen bookstores; it models itself on Hay on Wye. It has an important sculpture center and is home to a certain bohemian collection of artists and litterati--so I think Kevin felt welcome and at home.

Life there was not punishing self-exile!

The dismissive description of his longterm partner as a "bar-maid" is condescending and inaccurate. She was a beautiful, talented young woman who eventually left to attend a creative writing course in New York.

Kevin was a wonderful cook at for a certain period he was chef for a bookish restaurant in Montolieu. There are second acts in life--and he was living his....

Not to detract from the ennui and sadness, which I'm sure was real: if he died of being himself - even if self was a dreamer, drugger and drinker - there is a certain integrity in that.

[rcarlberg]

Well said. Maybe Kevin found joie de vivre in other pursuits.