This news is certainly shocking! A Des Moines, Iowa doctor was charged on Wednesday (Sep 5th) with involuntary manslaughter because he allegedly over-prescribed painkillers to eight of his patients — one of whom was Slipknot bassist Paul Gray, who died of a drug overdose in May 2010. According to the Des Moines Register, the charges against Dr. Daniel Baldi state he “did unintentionally cause the death of Paul Gray by the commission of an act likely to cause death or serious injury, to wit, continually wrote high-dose prescription narcotics to a known drug addict from 12/27/2005 until his death.” Gray was found dead at the age of 38 in a hotel room outside Des Moines, surrounded by drug paraphernalia. His death was ruled an accidental overdose of morphine and fentanyl, with his autopsy showing that Gray also suffered from significant heart disease.The other seven victims named in the case also all died of overdoses.The 50-year-old Baldi helped run an Iowa Health System pain clinic that closed without explanation in June. He currently faces four medical malpractice lawsuits, including three wrongful death suits for three of the deaths named in the criminal charges. Baldi’s attorney claims the charges against his client are unprecedented in the state of Iowa, saying, “It is unprecedented to turn unfortunate deaths or medical results into a crime against a doctor. Unexpected deaths can occur in severe, chronic pain patients, unrelated to medical treatment. This is especially true with patients who are drug addicts or drug abusers.” Gray’s widow, Brenna, revealed in an April 2011 interview with Revolver that her husband had agreed to get help for his drug problem just one day before he died on May 24th, 2010. Editor’s note: What IS with these doctors today? If you know of someone who’s receiving unnessary prescriptions from a doctor, please, for their sake and their loved ones, let the authorities know!… Pulse of Radio confirms Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong will apparently be well enough to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday night (Sep 6th), after a sudden illness forced the group to cancel a show earlier this week. A statement from the cable channel read, “(Green Day) will be in Los Angeles for their rehearsal on Wednesday and . . . they are ready to plug in for the big show after a recent health scare for singer Billie Joe Armstrong.” Still no word on what ailment he suffered in Italy, forcing the band to cancel their final European stop….Aaron Lewis of Staind revealed in an interview with our own Lou Brutus that his recent golf tournament last month in Bernardston, MA raised $150,000 for the R.H. Conwell community school. The event, held Aug 11th at the Crumpin’ Fox Golf Course, included the tournament and various games within, lunch, dinner, drinks, silent auction, raffles and ended with an acoustic performance by Aaron. He plans to hold the tournie again next year…..Although they met back in February, Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger and pop singer Avril Lavigne only officially started dating on Canada Day, Jul 1st — just five weeks before Kroeger asked fellow Canadian Lavigne to marry him on Aug 8th. In a new interview with People magazine, Kroeger said, “We think it’s very cool that our anniversary will always be on Canada Day. We can’t wait to start our life together.” Kroeger and Lavigne first met when he was tasked with helping her write songs for her new album earlier in the year. Even when the relationship turned serious, they kept it under the radar until recently. Kroeger said, “I try not to take too much interest in the world’s opinion of our relationship. I just know the both of us are very happy.” No date has been revealed for the nuptials….Foo Fighters performed in Charlotte, NC last night at a Rock The Vote event. Just a nice friendly reminder to get out and ROCK THE VOTE this November! www.rockthevote.org…Happy 69th today to Roger Waters of Pink Floyd.
