A s quickly as he responded his telephone, Clayton Carmen knew he was once getting unhealthy information. It was once March 2024, and via then, just about a decade had handed since he had observed his father, Eric Carmen — the power-pop trailblazer and Raspberries frontman easiest remembered for the hits “Cross All of the Approach,” “All via Myself,” and “Hungry Eyes.” Clayton’s stepmother, Amy, was once at the different finish of the road. The 27-year-old hadn’t observed her since his highschool days, when Clayton knocked at the door of the home that Amy shared together with his dad in an try to after all reconcile their variations. Carmen and Amy spoke back to the overture via remaining the curtains, calling the police, and reporting a trespasser.

“I bear in mind going, ‘Oh, boy, should you’re calling me, I will’t believe that is excellent,’” Clayton says. “She instructed me, ‘Your dad died the day gone by.’”

Eric Carmen’s brother, Fred, gained a identical name from Amy. Fred hadn’t communicated together with his older brother since 2016, although they had been as shut as siblings may well be for the primary 55 years of his existence. Fred blames Amy for uplifting a sequence of court cases that separated Eric from his brother, his son, and 24-year-old Kathryn Carmen, Eric’s most effective different little one. He had some questions.

“I stated, ‘Used to be he in poor health? Have been there problems?’” Fred says. “She stated, ‘No. We went out to dinner the night time ahead of and he gave the impression fantastic. We watched TV ahead of going to mattress. The following morning, I ran some errands whilst he slept in, like he at all times did. Once I got here house, he was once long past.’”

“I’m no longer commenting on my husband’s dying, however that isn’t what I stated to Fred Carmen,” says Amy Carmen, who to start with declined to be interviewed for this newsletter, however ultimately spoke back to a listing of inquiries.

Looking for extra information about his brother’s passing, Fred says he phoned the coroner’s place of work in Maricopa County — Carmen had lived in Paradise Valley, Arizona — to invite for a replica of the post-mortem record. He was once instructed it wasn’t to be had, and later discovered that Amy had filed a lawsuit in opposition to the police, fireplace division, clinical examiner, and the county’s public-health place of work to forestall the record’s unencumber, even to Carmen’s kids.

“We must all get the consideration of being remembered for our accomplishments throughout our time right here,” Amy says, “no longer essentially the most private second in our lives — the time we go away this earth.” (Closing September, a pass judgement on agreed with Amy, declaring that the discharge of data when it comes to Carmen’s dying would purpose Amy and the property “considerable grief and hurt.”)

On Eric Carmen’s legitimate site the day after his dying, a imprecise announcement knowledgeable fanatics most effective that he had died “in his sleep, over the weekend.” 11 months later, the precise explanation for Carmen’s dying at 74 is solely one of the questions on his enigmatic existence that linger. Why did the singer, fiercely personal, move so public in his toughen of Donald Trump throughout his ultimate years, posting livid MAGA missives that horrified many longtime pals and fanatics? Why did he virtually totally abandon his tune occupation after scoring international hits within the overdue Nineteen Eighties? What brought about him to sever ties together with his most effective kids? And the way did the circle of relatives schism widen to the purpose that Amy is now accusing Clayton and Kathryn of as soon as plotting their father’s homicide, in one in every of more than one court cases Amy has been excited about following Carmen’s dying?

In an strive to reply to those questions, I spent the previous six months reporting on Carmen’s existence via interviews with members of the family, his former supervisor, shut pals, bandmates, and fellow musicians who drew a life-time of inspiration from his paintings. The complicated portrait that emerged varies wildly, relying on who’s doing the telling. His bandmates and pals who stayed with him to the tip describe Carmen as a type and beneficiant suburban dad, luckily retired, head over heels in love with Amy, and shattered via the lack of his courting together with his children. His brother, kids, and ex-wife, Susan, describe a sour, paranoid conspiracy theorist haunted via the previous, misplaced within the face of moving musical tastes, hopelessly hooked on alcohol, and manipulated via Amy to activate his circle of relatives.

Amy strongly denies turning Carmen in opposition to his kids, and claims they sought after not anything from their father but even so his cash within the remaining decade of his existence. “I cherished Eric and stood via him throughout the tricky instances, not like his brother and his kids,” she says. “Eric had each reason why for short of to be estranged from [his family]. However please, make sure to blame the brand new spouse.”

The only factor no person disputes is that Carmen was once a perfectionist and musical genius. “After he died, I noticed he hadn’t made tune in over 25 years,” says Steven Van Zandt. “I used to be like, ‘Goddamn!’ It’s this sort of disgrace, as a result of I will let you know as a author, performer, arranger, and manufacturer, his data had been one of the most biggest ever made. They had been correct on the best. Proper on the best.”

The Ultimate Days

The general arc of Eric Carmen’s existence started in 2014, when he got here around the Fb web page of a former NBC-affiliate meteorologist in Cleveland. It was once Amy Murphy, who was once then residing in Arizona. Carmen, nonetheless in Cleveland on the time, started a web-based after which in-person courtship with Amy, in the long run marrying her in 2016. “I gained a Fb direct message from him,” Amy stated at Carmen’s memorial provider remaining 12 months. “It merely learn, ‘Do you know you had been my favourite climate lady whilst you had been in Cleveland?’ ”

Prior to lengthy, the couple moved into a brand new area in combination in Cleveland. From the beginning, Carmen’s kids, Clayton and Kathryn, didn’t take to Amy. “The comparability I at all times make is to The Mum or dad Lure. I at all times bring to mind her because the evil stepmom/female friend,” Clayton says. “When my dad was once round, she was once very smiley, glad, and candy. However my sister and I knew from the very starting that she was once in point of fact, in point of fact, in point of fact unhealthy information.

