Here’s to a child star, put on a stage
Where everyone saw every flaw and mistake
Yes, here’s to a child star, in a zoo cage
Poked at and prodded and goaded to shame
Not more money or fame or riches
But more support, more kindness, more resources to be better, to get better
To deal with the hurt and pressures that come with Fame
Fame when you sell your name before you know what it stands for
Fame where you become someone to everyone before you have your own full identity
Fame when you’re a paycheque for some washed up execs
Who don’t care who you are or where you go as long as you serve them for the length of your contract
When death comes, we hope for peace
Not a drugged addled death on the ground in a country that’s not your home,
where tabloids identify you to the public by your tattoos before you own son gets the news
Before he can grieve the public balks over your body like some sort of show
Why do they get to know how you died when they barely knew how you lived?
Here’s to a child star that brought us joy
Who gave all he had to his fans with his boys
Yes here’s to sweet Liam, may his demons lay to rest
While his dreams live on in those that are left
In your memory, let us vow
To stop treating children as consumable goods
To stop using them for our entertainment and casting them out when we are done
In your honour, may we vow
To give therapy and love to those struggling to return to a “normal life”
That they can live without self medicating with drugs, sex, and false platitudes from their previous stardom
In memory of you, those that came before, and those that go on
May WE do better, be better, love better.
Here’s to a child star, gone too soon.
May death be kinder to you than life.
