On Haines Fullerton

By Waldo Jaquith
In September of 1996, after a slow slide downward, Charlottesville musician Haines Fullerton took his life. Fullerton's band The Deal had come a heartbeat away from making it big in the mid 80s, and met Dave Matthews in 1991 while tending bar at a popular Charlottesville bar. He became a strong, early supporter of Dave Matthews, predicting that Dave would be hugely famous one day, and even cowrote some songs with an early Dave Matthews Band. This week's issue of The Hook features a cover story -- "Dave, fame, and Haines: Celebrity, suicide, and the etiquette of envy" -- by Dave McNair, which is a recounting of a 2001 conversation that McNair had with Matthews about Fullerton. The piece also includes some insights on what it means to be acquainted with Dave Matthews, what it is to have watched him become famous, and the tyranny of fandom. This article originally appeared, in a lengthier form, on McNair's blog.