In May of 2007, we covered the travails (to date) of Doug Supernaw, the troubled Houston-bred one-time country music star. We just received word that the singer is in trouble again, this time in Utah.
Two years ago, Supernaw was facing a bevy of charges including nonpayment of child support, driving while intoxicated, public intoxication, assault of a police officer and several incidences of possession of marijuana, many of which he had compounded by skipping bail and/or missing hearings.
Along the way, his antics grew increasingly bizarre – everything from walking down a Bryan street screaming “Gin and Juice” in the wee hours to smoking pot openly on the bus of an independent minor league baseball team to singing the Los Lonely Boys hit “Heaven” in his own defense at one of his trials. Supernaw stated often that he believed he was being persecuted by “mentally retarded terrorists” and through far-reaching police and governmental conspiracies.
Supernaw in happier times, with his music video for the song “I Don’t Call Him Daddy.”
In June of 2007, shortly after the article ran, Supernaw was committed
to the Rusk State Mental Hospital, where he served four months. After
that, he was reportedly sighted in Illinois, the home state of his late
mother.
At some point, his official Web site was quietly retired, which left
the comments
section of our story more or less the de facto home of Doug Supernaw on
the Internet. Someone purporting to be Supernaw, and — it must be said —
someone with his singular posting style, started leaving comments there.
“They are finally letting me use the computer in the Nuthouse. i would
just like to tell my children that I love them very, very much and
maybe one day they will let me out. 1 Dios Botik, Douglas Anderson
Supernaw” read one from March of 2008.
On March 26 of this year, he left three more comments.
“YOU” read the entirety of the first, which was signed “Doug Supernaw from CONOSCO.”
Three minutes later came the second: “John Lomax the in’ fifth or
whatever the you are. WRITE ME BACK.” That one was signed “Doug
Supernaw from Salt Lake.”
And ten minutes after that, the third: “I thought that it was all in
good fun. BUT, NO. You are truly just a Lying mother er. John Lomax the
3rd or whatever the hell you are. KISS MY GOD DAMNED ASS. TAKE CARE.
Doug Supernaw WWW.DougSuper.AOL.com. UNO MAS. GRANDE PUTA.” He signed
that one “Doug Supernaw from 4Q.”
Yesterday, I received an anonymous tip that Supernaw was indeed in
Salt Lake City — in the Salt Lake County Jail, to be exact. “He has not
listed anyone as family and you seem like the only one who can be a
friend. I saw that you built a relationship with him,” the tipster
continued. “I was once a fan of his and empathize for him.”
A phone call to that facility verified that it was true, at least at one point. On Sunday, Supernaw was picked up in the Mormon capital
and charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct, but a
spokeswoman in the records division of the jail told me that due to
overcrowding, he was transferred from that facility Monday.
Which is a shame, because jail is no place for Supernaw. The poor guy
needs the kind of help that county lock-ups aren’t set up to provide.
Surely there is some bridge out there yet unburned, isn’t there?
And his is indeed a frightening prospect: If a guy with his talent,
money and fame can fall so deep into the yawning crevices of American
society, who, exactly, could not?
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2009.