“My father was once only a very manipulatable, paranoid, remoted user,” he continues. “And unexpectedly somebody comes into his existence and, as a substitute of his children, who will ward off on him, she’s a sycophant. She’ll say sure to no matter he needs. She’ll consider him on his zaniest, maximum deranged conspiracy theories. She was once simply what he sought after.”

Amy emphatically denies this categorization in their courting. “I by no means requested him for the rest,” she says. “In contrast to the opposite barnacles in Eric’s existence, I didn’t want the rest.”

A web page from Kathryn’s diary, dated Feb. 12, 2016, when she was once 15, unearths her way of thinking whilst residing part-time with Amy and her father. “I will’t forestall residing on how a lot I hate them,” she wrote. “Clay and I’ve mentioned killing Eric and riding his Jag to California. Our plan sounds higher and higher … I were given so indignant this night I couldn’t forestall shaking. I will’t be answerable for my very own movements at this level.”

“MY FATHER WAS JUST A VERY MANIPULATABLE, PARANOID, ISOLATED PERSON.”Clayton Carmen

The diary access was once cited as proof that Kathryn and Clayton had been “making plans Eric’s homicide” in a up to date criminal submitting via Amy’s lawyers. “Amy took more than one footage of my diary to force a wedge into the connection with my father,” Kathryn writes in an e mail to Rolling Stone. “Those antics began once she moved into the house. She would incessantly comb via my brother and I’s rooms in search of the rest that might hurt a parent-child courting. I’m really saddened that Amy would attempt to publicly misuse the non-public ramblings of a kid who was once experiencing such a lot heartbreak and ache at house.… After all my brother and I by no means had any aim of inflicting bodily risk to our father as she’s suggesting.”

In April 2018, Carmen and Amy left Ohio to resettle in Arizona, however withheld telling the opposite contributors of the Carmen circle of relatives; they resisted any strive via Clayton and Kathryn to reconnect, as smartly. “This was once Eric’s selection,” Amy says. “Eric had no want to reestablish touch with any of them. Eric’s criminal recommend and all of his shut pals know that they in my opinion and jointly made his existence a residing hell.”

In line with their shut pals, Carmen was once extraordinarily glad within the ultimate six years of his existence, or even greatly lowered his consuming, an issue with alcohol that had plagued him for far of his occupation. “[Amy] was once in point of fact excellent for him,” says Raspberries drummer Jim Bonfanti. “She was once a distinct user than Eric, however she’s good, and she or he in point of fact cherished him. He was once as glad as I’d observed him.” Bernie Hogya, who co-wrote the 2011 biography Eric Carmen: Marathon Guy with Ken Sharp, echoes Bonfanti’s overview. “I’d by no means observed him happier,” he says. “She in point of fact grounded him.”

The beginning of Carmen’s courting with Amy came about to coincide with the political upward thrust of Donald Trump. Carmen changed into one in every of Trump’s staunchest superstar defenders on Twitter, particularly when Covid started, which he noticed as a conspiracy to undermine the then-president. “Unemployment skyrocketed, the ‘lockdown’ crashed Trump’s financial system, lecturers don’t need colleges to open,” he wrote in a single tweet. “Folks misplaced companies they labored their entire lives for. All to harm Donald Trump. We’re simply collateral injury. And the REAL level is necessary vaccination with an ID for all.”

When Joe Biden received the 2020 election, Carmen had a public meltdown on Twitter, slamming the “mainstream media.” “It’s time to flip off the MSM, en masse,” he wrote when the networks reported Biden had defeated Trump. “Watch Newsmax and OANN … All of the MSM has known as the election for Biden. No longer unexpected, since they had been all a part of it. Please, President Trump, don’t concede.”

Within the irritating weeks that adopted, Carmen began to tweet slogans related to the fringe-right QAnon motion, like “the typhoon is coming,” along side absurd lies about Dominion and Smartmatic balloting machines rigging the election, and fevered, Alex Jones-style declarations about an coming near near apocalypse. “I do know all about ‘The Nice Reset,’” he tweeted on Nov. 17, 2020. “I’m questioning how they intend to perform it. I’ve been considering extra alongside the strains of taking away the ability grid and the monetary gadget in a single huge cyber assault. No matter it’s, it’ll make Covid seem like a small bump within the highway.”

A few of his pals did their easiest to forget about Carmen’s on-line outbursts. “When he went sideways politically, we simply didn’t talk about politics,” says Van Zandt. “That’s what I do with all my pals once we range. We would possibly range politically, however I don’t write folks off that manner. I’m like, ‘Howdy, we see issues in a different way politically, and that’s OK. Let’s no longer make that a part of the dialog. We were given quite a few different issues to discuss.’”

Again in Cleveland, Carmen’s children had been aghast. “Probably the most I will make sense of it’s that he did battle with melancholy,” says Kathryn. “He wasn’t non secular, and I believe he was once virtually liable to that sense of belonging in a while in existence that Trump supplied. Our jaws had been at the floor as we noticed the entirety spread together with his politics.”

“The extra that Trump seemed on my TV, the extra I might pick out up on positive little issues about him that jogged my memory of my dad,” says Clayton. “Simply up to you take a look at Trump as a textbook narcissist, my dad was once a narcissist to essentially the most textbook level.”

A Musical Prodigy

There’s no denying the musical ability of Eric Carmen. Even ahead of he entered kindergarten, the Cleveland Institute of Track identified one thing within the boy. His aunt, Muriel, was once a world-renowned viola participant within the Cleveland Orchestra, and it was once transparent her tiny nephew, who cherished to hang around within the theater each time she rehearsed, absorbing the tune like a sponge, inherited her reward. “He was once taking part in piano ahead of he may stroll,” says Fred Carmen. “I may bang my spoon on a metal bowl and he’d move, ‘C-flat.’ He actually had very best pitch.”

