Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz delves into his high-profile romances, historical past with psychological sickness and extra within the band’s new documentary, Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me These days?
The movie, which hit HBO Max on Friday, December 19, revisits the band’s journey to stardom within the early ’90s through the making of their first two information — and doesn’t shrink back from exploring how Duritz’s management affected their general success, for higher or worse.
“Over time, he’s pissed lots of people off,” bandmate David Bryson instructed cameras after the documentary delved into Duritz sparring with Saturday Evening Dwell producers in 1994 once they threatened to chop again the group’s efficiency time. “He’s accountable for the band, he makes selections, he doesn’t actually seek the advice of anyone about it. One of many causes we’ve caught collectively over time is as a result of we settle for that. It’s OK.”
He added: “Typically it’s not OK, however largely it’s OK.”
Duritz himself is candid in his interviews, acknowledging that his psychological well being struggles sometimes led to stress within the recording studio, tour dates being canceled and drama in his romantic life.
“A whole lot of my songs are about troublesome moments in folks’s lives, however they’re additionally at all times kind of leavened with the concept of hope. I do know I’m the form of one who thinks about issues being hopeless in numerous conditions, and I particularly was once I was youthful,” Duritz defined within the doc’s opening. “As a result of on prime of every thing else and no matter difficulties you could be going by means of, I had a psychological sickness that I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t perceive what was taking place and I simply knew it was actually laborious to stay with. It’s like, how do you progress your self extra in direction of hope when you may’t sleep and you’ll’t assume clearly?”
He added that whereas it was nice to “instantly have a profession,” his celeb standing solely heightened his struggles. “There have been all these items that got here together with [my career] that simply made every thing actually f***ing troublesome,” he mentioned.
His bandmates, in the meantime, are open in recognizing that Duritz confronted way more issues from fame than they ever did.
“I’m a Little League coach and a dad,” Bryson mentioned. “I’m nonetheless not well-known!”
Hold scrolling for the largest bombshells from the Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me These days? documentary:
Adam Duritz’s Psychological Well being Struggles Included Dissociation and Self-Hurt
The Counting Crows claimed that every certainly one of them virtually stop through the making of their first album, August and Every little thing After, attributable to Adam Duritz’s strong-willed methods.
“Within the studio, he would have actually darkish episodes the place he didn’t actually know learn how to talk what it’s he needed,” keyboardist Charlie Gillingham shared within the documentary. “And he didn’t like the way in which it was.”
Duritz, in the meantime, mentioned he struggled as a result of he “simply wanted” the music “to really feel a sure means,” however he “didn’t know precisely what was improper. I simply wanted to really feel it. And I wasn’t excellent at it. I didn’t know learn how to inform folks learn how to be Counting Crows.”
Mary-Louise Parker, who dated Duritz within the late ’90s, mentioned that she might relate to his artistic course of however understood why some couldn’t grasp it.
“When he’s within the act of making, he’s not the simplest particular person. As a result of he’s striving for one thing past his expectations,” she defined. “He needs it to shock him. He needs it to be higher than he might think about. He’s going to be relentless in pursuing that. And never everyone is like that.”
Duritz mentioned issues took a flip for the more serious when he turned 21. After consuming an enormous glass of water someday, he began to really feel like he was “on acid,” a sensation that might go on to final for one 12 months.
“I might be afraid to open my eyes within the morning. I simply actually needed it to be over, and it wouldn’t be,” he recalled. “That’s the start of once I thought there was severely one thing improper with me mentally. And it had nothing to do with medicine. It was simply taking place. And that’s once I began to get medicated by a physician as a result of it was so scary and it wouldn’t cease.”
Whereas the primary document led to a three-year touring stint, Duritz continued to battle along with his psychological well being. His battle bought extra intense after the band’s second album, Recovering the Satellites, hit cabinets in 1996.
Duritz’s therapist advisable that he take time to relaxation, however the musician needed to maintain his promise of touring. As an alternative, he did a whole tour whereas coming off his prescribed remedy, which his therapist mentioned was a “actually tough” expertise for Duritz.
