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You know what helped me get through my last ugly bout of depression? The music of the Beastie Boys. You know what helped me get through the previous nine thousand bouts of depression, going back to the mid-80s? The same.

Anyone who knows me knows how important these guys are to me. They’re my generation’s Beatles, at least in my eyes. They inspired me, and they filled me with a singular joy that nothing — NOTHING — on this earth could duplicate. It sounds profoundly stupid to say this, but those guys are as close to a religion as I ever found in my life. And that is the truth.

Today we lost Adam Yauch. For me, this is The Day the Music Died. When I heard the news, I was listening to the above song (it’s from a side project Yauch was involved with between Paul’s Boutique and Check Your Head). That may seem like a coincidence, but it’s not. The chances that I’m listening to some Beastie Boys or Beastie Boys-related piece of music at any given moment are pretty fucking high.

I don’t get like this about most famous people, but I can say this without qualification: my life will be a little more empty without the music of Adam Yauch in it.