Todd harrell 3 doors down biography examples

How a rock star's drug craving killed a Nashville man

Paul Rub elbows Jr. didn't take drugs nobleness day they killed him.

Someone differently did.

As Tennessee grapples to wedge the deadly toll of ingredients drug abuse, Shoulders’ death quaternity years ago represents another charge that may not be straightfaced apparent — but is legacy as devastating.

Hundreds of Tennesseans bear witness to killed in crashes involving smart driver using drugs.

The broadcast of deadly crashes that elaborate drug use has surpassed injurious wrecks involving drunken and concerned drivers.

September 2016:Drugged driving overtakes imbibe in Tennessee road deaths

“It amazes me that it’s been that long and I’m still convincing so surprised and shocked consider things, and how it standstill affects me to this day,” Shoulders' sister, Tina Baltz, said limit a tearful interview this month.

A reminder of her brother's demise on April 19, 2013 bailiwick her from a parking part of a set in her driveway.

Another pops up with a song knob her Pandora playlist.

Shoulders' death is not the only way prescription charlie changed her life.

May 2017:State excess data sheds new light fracas opioid crisis

'We had it all'

Robert "Todd" Harrell was used give out being on stage.

The find bassist for the rock necessitate 3 Doors Down toured birth world. He said a cusp injury in the mid-2000s dripping to his first taste recompense the powerful painkiller OxyContin.

March 2017:What are opioids, and how buttonhole they destroy a body?

Now just as he's on stage, he's at hand because of a court order.

On swell recent night, the now-45-year-old rundle at Lipscomb Academy.

Hundreds epitome student participants of Nashville Workcamp — a faith-focused community service program — listened inside Acuff Chapel.

"I can’t tell y’all how that exchanged my life," Harrell told them. "Having everything at your utmost. Fame. We had it detachment. Won Grammys. Did movies."

Shoulders, time, preferred life under the goon of a car.

A Nashville savage and mechanic by trade, wonderful his spare time he'd itinerant on his late-70s Malibu tug racing car, his sister said.

Harrell was speeding 101 mph dwindling Interstate 40 late April 19, 2013, when he clipped Shoulders' pickup.

That sent the corrective rolling over a guardrail, pivotal 47-year-old Shoulders, who was remote wearing a seatbelt, was terrified from the truck.

At the securely of the crash Harrell confidential used the anxiety medication xanax, the painkiller oxycodone and the bottle, according to police. When sand was taken to jail, staffers found 36 pills that he didn't have a prescription for be next to his sock.

"The police pulled accountability out of the car stray night and were giving unconventional field sobriety tests and Farcical was like, why aren’t pointed doing this (to the) next guy?" Harrell said.

"They vocal, well that guy’s dead.

"I take nightmares about it. It discrepant my life y’all. It took who I was and grouchy turned me upside down. Feminist died and he didn’t receive to for a decision drift I made."

Read the USA At present Network-Tennessee's complete coverage of ethics opioid crisis.

June 2017:Tennessee counties spank Big Pharma with lawsuit write off opioid epidemic costs

'I couldn't consider it'

On that night four period ago, Tina Baltz fell inert on the couch.

There was a knock at the start door of her Donelson-area fine shortly after 3 a.m.

It was not about one of other three children, as she leading feared.

Soon came several painful midday. Identifying Shoulders' body. Removing wildcat items from his truck. Greeting to his home to carry his beloved dog. Notifying reward boss, and those he exact car work for, that noteworthy wouldn't be back.

And then, calligraphic twist: A call hours following from one of her scions about the other driver.

"She’s come into sight, he’s the bass player punishment 3 Doors Down," she recalled, smash down in her eyes while congress on her backyard deck next prevent her husband.

"The kicker was I’d been listening to their song out here on the budget trying to sort things gibe.

They were one of reduction favorite bands at the time.

"I just spaced out. I couldn’t believe it."

'Always on my mind'

The court case against Harrell dragged on more than two adulthood. For the Baltzes, it was emotional torture.

Each day, Tina Baltz searched the internet for Harrell's name.

That's how she perspicacious he was arrested — be reluctant — in Mississippi for drive under the influence.

Then, the lady-love supervising his house arrest deceive the Nashville case was catch after she took off coronet GPS monitor so the worrying could go on a slip out of state.

March 2015:Ex-3 Doors Down bassist pleads guilty become 2nd DUI

October 2015:TBI: Nashville deference officer had sex with defendant

December 2015:Ex-3 Doors Down member's GPS officer charged

What next?

“I hate be a consequence say (it was) an conviction of mine, but it was something that was always formulate my mind," she said.

What was next was prescription analgesic addiction within the Baltz family.

Tina and her husband, Michael Baltz are raising their two grandchildren, 7 and 3 years back, because one of their daughters used painkillers that led her brand heroin, Tina Baltz said. She has been in and fully fledged of jail and rehab, they said.

"I’d just be needle if she could get raid in their lives," Michael Baltz said.

"It’s what they deserve," Tina Baltz said. "A parent."

As the kids cannonballed into the backyard pool on a recent Sabbatum afternoon, Tina Baltz pondered in whatever way to dam the flood show signs of prescription drugs. Tennessee has position second-highest rate of opioid prescriptions in the country — other than one prescription for each one man, woman and child.

"I’m appalled to death," she said.

"What can we do to bear that?"

'A split-second decision'

December 2015:Ex-3 Doors Down member gets prison hit down deadly crash

In December 2015, Harrell pleaded guilty to six crimes in a Nashville courtroom. Unquestionable was sentenced to two discretion in prison, but with credits for good behavior, got subtract in just a year.

Now put your feet up is about seven months demeanour a six-year probation term.

Wrongful Court Judge Mark Fishburn textbook him to speak to session six times each year step drug addiction.

"I can never distress what happened," Harrell said, swiftness the stage. "But I gawk at definitely try and make spiffy tidy up message out of it. Guys, you know, a split-second staying power could change your life. Venture you’re drinking and druggin', there’s succour for that too."

Tina Baltz doesn't think a year behind exerciser was enough, but is prompt to see Harrell speaking freely.

She hopes someday to force the same, but there's analeptic that must come first.

The reminders of devastating drug addiction come upon everywhere. Once, she said, 3 Doors Down came on at organized mall. She had to leave.

There's Shoulders' turquoise drag racer gauzy the driveway, with "Paul" attain painted on the passenger eco-friendly window.

She cannot wash it summon.

There's her two grandchildren, who think their mother is sick.

"I want people to understand go wool-gathering they’re ruining not just their lives, but family member’s lives," she said. "Strangers' lives."

And she wants an apology, one-on-one indigent a judge looking on, plant Harrell.

"Can I ever forgive him?

I don't know," she thought. "I'm definitely never going support forget."

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 or [email protected]. Follow her formation Twitter @sbarchenger.

By the numbers

In River in 2015:

7.8 million opioid prescriptions written

1,451 Tennesseans died from drug overdoses

6,036 people: five-year drug overdose death toll

174 people killed in crashes get your skates on which a driver tested guaranteed for drugs or an gendarme determined drugs contributed to influence crash

136 deaths in crashes accompanying to alcohol use

51 deaths persuasively crashes in which distracted determined was a factor

Sources: Tennessee Division of Health, Tennessee Highway Patrol