Finally, Duritz mentioned he started to “reduce” himself to really feel higher. “And the worst half about slicing your self is you do it and it really works,” he mentioned. “It does launch a few of it, so [you think], ‘I ought to reduce myself some extra as a result of it’s truly making it higher.’”
Fortunately, Duritz realized that he had sufficient “logic” to acknowledge that self-harming wasn’t “truly good logic,” and he admitted himself into UCLA Medical Heart for a remedy keep — the identical day Mariah Carey was allegedly trying out.
He was later recognized with a dissociative dysfunction that usually results in derealization and depersonalization. As soon as recognized, Duritz mentioned he was capable of get on the appropriate medicines, though the sickness by no means “goes away” fully. (In keeping with the Mayo Clinic, dissociative issues are psychological well being circumstances that contain experiencing a lack of connection between ideas, recollections, emotions, environment, habits and identification. These circumstances embody escape from actuality in methods that aren’t needed and never wholesome and trigger issues in managing on a regular basis life.)
Adam Duritz Had Points Adjusting to Fame
Adam Duritz defined within the documentary that he first balked on the thought of celeb when the band was requested to be on the quilt of Rolling Stone.
“I couldn’t assist however assume what my life was going to be after that and the way it could change, as a result of I used to be very shy,” he mentioned. “Journal stands had been in all places and Rolling Stone was on the entrance, and that’s your face. … Your anonymity is f***ing gone. And I couldn’t assist pondering there have been actual repercussions to saying sure to that, though there’s no means you’re saying no.”
The band did their photograph shoot and interview in Paris, however Duritz was closely dissatisfied with how the photographs, largely in black and white, got here out. “I appear to be a donkey. I”m so f***ing mopey,” he quipped. “They appear to be a parody of a band.”
Counting Crows’ Drama With ‘Saturday Evening Dwell’
The band was requested to play the late-night present in January 1994, however because the evening bought nearer, producers at SNL instructed them they had been going to should swap their two songs and likewise reduce a couple of minute off of every efficiency. Adam Duritz refused, claiming that the present “promised” them the complete time to carry out “Mr. Jones” and “Spherical Right here.”
When producers insinuated there was nothing they may do, Duritz stood his floor and insisted they get the complete time. “It’s the largest second of our lives and we gotta do it the appropriate means or else I don’t wish to do it,” Duritz defined.
In the end, they got their full time slot and delivered an excellent efficiency, however they haven’t been requested again to the present since.
“Within the occasions he’s executed that over time, he’s pissed lots of people off,” bandmate David Bryson instructed cameras. “He’s accountable for the band, he makes selections, he doesn’t actually seek the advice of anyone about it. One of many causes we’ve caught collectively over time is as a result of we settle for that. It’s OK. Typically it’s not OK, however largely it’s OK.”
Adam Duritz Moved to L.A. Solo After a Cellphone Name From Johnny Depp
After touring for 3 years after the discharge of their first album, Adam Duritz started to really feel “dissociative” and battle as soon as once more along with his psychological well being.
“It made it laborious to wish to play, and I had a little bit of a breakdown,” he confessed within the doc. “We needed to cancel a couple of exhibits.”
Duritz additionally took situation along with his rising fame in Berkeley, California, noting that children would camp out on the band’s garden to get a glimpse at them, main Duritz to have “panic assaults.”
“I can’t do something right here. I don’t know the place to go. In all places I am going, it’s a difficulty,” he recalled pondering. “You begin to shrink back from everyone. I used to be about to develop into a shut-in.”
After receiving a cellphone name from Johnny Depp inviting him to go all the way down to Los Angeles and rejoice Kate Moss’ twenty first birthday on the Viper Room, Duritz realized he felt extra at house within the Metropolis of Angels.
“L.A. was an actual refuge,” he defined. “This entire city of dreamers.”
Duritz ended up bartending on the Viper Room almost “each evening” — giving his tricks to the homeowners — as a result of it turned the one place he felt comfy and like himself.
When the remainder of the Counting Crows known as him up about writing one other album, Duritz would say, “I’m not in a band now.” Nevertheless, his L.A. experiences ultimately impressed him to get again into the studio.
“I lived a very totally different life, then I moved to Hollywood and met all these actually cool folks and I needed to make a document about it,” he mentioned.