When Carmen was once simply 3 and a half of, the Cleveland Institute of Track presented him an enrollment. (To at the moment, via all accounts, he holds the listing because the youngest pupil within the 104-year historical past of the group.) It didn’t take him lengthy to grasp a mess of classical tools, together with piano and violin, however he switched to guitar as a 14-year-old after seeing the Beatles carry out at the The Ed Sullivan Display in 1964. “I took guitar courses on the identical time,” says Fred. “It was once very irritating for me, as a result of I used to be going via one guide each 3 months. He was once going via 3 books each 3 days. He simply had implausible herbal ability.”

His talent on guitar helped him stand out in a faculty the place he very a lot felt like an interloper. “He had a fancy about being the Jewish child with very curly hair,” says Kathryn Carmen. “He noticed the Beatles with their immediately British cuts. He in point of fact, in point of fact sought after that hair. And I believe he simply changed into obsessive about seeking to get it immediately.” (Getting his hair excellent was once a lifelong quest. By way of the overdue Nineteen Eighties, he toured with a big suitcase trustworthy only to hairbrushes and sprays.)

Within the overdue Nineteen Sixties, Carmen changed into an area teenage legend for his skill to take complicated songs like “Stroll Away Renee,” “Sloop John B,” and “The Children Are Alright” and re-create them onstage. He performed in quite a lot of bands at Hullabaloo golf equipment and bars all throughout Cleveland and the encompassing suburbs, ultimately teaming up with the cream of the native scene: drummer Jim Bonfanti, guitarist Wally Bryson, and bassist Dave Smalley. They known as themselves the Raspberries, no longer after the fruit, however the slang time period for blowing air from your mouth as an indignant retort. “Eric knew precisely what he sought after the band to be,” says Bonfanti. “He sought after us to have one thing other and particular. He was once on a challenge.”

A large a part of that challenge was once eschewing the excesses that had crept into rock via the early Nineteen Seventies. To Carmen, pop tune peaked across the time of the Seaside Boys’ Puppy Sounds and the Beatles’ Revolver, and he had no real interest in drum solos, 10-minute songs, or the rest that felt even remotely like prog. “I bear in mind Eric announcing, ‘You received’t pay attention any flute solos on this band,’” says Bonfanti. “We would have liked to be the following Beatles, which was once a lovely lofty function.”

They took no less than a step towards that function in 1972, once they launched their self-titled debut album on Capitol Information, the similar label because the Fab 4. Carmen, Bryson, and Smalley, all nonetheless of their early twenties, every got here to the periods with songs they’d written on their very own, however Carmen’s stood out, particularly “Cross All of the Approach.” Impressed via the Rolling Stones’ “Let’s Spend the Evening In combination,” it’s a three-and-a-half-minute blast of guitar and layered vocal harmonies, with lyrics instructed from the viewpoint of a tender girl urging on her boyfriend. “He heard the entire thing in his head,” says Bonfanti, “and he relayed what he was once listening to to us.”

“Cross All of the Approach” slowly climbed the Billboard Sizzling 100 throughout the summer time and fall of 1972, ultimately peaking at Quantity 5. However Capitol had no concept what to do with the Raspberries. The primary LP got here with a sticky label that smelled like a raspberry whilst you scratched it, they usually had been advertised to tweens in magazines like Tiger Beat. Their first excursion was once backed via Carefree Sugarless Gum and performed in large part to schools. “The label by no means figured us out,” says Bonfanti. “And our giant mistake was once no longer discovering the best supervisor. We treated the entirety ourselves, and that form of screwed us.”

The Raspberries’ 2nd LP, Contemporary, hit simply seven months after the primary. At the duvet, they seem like an early disco band in matching white fits with massive black-tab collars. As soon as once more, all of the easiest songs had been Carmen originals, significantly “I Wanna Be With You” and “Let’s Fake,” each power-pop classics that pulsate with a Brian Wilson sense of sorrow and craving.

The critics, on the other hand, had been underwhelmed. “After being attentive to this for a month,” sniped Robert Christgau, the so-called dean of American rock critics, “all I bear in mind is 3 songs.”

Van Zandt says the response was once unfair. “The Raspberries had been just like the Who meets the Beatles,” the E Side road Band guitarist says. “And now whilst you glance again, you recognize they had been inventing persistent pop.”

However via 1973, only one 12 months after “Cross All of the Approach,” the Raspberries had been falling aside because of character conflicts, deficient control, and differing musical visions. When the mud settled, Bonfanti and Smalley had been out, and Carmen and Bryson limped ahead with two new bandmates, bassist Scott McCarl and drummer Michael McBride, to chop the hopefully titled Beginning Over in 1974. Even then they weren’t at the identical web page. “He was once in point of fact into the Seaside Boys,” says Bryson. “I didn’t see the purpose in that. I didn’t assume you must beat the Seaside Boys at their very own sport.”

HE TOURED WITH A LARGE SUITCASE DEVOTED SOLELY TO HAIRBRUSHES AND SPRAYS.

Along with his Capitol deal at the line, Carmen poured the entirety he had into a brand new music, “In a single day Sensation (Hit File).” It were two very lengthy and irritating years since he’d had a real hit listing, and the five-and-a-half-minute mini opera was once a plea for popularity instructed from the viewpoint of an interloper — which is maximum decidedly how Carmen felt. At 25, he was once at risk of changing into a one-hit marvel.

