Something To Think About

Mick Mars - Motley Crue's guitarist - is notoriously quiet, especially about the bone disease he's had since he was a teenager. Yesterday he opened up to MusicRadar on how it's affected him and his life. While his health problems are definitely tragic, for me the most eye-opening part of the interview is the short but heart felt message on stem cell research:

MR: Let's talk about your medical condition. It's pretty serious.

Mars: "It's no walk in the park. In fact, it's why I kind of walk like Frankenstein. [laughs] The thing about Ankylosing Spondylitis is, it's caused by a gene; you first start noticing pain in your hips, usually when you're in your teens. What it does is it slowly fuses your bones together — your spine, your ribs…With most people it stops in their 30s, when the disease is still in their lower back. In my case, I have a rare form of the disease that hasn't stopped, so it's all the way up my whole back and into my brain stem. It's literally squeezing my rib cage together, so I've lost some height. And now that it's up in my brain stem it's hard for me to move my head in any direction, be it up and down or sideways. So I can't drive, I can't do any of that kind of stuff — this isn't a 'boo-hoo', it's just the facts."

"We really, really, really have to get going on stem cell research. It can help so many people — people in wheelchairs, spinal injuries, osteoporosis. There's so many diseases and conditions we could stop in their tracks if we just got serious."

Verrry interesting. This man lives with all these problems which possibly could be cured someday with a little more effort. Personally I'd be raising a flipping a shit at some of these politicians.

(photo credit: xiolablux)