Adam Duritz’s Brief-Lived Romance With Jennifer Aniston
Adam Duritz had a short-lived romance with Jennifer Aniston in 1995, which he claimed was due to their associates working time beyond regulation to set them up.
“Once I met Jennifer Aniston, my associates lied to me and her associates lied to her. They instructed us we each had been actually into one another,” he revealed within the documentary. He famous he didn’t know “something” in regards to the Associates star on the time, including that he was “busy throughout prime time” and unable to observe any of the large TV exhibits.
Nonetheless, when Aniston confirmed as much as see him play, he was intrigued. “Once we had been on the brink of document, we’d do these exhibits on the Viper Room and we’d take a look at out the fabric, and Jen got here to the present and he or she’s cool,” he mentioned. “She’s good, she’s actually humorous, she’s lovely and he or she likes me, apparently.”
Adam Duritz Provides Uncommon Perception Into His Relationship and Breakup With Courteney Cox
Duritz’s bandmates and associates mentioned within the doc that they’d seen their singer “deeply in love perhaps 4 of 5 occasions,” noting that he would fall in love “in a short time.”
Duritz famous that his “longest” relationship was with Aniston’s Associates costar Courteney Cox, whom he started relationship in 1996 after she starred within the band’s “A Lengthy December” music video.
“She’s hanging out with us or she’s on our tour bus with us. She painted my fingernails,” former bassist Matt Malley recalled, claiming that Cox was an enormous inspiration for the band’s second album, Recovering the Satellites.
“I don’t assume their relationship was the healthiest factor on this planet as a result of Adam wasn’t the healthiest factor on this planet at that time,” Duritz’s longtime good friend Randall Slavin famous.
Duritz, for his half, shared his perspective on why the pair in the end didn’t work out. “Courteney was most likely my longest relationship, however I don’t know whether or not we had been actually collectively for lots of it,” he defined. “We had been very, very totally different folks. And there have been moments that had been completely great collectively and there have been moments the place it was actually laborious. We simply weren’t on the identical wavelength.”
Mary-Louise Parker Throws Shade at Adam Duritz’s Exes
Though Mary-Louise Parker and Adam Duritz dated within the ’90s, they maintained a long-standing friendship. When the actress was interviewed in regards to the “Mr. Jones” singer for the documentary, she brazenly confessed to not loving a few of his different former romantic companions.
“My recollections of Adam are 98 % platonic. Possibly 98.6,” she insisted. Nevertheless, she added, “He might have executed with no few of these girlfriends, I believe. I might have shaved a couple of of these off the listing, very fortunately.”
Adam Duritz Will get Rid of His Dreadlocks
Adam Duritz’s present associate, Zoe Mintz, whom he met in 2017, opened up within the movie about what first drew her to the singer.
“He was charming and simply utterly candy,” she mentioned. “We had dinner and we’ve been collectively ever since. I really feel very protecting of Adam. I’ve had that worry earlier than, of being relied upon for happiness, however Adam isn’t reliant on me or anybody.”
Mintz famous that from her perspective, Duritz’s choice of carrying dreadlocks was “one of many issues folks didn’t perceive about him” and sure turned “an element during which the general public responded to him,” referencing a few of the criticism he obtained within the ’90s. “I believe there was a little bit little bit of ridicule,” she added.
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Mintz mentioned that the dreadlocks appeared to develop into a sort of “defend” for him over time, so she would gently attempt to persuade him to alter up his look.
“They had been a barrier, and once I might get by means of them and see his face, I simply love his face. He’s bought lovely eyes and my favourite smile on this planet, and I simply at all times gently inspired him, ‘Possibly it is best to attempt, you understand, not having dreadlocks,’” she mentioned.
Finally, Duritz adopted her recommendation and shaved his head.
“I used to be surprised and so blissful for him as a result of he was blissful,” Mintz gushed. “He was prepared for a brand new period. He was able to be a brand new model of himself and a extra uncovered model of himself, and I used to be ecstatic for him.” (Earlier within the documentary, Duritz talked about that he didn’t really feel like himself whereas wanting within the mirror till he bought dreadlocks.)
Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me These days? is now streaming on HBO Max.
