Just trying to be accurate!
Actually, I've been researching the band's frontman. He's an interesting guy with a really sad backstory (Father of Mine is very autobiographical; he was also sexually abused as a kid and has been pretty open about it). So now I have a soft spot for him. He's also battled addiction most of his life and now has been diagnosed with MS.
From Wikipedia:
Art Alexakis was born in
Los Angeles, the youngest of five children.
[1] When Art was five years old his father left the family,
[1] and financial difficulties forced his mother to relocate the family to the
Mar Vista Gardens housing project in California, located on the west side of Los Angeles in Del Rey. Alexakis was physically and sexually abused by older children in his neighborhood.
[3]
His brother George died of a
heroin overdose when Alexakis was 12. That same year, Alexakis's 15-year-old girlfriend died by suicide.
[4] Not long after her death, Alexakis attempted suicide by filling his pockets with sand and lead weights and jumping off the
Santa Monica Pier. Later, he said that the vision and voice of his brother George compelled him to survive.
[5] Alexakis started
shooting up when he was 13, mostly taking
crystal methamphetamine.
[6] He became addicted to heroin and
cocaine, and he survived a cocaine overdose when he was 22.
[7] He quit drugs
cold turkey in June 1989.
[6]