The tragic coincidence that occurred during the death of River Phoenix
When River Phoenix died outside The Viper Room nightclub on October 31st, 1993, he instantly became a part of Hollywood’s tragic history of young deaths and talent lost too soon. Although his filmography was relatively modest, with less than a handful of lead roles to his name before his untimely death, Phoenix was lauded for his representation of disaffected youth and emotional yearning for Generation X. Just 23 at the time of his death, Phoenix was permanently preserved in the form that would endure for decades after his death.
Phoenix’s cause of death also came as a shock: a drug overdose caused by a mix of cocaine and heroin. Phoenix wasn’t known, publically or privately, as a heavy drug user. However, in the days before his death, Phoenix had been bingeing on various substances along with then-former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante. Phoenix had also been recording music with Frusciante, appearing on two tracks that would later be included on Frusciante’s second solo album, Smile from the Streets You Hold.
After days of frequent highs and no sleep, Phoenix was informed of a concert taking place at the Viper Room by a band that Frusciante occasionally played with, P. The supergroup was made up of some of Phoenix and Frusciante’s mutual friends, including Flea, Johnny Depp, and Butthole Surfer’s singer Gibby Haynes. Frusciante sat in with the band and brought Phoenix along, while Phoenix, in turn, brought his girlfriend, actress Samantha Mathis, and his siblings, Rain and Joaquin.
P had formed as an outlet for Depp and his musical ambitions, with the actor having befriended Flea and Haynes throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band had only just formed a few months earlier when Depp got them on the bill at the Viper Room, the same club that he was a partial owner of. With a few songs in their repertoire and a gaggle of famous fans willing to see them, P dutifully trotted into the space and plugged in for what was supposed to be just another concert.
One of the songs in P’s repertoire was called ‘Michael Stipe’, a seriocomical tale of befriending the R.E.M. lead singer in the Hollywood Hills and the horde of famous faces that also filled up the area. Sung in Hayne’s signature nasally eye-rolling tone, ‘Michael Stipe’ was part put on, part attack of Hollywood fakery, and part genuine gush of affection for the titular singer. Among the other names that filled up the cast of characters in the lyrics are Sophia Coppola, Martin Landau, and River Phoenix.
Phoenix is a bit of an incidental character in the narrative, appearing as a passenger in Stipe’s car as he and Haynes ride up through Lauryl Canyon. Phoenix is neither a character of derision nor a heroic figure in the song’s narrative – he’s simply along for the ride. But when sang his name during their show that night, no one in the band realised what was happening to Phoenix just outside the doors.
Having complained of feeling sick during the concert, Phoenix went out to the sidewalk to get some fresh air. Not long after, Phoenix collapsed on the concrete and began having drug-related convulsions, causing P to stop playing without completing ‘Michael Stipe’. Flea accompanied Phoenix in the ambulance to the hospital, but in the early morning hours of October 31st, Phoenix’s heart could not be restarted, and he was pronounced dead.
Two years later, P released their first and only studio album, P. The track ‘Michael Stipe’ served as the album’s only single, and Haynes elected not to alter the reference to Phoenix in the lyrics to serve as a tribute to the actor. The fact that his name was being sung in the same club that would be the venue of his death wound up being a tragic final coincidence in the life of River Phoenix.