Music

Fadin' Renegade

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Supernaw also told the court that Wilson asked him not to ride the team bus from Fort Worth to Amarillo, but to make his own way there. In Amarillo, a dispute erupted at that city's baseball stadium -- the Dilla Villa -- and Supernaw was escorted from the premises by security. Two days later, he was arrested at 4 a.m. at an Amarillo Ramada Inn, where police, acting on a noise complaint, entered his room and found a nude Supernaw passed out on the toilet. They also allegedly discovered a small pot stash and a room in "extreme disarray." After a fan bailed him out, Supernaw and the fan hit the bars -- at one, he delivered a karaoke rendition of the Commodores' "Night Shift" -- and returned to the hotel in the wee hours to collect his luggage. A hotel employee told him it was in the Dumpster behind the hotel. He found some of his personal effects, but not his guitar or some other valuables, which, unbeknownst to him, had been impounded by the Amarillo police. He allegedly launched into a tirade against the night manager, who called the police, who charged him with trespassing and hauled him in. After bailing a day or two later, Supernaw was arrested once more when he attempted to pick up his belongings from the Amarillo police, who discovered that he was supposed to have been at a hearing that day in Brenham. Supernaw spent the next two months in Potter County jail. Later that month, he was charged in Washington County with missing yet another hearing.

In September, another jury hung and failed to convict him on some of his bail-jumping charges. Later that month, he was arrested again in Austin County, this time on charges of driving while intoxicated and driving on a suspended license.

In March of 2005, Supernaw was arrested in Bryan during the wee hours. An off-duty policeman later alleged that Supernaw was walking down the street yelling and making obscene gestures; Supernaw later told the Bryan Eagle that he was merely singing "Gin and Juice" as rendered by the Gourds, one of the bands he had seen earlier that evening at Bryan's Northgate Music Festival. He was later acquitted of the public intoxication charge that ensued.

A few weeks later, Supernaw served as his own attorney on the Amarillo pot bust case. On the stand, he freely admitted to smoking pot and even offered up his favored method for doing so. "I don't buy rolling papers," Supernaw told the court. "I do smoke off the can when I get the opportunity." He also warbled a few bars of the Los Lonely Boys hit "Heaven" from the stand. He was convicted and sentenced to 115 days in jail, but was released for time served.

The next month he was jailed in Washington County for failing to pay a fine for the resisting arrest conviction, and the month after that -- May -- he was arrested outside a bar, where he was accused of disturbing the peace of Lawton, Oklahoma. In June a warrant was issued in Fayette County for Supernaw's failure to appear at a hearing on the weed charges there, and in July Brazos County issued a warrant after Supernaw's bondsman told a court that he hadn't heard from Supernaw in three weeks. The Bryan Eagle reported that the bond company wrote a letter reading, in part, thusly: "[Supernaw] feels he is above the law and thinks it is a conspiracy to get him by the CIA, FBI and various other people." The letter went on to say that Supernaw's family attributed many of his woes to his refusal to take his meds for his bipolar disorder.

In November of last year, he was arrested in a Humble club for allegedly being in possession of a small amount of pot. Through all of this, Supernaw occasionally posted bulletins on the message boards at his still-operating Web site, one of which read: "Money was the ruination of my entire family, band and career, even if you would like to blame my habits.... Since having a lot of money, I have been through many, many liars and thieves. They ... [have] taken everything and now have taken my horses ... and are attempting to take my children. They will have to kill me first, which they have made many attempts to do."

Supernaw's story reminds me of that of another Houston native -- former Oakland Raider Barret Robbins, who abandoned his team on the eve of the Super Bowl to go on a bender in Tijuana. Like Supernaw, Robbins suffers from bipolar disorder, problems with authority and alcoholism, and has been arrested for possession of marijuana.

Early in 2005, Robbins assaulted three Miami policemen while he was having a psychotic episode. He was shot three times. Miraculously, he survived. He was convicted of attempted murder, but an understanding judge sentenced him to five years probation, on the conditions that he take medication for his bipolar disorder and swear off booze.

Let's hope Supernaw can get his demons in check before it comes to all that.

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