What came about as a substitute to the Raspberries isn’t distinctive in rock historical past: Their affect wasn’t identified till lengthy when they ceased to exist. The band went directly to encourage considerably extra a success teams, like Reasonable Trick and Kiss, or even inspire Bruce Springsteen to lean into pop when making The River in 1979.

“Considered one of my favourite data that summer time was once the Raspberries’ Biggest Hits,” Springsteen stated in 1998. “They had been large little pop data. I cherished the manufacturing, and after I went into the studio numerous issues we did had been like that. Two-, three-, four-minute pop songs coming one correct after every other.”

Springsteen borrowed Raspberries music titles “I’m a Rocker” and “I Wanna Be With You” (each written via Carmen) and used them on new songs he minimize for The River. “Bruce isn’t shy,” says Van Zandt. “He believes in my philosophy, which is you’re most effective as cool as who you thieve from.”

The Start of a Hit

Susan Carmen, Eric’s then-wife, came about to be within the Los Angeles studio the place Celine Dion was once busy ensuring the Carmen circle of relatives wouldn’t have to fret about cash for a long time. It was once the mid-Nineteen Nineties, and Dion was once operating with manufacturer David Foster on songs for her massively a success album Falling Into You. Susan was once introduced in via songwriter Diane Warren to mention hi to Dion, having no concept that the French Canadian singer was once recording vocals for “All via Myself,” Eric Carmen’s 1975 hit.

“Celine was once having some problem with hitting one of the most notes,” says Susan, who was once married to Eric for greater than twenty years. “David Foster got here in and jokingly stated, ‘If you’ll be able to’t hit that notice, Whitney’s two doorways down.’”

That was once all of the inspiration Dion wanted: She hit the notice, and “All via Myself” changed into inescapable on Most sensible 40 radio throughout the overdue Nineteen Nineties. The recording made Carmen thousands and thousands — cash that went very a ways within the Rust Belt the town of Cleveland. “Celine Dion did us numerous favors,” says Kathryn Carmen. “I grew up very, very privileged.”

The tale of “All via Myself” is going again to 1975, correct after the Raspberries imploded and Clive Davis regarded as signing Carmen as a solo artist to his new label, Arista. His hobby grew significantly as soon as he heard a piano ballad Carmen had written concerning the loneliness he felt after the Raspberries break up, drawing musical inspiration from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (such a lot inspiration, if truth be told, that the Rach­maninoff property squeezed him for 12 % of the music’s publishing). “All via Myself” “captured that feeling that everybody has had, at one time or every other, and I purposely attempted to stay the lyric quite simple and conversational,” Carmen instructed biographers Sharp and Hogya. “Like I used to be speaking to a chum, or simply considering out loud. I suppose all of it labored.”

The music reached Quantity Two at the Sizzling 100, and when the follow-up ballad, “By no means Gonna Fall in Love Once more,” hit Quantity 11, it appeared as though Carmen was once going to transform a real pop celebrity.

However just like what had came about with “Cross All of the Approach” 3 years previous, the transient flash of good fortune was once adopted via an extended length of turmoil and sour frustration. The issue started when Carmen learned that Arista anticipated a 2nd album of songs very similar to “All via Myself.” “Clive stated that ‘Whenever you move pop, you’ll be able to by no means return,’” Carmen instructed Sharp and Hogya. “I guess he supposed that you’ll be able to by no means be regarded as a ‘critical rock artist’ once more. I want he’d have discussed that to me ahead of I signed my contract, as a result of if he had, I wouldn’t have signed with him.”

Carmen envisioned his 2nd solo album as a grand creative remark on par with Abbey Street — he even unsuccessfully tried to recruit Beatles manufacturer George Martin — and the songs he wrote instructed the tale of a existence full of loneliness and heartbreak. He known as the album Boats In opposition to the Present, taking the identify from the remaining line of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Nice Gatsby.

However operating in London with manufacturer Gus Dudgeon, who helmed Elton John’s easiest Nineteen Seventies albums, Carmen failed to complete a unmarried music. He returned to The usa with hefty studio expenses and, consistent with Fred Carmen, an habit to cocaine. “He stayed at my area for 6 weeks after that,” says Fred, “till we had been ready to get him again to customary.”

Carmen then headed to Los Angeles to supply the album himself, with musicians like Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro, guitarists Richie Zito and Andrew Gold, and Rolling Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys. The Seaside Boys’ Bruce Johnston helped prepare the background vocals and coaxed Brian Wilson into the studio to sing at the Seaside Boys-inspired “She Did It.” When all was once stated and achieved, Carmen had spent $400,000 (or just a little over $2 million in 2025 bucks) on Boats In opposition to the Present.

Hoping to make that again, Davis insisted on including background vocals to the sparse identify observe to equipment it towards radio, a transfer that horrified Carmen. Davis additionally tore up Carmen’s moderately crafted observe series. “It’s totally backward from what Eric sought after,” says Hogya. “He stated to me, ‘If you happen to concentrate to it backwards, it’s my biography. It’s my existence tale. However should you concentrate to the best way Clive determined to trace it, it doesn’t make any sense.’”

In spite of all of Davis’ meddling (or in all probability as a result of it), the album was once an entire stiff, peaking at Quantity 45 at the Billboard 200. A 33-date excursion was once booked, together with fast runs opening for Elvin Bishop and Corridor and Oates, however half of had been canceled. Simplest years later would Boats In opposition to the Present be identified as a basic. “It has an total roughly a despair to it that feels actual and honest,” says Brian Wilson bandleader Darian Sahanaja, who grew just about Carmen within the Nineteen Nineties. “Like Brian did on Puppy Sounds, he’s seeking to seize this lack of innocence, and a craving for acceptance.”

