Bye-bye, Jim...R.i.P.

James Dennis "Jim" Carroll (1949 - 2009) died of a heart attack at his home in Manhattan on September 11. Jim Carroll was a well-known member of the American counterculture, an author, poet and musician. He was best known for his 1978 autobiography The Basketball Diaries, which was later made into the 1995 film of the same name with Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll.
Apart from being interested in writing, Carroll was a basketball player throughout his grade school and high school career, but by age 13 he also began using heroin and prostituting himself to afford his expensive habit (his autobio exactly describes his experiences in New York addiction/prostitution underworld as an adolescent.)
In 1978 Carroll founded The Jim Carroll Band, a punk rock group. Their debut album was Catholic Boy (1980) which featured the single People who died, later appeared in Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. and also covered by John Cale.
In the mid-1980s Jim Carroll returned to writing full time and since 1991 he performed readings from his unfinished first novel, tentatively titled The Petting Zoo.
Rest in peace, brother!
(in the photo: Jim and Patti Smith )