Died On This Date (September 20, 1997) Nick Traina / Link 80
themusicsover Nicholas Traina
May 1, 1978 – September 20, 1997
The son of romance writer Danielle Steele, Nick Traina was the lead singer of ska punk band, Link 80. Traina joined Link 80 when he was just sixteen, after fronting a band that he formed at just thirteen. Traina suffered much of life with mental issues, being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and manic depression in later years. He also suffered from drug abuse and had tried to take his own life on three seperate occasions before sadly succeeding on the fourth try. He was just 19 years old.
What You Should Own
Chris Puma was the founding guitarist for New York City band, Candiria. Formed in 1992, the band was a quick hit with the local scene due to their unique blending of punk, funk, hip-hop and jazz. Puma stayed with the band through 1997 and can be heard on their first album, Surrealistic Madness. Chris Puma passed away on September 20, 2009. Cause of death was not immediately released.
Gram Parsons was a highly influential singer-songwriter who helped launch what would later be called country rock and then alt-country or Americana. Parsons began playing the guitar as a teenager to escape a less than ideal home life. The first group he played with, the Shilohs, were a folk band in the tradition of the Kingston Trio. When the band broke up, he and other Boston area folk musicians formed the International Submarine Band with whom he began to develop a sound the borrowed the best from country, folk and rock. They enjoyed moderate success, primarily getting airplay on the up-and-coming progressive radio stations. In 1968, Parsons was asked to join the Byrds as a replacement for David Crosby and Michael Clarke. He started on keyboards but soon switched to guitar, helping guide the group down a more country rock path. Parsons left the Byrds in the summer of 1968. He joined back up with the Byrds’ Chris Hillman soon after to form the Flying Burrito Brothers whose debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin would be a direct influence on the likes of the Eagles, Dwight Yoakam and later, Wilco and Ryan Adams. By the early ’70s, Parsons was working as a solo artist while recording and performing with good friend, Emmylou Harris. It was during this period that Parsons’ inner demons were taking control in the form of substance abuse. He was also spending more and more time in an area he had become fond of, Joshua Tree National Monument in the desert outside of Los Angeles. He liked to go there and take LSD while searching for UFOs. It was during one of these trips that Gram Parsons apparently overdosed on morphine and alcohol and died at the age of 26.
Earl Palmer was a session drummer with a resume that reads like a who’s who of popular music. He has been called the “most recorded drummer in history.” Over a career that spanned over 50 years, Palmer played on hit recordings by the likes of Little Richard, Fats Domino, 
