On November 1, 2012  Mitch Lucker, lead singer of the band Suicide Silence, lost control of his Harley Davidson motorcycle and collided with a light pole. The news reached everyone when the band posted a Facebook update stating, “There’s no easy way to say this. Mitch passed away earlier this morning from injuries sustained during a motorcycle accident. This is completely devastating to all of us and we offer our deepest condolences to his family. He will be forever in our hearts.” No one wanted to believe it. Like any other die hard fan, no one wanted to believe that there would be no more albums featuring Mitch Lucker.

The death of band members affects the fans and everyone around the fans seriously. Whether it be as recent as Mitch or as long ago as John Lennon, their deaths will always have a lasting impact, and anyone that heard their music will never forget what  those lyrics meant for them, what those lyrics got them through.

John Lennon was an icon for peace. His song “Imagine” inspired millions, and his reach spread throughout the world. Five shots rang out on December 9, 1980 and just like that, a legend was killed.

When my aunt, Nancy Malone, heard the news she began sobbing uncontrollably. “I went to my mom’s house because I didn’t know what else to do,” Malone said. “When I got there I was crying too hard to explain what had happened and my mom assumed that my husband , Bo, had left me. I remember her saying ‘You don’t need him’ over and over again.”

My aunt and her sister eventually got through the death of this acclaimed Beatle by helping each other and looking to fellow fans for support.

Drug abuse can sometimes be passed off as an everyday thing and more or less taken lightly. Nirvana fans can never take drug abuse lightly because they lost their inspiration from it. Kurt Cobain committed suicide on April 5, 1994 and was found in his apartment. Next to his suicide note, they found his stash of heroin. Millions of people mourned his loss, and reading his suicide note, agonizingly wondering if they could have possibly done anything to prevent this outcome. It’s ridiculously tormenting to find out what kind of issues your idol was dealing with when you thought they were invincible.

When Mitch Lucker died, I was devastated. Actually, thats an understatement. I felt sick all the time, the thought of food was nauseating because all I could think was “Mitch can’t eat anything ever again.” Everything I did was a constant reminder of things my idol would never do again. Unlike my aunts, I didn’t know many fans of Suicide Silence, and no one could understand why I was so upset. They’d say, “you didn’t even know him.” But then one day I was talking to a friend of mine about it and she just simply said, “I understand. I mean, they may have just been a band to me, but they were so much more than a band to you.”

Suicide Silence lent me a lot of help when I was at my lowest point, when I was finished trying to fix what was wrong, and then I would think, “I know it’s scary but everything will be alright.” These lyrics, though short, reminded me that it’s was okay to be scared, and it was okay to feel lost sometimes. They reminded me that no matter how long the night is, the dawn has to break eventually.

“Keep listening to music,” Mitch said, “‘cause it gets you through everything, I promise.”