Carmen would by no means once more have that a lot freedom within the studio. On 1978’s Trade of Middle, he succumbed to Arista’s calls for and added cheesy disco sounds to lots of the tracks — however bookended the album with the orchestral ballads “Determined Fools” and “Determined Fools Overture.” “The album begins and ends with this in point of fact sorrowful music about being in L.A. and being damaged,” says Hogya. “That was once a lament of him being compelled to do what’s going to come back in between the ones songs.”

Two extra failed albums adopted, and Carmen went into occupation hibernation. “The tune industry turned into one thing that he wasn’t aware of such a lot, and didn’t love,” says Fred Carmen.

It took two of essentially the most a success youngster films of the Nineteen Eighties to convey Carmen’s occupation again from the lifeless. The revival started in 1983 when he co-wrote the Ann Wilson-Mike Reno ruin duet “Nearly Paradise” for the Footloose soundtrack, and endured in 1987 when he agreed to hide “Hungry Eyes,” written via John DeNicola and Franke Previte, for Grimy Dancing. The Patrick Swayze film changed into a cultural phenomenon, and its soundtrack spent an astounding 18 weeks at Quantity One at the Billboard 200. To capitalize at the good fortune, a Grimy Dancing excursion was once put at the highway in the summertime of 1988 that visited 90 towns in simply 3 months.

Carmen hit the street with fashion Susan McClurg, whom he began relationship after noticing her on a billboard in Cleveland, however the glamorous rock & roll excursion she imagined temporarily changed into a grind. “It was once additionally in point of fact tough on his voice. Neatly ahead of halfway via, he was once getting injections in his vocal cords as a result of his throat was once bleeding,” Susan says. “He were given just a little sloppy, too. He would have an excessive amount of to drink, and he would disregard the phrases to the songs. It wasn’t perfect.”

Carmen was once compelled to bow out, leaving him with sour reminiscences of existence as a traveling artist. However he did have a brand new music, “Make Me Lose Keep watch over,” that Arista launched on a Biggest Hits bundle designed to money in on “Hungry Eyes” mania. It changed into a good larger hit. Momentum was once beginning to construct once more, however Carmen hit the brakes when he discovered that Davis anticipated him to paintings with outdoor songwriters for his subsequent album.

Two years handed, the alt-rock revolution was once at the horizon, and slick pop hitmakers had been falling out of favor. Carmen all however vanished from the general public sphere. After a couple of years of residing with Susan in L.A. and making an attempt to jot down hits for others, he moved again to Cleveland to begin a circle of relatives.

“He simply didn’t know the place he are compatible within the pantheon of tune stars anymore,” says Fred Carmen. “That pissed off him very much, and he simply retracted.”

The Sudden Reunion

Unwilling to compromise his imaginative and prescient and bend to record-industry calls for, Carmen grew to become his consideration towards his circle of relatives. His son, Clayton, was once born in 1997, and Kathryn adopted 3 years later. “To younger children, he was once large,” says Susan. “He adored them.”

He took a temporary destroy from suburban-dad tasks in 2000 and hesitantly returned to the street after he gained an be offering to sign up for Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band, along Jack Bruce of Cream, Simon Kirke of Dangerous Corporate, and Dave Edmunds. Carmen labored meticulously to be informed each nuance of the classic-rock set checklist. However his consuming drawback, which Susan first spotted at the Grimy Dancing excursion a dozen years previous, had grown into a big factor on a excursion that, consistent with a Starr dictate, was once one hundred pc dry. “Ringo was once a tricky taskmaster,” says Susan, who recalls Carmen’s supervisor David Spero calling her on a couple of events to warn, “He’s about to get kicked off the excursion.”

“I believe it was once crucial to Ringo to have everyone at the identical web page,” Spero says. “We had guys like Jack Bruce, who was once clearly a heavy drinker. However he would move to another bar than the resort bar, and he would do it on his personal. However you don’t convey it to paintings, and Eric introduced it to paintings.”

The Ringo excursion, together with a triumphant place of origin display at the Cleveland lakefront, lasted an insignificant 8 weeks. When it resumed the next summer time, Roger Hodgson from Supertramp was once given Carmen’s position because the band’s keyboardist.

“HE GOT A LITTLE SLOPPY. HE WOULD HAVE TOO MUCH TO DRINK AND FORGET THE WORDS.”Susan McClurg

Round this time, whispers of a Raspberries reunion had been within the air, however bringing the speculation to fruition took years of false begins and just about hit the skids when Carmen made it transparent that he sought after a bigger percentage of the spoils. After months of rehearsals the place he obsessed over each notice, Carmen and the Raspberries after all booked dates in November 2004, on the opening of the Area of Blues in Cleveland.

“I am getting goose bumps serious about it,” says guitarist Paul Sidoti, who was once plucked from obscurity for the presentations via Carmen, 3 years ahead of Taylor Swift employed him as her guitarist and bandleader, a place he holds to at the moment. “We had been so excited. From the minute we opened with ‘I Wish to Be With You,’ we had been floating. You simply felt the affection in that room.”

The comments from fanatics and the clicking was once ecstatic, with many calling it probably the most all-time-great reunion presentations in rock historical past. For Carmen’s children, it was once their first actual alternative to peer their father carry out are living. “We didn’t in point of fact know the way a lot folks cherished him,” says Kathryn. “It was once enchanting. It was once so humorous to peer my teddy-bear dad as a rock celebrity.”

The only-off gig was a small sequence of presentations in 2005 and 2007. “I bear in mind going to the Area of Blues in Hollywood,” says Sahanaja. “All of us couldn’t imagine we had been listening to those songs are living.”

