Sunday night I caught the new episode of one of my favorite shows called Intervention on A&E* and to my astonishment, one of the featured addicts was Travis Meeks from the 90's rock band Days of the New. The premise of the show is that these people have agreed to document their addiction for the show, but what they don't know is that they will soon face an intervention. In the opening segment it was explained that Travis was addicted to speed and that his latest crystal meth binge had causes permanent heart damage.

Various family members were interviewed including his Mom, sister, cousin and his girlfriend who has a 3 month old child with him. They also interviewed Travis in the opening segment where he frequently rubbed and scratched his face which apparently is a characteristic of someone who uses meth heavily. One of his family members commented that he talks about buying a gun to blow his head off...

Travis formed Days of the New at age 16 and their first album which he wrote every note and lyric, stayed atop the rock charts for a record breaking 16 weeks and eventually sold 1.5 million records. At age 22, he spent every last dime of his music fortune.

During the first commercial I started thinking about how much I liked his band and how cool it was to see them live during their tour to support their second album. I saw Days at the Chameleon club, a local venue with a reputation for live bands and hosting National recording artists. The club that night was uncharacteristically bare. I remember thinking that was cool though because I was able to make my way to the front of the stage. A shirtless Travis with his acoustic guitar strapped on commented about the lack of attendance. "I guess this show is going to be all intimate and shit." They ran through their hits like Shelf In The Room, The Downtown, Enemy and their biggest of all Touch, Peel & Stand. Travis looked like a rock star on stage, his vocals were strong and the band sounded great. Travis eventually fired all of his band members who then formed the band Tantric who had one or two minor alt rock hits.

Back to the show...

The camera shows his 3 month old & girlfriend who lives in LA and refuses to live with Travis until he gets clean. She calls him up one morning after an all night drug event and asks him where he was. He lies horribly then asks the cameras to be turned off because he is "wigging out".

After a quick pre-intervention meeting with the family, Travis is brought in and he doesn't seem very happy. Apparently he doesn't like surprises...Puzzled, he looks at one of his family members and asks, "What's this, what are you doing here"? He then explains that he is out of there because his "van is running". They beg him to stay and listen to what they have to say but he is boiling over which leads to him storming out of the room to his van. Moments later Travis asks to speak to intervention coordinator Candy Finnegan outside and privately. Candy comes back into the room and says that Travis has agreed to consider the offer but needs to think about it and get back to them tomorrow.

In the last segment, Travis begins to sulk as the realization of rehab settles in. The producer of the show pleads with him at his home. He even volunteers to carry his bags at the airport (No rock star carries his own bags). Thankfully, Travis then grabs his guitar and gets into in van that is heading for the airport and eventually the treatment center. He looks into the camera and in a candid moment says, "I was intervened, they hunted me down" as if this show was a drug addicts version of MTV's Punk'D.

Then in the part where they update you on the progress of the patient, it's explained that Travis had been sober for 73 days after the intervention. Then checked himself out of the center against the Doctor's wishes...