Smashing Pumkins, Prince

(b. 1962, d. 12 July 1996)

A backup musician for the Smashing Pumpkins was found dead of an apparent heroin overdose in a Manhattan hotel room early Friday, and the alternative band’s drummer was charged with heroin possession.  Twenty-two-year-old drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who  has a history of drug and alcohol problems, was  with keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin, 34, when he overdosed at the Regency Hotel. New York police  say Chamberlin made the 911 call that brought officers to the Park Avenue hotel at 4:15 a.m. Melvoin, who was not a full-time Pumpkin, was pronounced dead at the scene.Ironically, Jonathan Melvoin’s jazz-playing father, Michael, a former chair of the academy, fought to eliminate drugs from the music industry. ~Marcus Errico Eonline