However the reunion burned out in April 2009, when the Raspberries agreed to play a lone date on the Rock & Roll Corridor of Status at the weekend of the induction rite. Sidoti was once serving to Swift get ready for a excursion, so the Raspberries employed multi-instrumentalist Paul Christensen to take his position. In practice session, he labored up a sax solo to play throughout “In a single day Sensation.” “Bet what occurs once we get to that a part of the music?” Bonfanti says. “Wally performed a guitar solo over the sax solo. I appeared over at Eric. He appeared over at me. I knew it was once achieved.” Bryson doesn’t recall this incident however does bring it to mind being an overly irritating night. “Eric’s ego may fill a stadium,” he says. “And he stored interjecting with ideas at soundcheck. I instructed him to ‘close the fuck up.’”

The Raspberries by no means performed once more. However two years ahead of the Corridor of Status gig, there have been already indicators that issues weren’t smartly with Carmen. “I went to peer him after the L.A. Area of Blues display in 2007,” says Sahanaja. “He was once totally tanked. He stored speaking and speaking about how a lot he cherished a music of mine. And I used to be so, so uncomfortable. I in fact needed to go away, as it was once like, ‘I don’t like seeing you prefer this.’”

Down the Rabbit Hollow

The headline on TMZ learn “Hungry Bloodshot Eyes.” Underneath it was once a two-and-a-half-minute dashcam video of Carmen in 2008 stumbling via a box sobriety take a look at in Orange, Ohio, after working over a hearth hydrant. When the police officers confirmed up, there was once a half-empty bottle of vodka within the entrance seat. His blood alcohol degree was once .23, just about thrice the criminal restrict.

It was once Carmen’s 2nd DUI in simply two years, and a pass judgement on sentenced him to 30 days in prison. His marriage to Susan was once in shambles. “He used coke early on,” Susan says. “By the point the youngsters came visiting, it was once simply alcohol. Once we lived in L.A. [in the early Nineties, before they married], he went to Betty Ford. It was once a situation of the wedding. He spent six weeks there, however he simply couldn’t handle it. And once his father died in 2007, he simply went off the rails.”

“I virtually mark my time with him into two sessions,” provides Clayton Carmen. “Prior to my grandfather died, and after my grandfather died. It virtually felt like the rest ahead of then was once simply youth. And the rest after that time, I think like I changed into so a lot more obviously and keenly conscious about his issues that he has, with consuming clearly being a large one.”

Carmen’s transient makes an attempt at Alcoholics Nameless went nowhere. “He was once a lovely stark atheist,” says Kathryn. “AA calls for you admitting that there’s a larger drive in play, and roughly taking a again seat and being humbled. And my dad couldn’t get with this system, rather actually. He didn’t imagine in it.”

This all got here to a head in 2007, when an drunk Carmen brought about the band to pass over a flight to a display at the West Coast. “He stored dropping his boarding go,” says Bryson. “He was once in point of fact out of it. It gave the impression just a little immature to me to get so inebriated.” In line with Susan Carmen, this incident was once adopted via one of the interventions that in the long run went nowhere.

This isn’t a very simple subject for Bonfanti to handle these days. “I did all I may to lend a hand him,” he says, wearily. “I supported him up to anyone may. Nevertheless it was once onerous.” (Amy Carmen doesn’t deny that Eric had an important consuming drawback ahead of they met. “Eric claimed that the unhappiness and toxicity swirling round him throughout the ones years ‘would force any person to drink,’” she says.)

Carmen’s alcoholism was once his circle of relatives’s number one worry, however they had been additionally apprehensive about his psychological fitness. Conspiracy theories had him to the purpose that Susan claims he as soon as filed a Freedom of Data Act request to get fabrics concerning the Kennedy assassination from the Warren Fee. As time went on, they occupied much more of his time. He changed into particularly fixated on chemtrails, the baseless perception that the federal government is the use of airplanes so as to add poisonous chemical substances to the ambience. “A jet would move over our area and go away just a little white path,” says Susan. “He’d glance up and say it was once an effort to sterilize folks.”

“It was once very onerous to get him off of the subject of chemtrails,” says Fred Carmen. “I might display him the articles that debunked all of that stuff, however true believers are true believers. There was once no speaking him out of it.”

Chemtrails even got here up round 2013, when Carmen labored with Sahanaja and his crew, the Wondermints, on “Logo New Yr” for the Very important Eric Carmen assortment, which might finally end up being his ultimate music. “I left the room to arrange some mics,” says Sahanaja. “I got here again and heard the phrase ‘chemtrails.’ Our guitarist Nicky [Walusko] was once roughly a conspiracy man himself, they usually had been getting actual it. And I needed to say ‘Guys, we need to paintings …’”

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(Amy disputes the perception that Carmen was once a conspiracy theorist and says she by no means heard him consult with chemtrails. “Eric was once a voracious reader and was once up on all present occasions, subjects, and controversies,” she says. “He preferred attractive in dialog about such controversies, however that didn’t make him a ‘conspiracy theorist.’ Individuals who need to disparage Eric via claiming this maximum without a doubt have their very own agendas in doing so.”)

Eric Carmen additionally refused any provides to accomplish are living. “He can have been an enormous on line casino act,” says Spero. “However he was once fearful of failure. He was once afraid he’d be taking part in in entrance of empty properties.”

Round 2005, Spero approached him with what he calls a “heavy-six-figures” alternative to play “All via Myself” on TV in France. “I stated, ‘Howdy, 4 firstclass tickets to Cannes, per week in an A+++ resort, and a shitload of cash,’” says Spero. “‘All you need to do is play “All via Myself” with an orchestra, and you’ll personal the grasp. You couldn’t ask for a greater deal.’ He wouldn’t do it.”

No member of Carmen’s circle of relatives had heard this tale ahead of, however they aren’t shocked. “We by no means went anyplace, in point of fact, as a result of Eric didn’t need to commute,” says Susan. “He changed into very reclusive once we had been in L.A. within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, after which grew extra extensive. Shall we by no means plan a holiday the place he would ever must stand up ahead of midday,” she provides. “No actions. He wouldn’t move to objects on the children’ college if it was once within the morning.”

In line with Clayton, Susan, and Fred, Carmen spent maximum of his daylight hours in his place of work buying and selling shares on-line or studying the fan discussion board on his legitimate site, incessantly posting himself. “That was once the easiest situation, as a result of he may keep in touch with folks, however he didn’t have to depart his chair in his place of work, and it doesn’t matter what, on the finish of the day, the point of interest at all times got here again to him,” says Clayton.

To place it mildly, Clayton doesn’t really feel that Carmen was once an excellent father. “There have been simply positive in point of fact basic all-American-dad issues that I didn’t get from him that I did in point of fact need from him,” he says. “I might beg him to head outdoor and play catch with me, and as a rule it was once like, ‘Oh, it’s too humid out, it’s going to reduce to rubble my hair.’ There was once at all times an excuse. He was once very, very other out of your same old paternal, father-figure archetype.”

“There must be no mistake that he cherished Clayton and Kathryn,” Fred Carmen says of his brother. “However I don’t assume he in point of fact had an idea of what it was once to be a father or mother.”

Estranged

By way of everybody’s account, Carmen and Susan’s divorce, which started in 2009, was once brutal, stretching out for kind of a decade as they battled over cash and custody of the kids. They ultimately reached a shared-custody settlement that left nobody glad. “There wasn’t a lot conversation between the 2 of them,” says Kathryn. “I used to be entering that age the place I used to be like, ‘Please don’t make me convey my duffel bag to university.’”

Carmen ultimately moved into an condominium close to the Beachwood Position mall at the east aspect of Cleveland. He attempted thus far ladies on-line, nevertheless it didn’t move rather well. In line with Clayton and Fred, he met a girl on-line named Nancy, who claimed to be a long time more youthful than him. They spoke at the telephone just about each day for nearly two years, incessantly for hours at a time. However they by no means met, regardless of some shut calls the place she canceled on the remaining minute. “She concocted this entire elaborate tale about how she were a nurse in Afghanistan, and returned with some form of uncommon sickness that docs couldn’t determine it out,” says Clayton. “My dad took it upon himself to try this analysis and recognized some form of uncommon illness that he idea she had. My sister and I mainly instructed him for 8 months, ‘You’re getting catfished.’ And he was once totally in denial about it.”

“I bear in mind printing out an editorial that stated ‘Most sensible 10 Techniques to Know You’re Being Catfished,’” provides Fred. “She checked each field, and he refused to imagine it.”

No longer lengthy later on, Carmen met Amy, and as they dated and ultimately married, he slowly changed into estranged from his brother, his ex-wife, and either one of his children. Fred Carmen says that was once via Amy’s design. “The plan was once to first pull me clear of Eric after which pull the kids clear of Eric, in order that she was once the only real supply of the entirety, and that she would keep an eye on him,” he says. “To her credit score, she was once very efficient. Once more, Eric is a conspiracy theorist. She made him imagine his complete circle of relatives was once engaged in a conspiracy in opposition to him.”

“We had been excluded from their lives,” replies Amy. “Once everybody idea the cash teach had ended, Clayton, Susan, and Kathryn had been all about getting no matter they might get.”

Within the early days of the wedding, Amy says, she was once a loyal stepmother. “I [tried] to incorporate Clayton and Kathryn in our lives,” she says. “I used to be more than happy to lend a hand either one of them with their homework, and get ready foods. I straightened Kathryn’s hair ahead of college, as she ate the breakfast I ready for her, and I welcomed and taxied their pals. I helped Eric duvet the ceiling of Kathryn’s bed room with purple and white balloons to marvel her on Valentine’s Day.”

All sides of the Carmen circle of relatives divide cite a wild birthday celebration that Clayton threw at Eric and Amy’s area once they had been out of the town as a turning level of their courting. “I must have had you charged with breaking and coming into, and vandalism,” Eric wrote to his son in a 2018 e mail.

“From that time on,” says Susan, “neither Clay nor Kath may move over to the home until they had been invited. It was once like they had been strangers in their very own house.”

At this identical time, Eric Carmen filed a lawsuit in opposition to Fred, alleging mismanagement of his price range, improperly the use of cash to offer deal with their mom, and excessively charging him criminal charges all over the divorce length. Fred says he first were given wind that this may well be coming when Carmen and Amy had been at his area for a birthday celebration. “My nephew got here to me,” says Fred. “He stated, ‘You want to be careful for Amy. I simply heard her say to my dad there was once no manner you must have paid on your new deck by yourself.’ That was once the type of factor Amy was once announcing to him to make him conclude I used to be stealing from him.”

Amy says that is totally misguided. “I most effective noticed Fred’s deck one time, and admittedly it wasn’t that spectacular,” she says. “I by no means instructed Eric or concluded that Fred ‘was once stealing from him.’”

Fred denies any wrongdoing. They wound up settling out of court docket.

When Clayton graduated from highschool and deliberate on enrolling at NYU, he says, he discovered that his father wasn’t keen to pay for it. Consistent with what Amy calls “an overly questionable prenuptial settlement” together with his ex-wife Susan, Eric had to offer tuition for an in-state college. However Eric wouldn’t pay for Ohio State, both, resulting in a criminal struggle between the daddy and the son. “I by no means, ever, ever sought after it to come back to that,” says Clayton, “however the ones had been the choices I used to be going through, and it was once like, this isn’t little, menial shit, that is my faculty training, and that is one thing that provides me the root to begin the remainder of my existence.”

Amy says that Clayton by no means took his educational occupation severely; he was once as soon as penalized via the varsity’s Committee on Instructional Misconduct (Clayton doesn’t deny this: “I absolutely fucked up,” he says). She supplied an e mail Eric despatched to his son referring to faculty housing. “Presently the one success I’m all for is you getting excellent grades and graduating in 8 semesters,” Eric wrote. “We’re speaking about your faculty training. The training for which I’m paying.”

Clayton’s tuition invoice remained some degree of acrimony. He claims that Eric and Amy instituted grade minimums, and compelled him to are living within the most cost-effective dorm and use the skimpiest meal plan. “The 2 of them in point of fact terrorized me for my first couple years of school and made me soar via hoops,” he says. Amy name callings at this. “If begging Clayton to join categories or for on-campus housing, so their father may pay for them on time, is making somebody ‘soar via hoops,’” she says, “then [he has] a seriously skewed view of the remainder of the sector these days.”

Armed Guards on the Memorial

The main points of Carmen’s dying stay shrouded in thriller, however a few of his pals weren’t shocked once they heard the inside track in March. Says his former supervisor Spero: “He didn’t deal with himself. Against the tip, he’d won numerous weight.”

Fred and Clayton say they heard identical tales from Amy about him taking too many nutrients within the ultimate weeks of his existence, and necessarily overdosing on them. “Amy stated Eric was once taking 200 dietary supplements within the morning and 200 nutrition dietary supplements at night time,” says Fred. “And he had misplaced 11 kilos as a result of he was once taking Ozempic.” (Amy doesn’t deny her husband took dietary supplements, however says, “I by no means instructed any person that Eric took ‘400 dietary supplements an afternoon.’”)

When Clayton and Kathryn requested a couple of memorial provider, Amy was once to start with imprecise. They discovered the main points secondhand: She had arranged a non-public rite on the Musical Device Museum in Phoenix for April 20, 2024. “Please,” learn a notice connected to the invitation, “don’t ahead or percentage main points of the birthday party with any person.” To verify Clayton, Kathryn, and Fred wouldn’t come, she stationed armed guards outdoor the doorways.

“At what level does an individual take a step again and say, ‘OK, I actually employed armed guards to stay my deceased husband’s kids clear of attending their father’s funeral?’” says Clayton. (“I selected to have an exquisite however personal birthday party of Eric’s existence,” says Amy. “I unapologetically didn’t invite any person who was once disparaging or hurtful to my husband.”)

The unhealthy blood endured on Aug. 8, when the Rock & Roll Corridor of Status held “Eric Carmen Day” and posthumously awarded him a key to the town of Cleveland. For the primary time in years, Amy was once in the similar room with Susan, Clayton, and Kathryn. “Kathryn were instructed she’d have time to percentage some remarks she wrote,” says Clayton, who not too long ago took a task on the ability company CAA, within the tune brand-partnerships department, “however Amy threw a tantrum behind the scenes and not on time the rite via 45 mins, so my sister and I watched from the gang with none acknowledgment and needed to watch Amy discuss and settle for the award on my dad’s behalf.” (Amy says that any prolong within the rite was once no longer because of her, and claims it was once the Rock & Roll Corridor of Status, no longer her, that opted to tug Kathryn from this system on the remaining minute.)

No person in attendance had any concept there was once behind the scenes rancor. Heartfelt video testimonials had been delivered via one of the most greatest names in rock & roll: Kiss’ Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, Van Halen’s Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, Reasonable Trick’s Robin Zander, John Oates, the Seaside Boys’ Al Jardine, Foreigner’s Lou Gramm, Peter Frampton, Clive Davis, and others. “I most effective want he had been right here to just accept this award and to peer this wonderful crowd of people that cherished him and cherished his tune,” Amy instructed the gang, combating again tears. “Despite the fact that, I’ve all day felt him with us in spirit.”

The phrase that comes up maximum incessantly when folks speak about Eric Carmen is “perfectionist.” He was once a perfectionist when it got here to crafting songs within the studio, refusing to accept the rest not up to the tune he heard in his head. He was once a perfectionist when taking part in are living, insisting on months of practice session previous to each excursion, the place he prompt each musician on precisely find out how to play their software and their portions. And when issues didn’t move precisely his manner, Carmen most popular strolling away to accepting the rest wanting his actual inventive imaginative and prescient.

It was once an angle that produced stunningly sensible pop tune that may bear for generations. It additionally brought about him to desert his occupation, and retread inward within the latter years of his existence. However regardless of all the heartbreak he left in the back of, on either side of the Carmen circle of relatives divide, his family members are operating, some with lend a hand from therapists, to concentrate on the great instances and his huge items.

“Eric was once, on stability, usually, a excellent user,” says Fred. “There have been issues that Eric did that made you scratch your head or say ‘That’s simply no longer the best way you must be dealing with these items.’ However did he have a nasty center? No, he didn’t have a nasty center. He had a excellent center.”

“His God was once tune,” says daughter Kathryn, who’s within the strategy of completing up her education and dealing as a purchaser for a clothes shop. “He instructed me tune was once the one connection to one thing divine he ever had in his entire existence. I might watch him sit down on the piano and simply lose himself. I were given to peer such a lot of that. And I do really feel so, so fortunate. In spite of the previous seven or so years, I wouldn’t business any of it for a standard youth.”

Senior author ANDY GREENE attended the Raspberries’ 2007 live performance in New York. He considers it probably the most biggest reunion excursions in rock historical past.