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Blue October frontman Justin Furstenfeld doesn't want to be just a spokesman for mental awareness and suicide prevention. But on the cusp of Mental Health Awareness Week — which begins Sunday, Oct. 3 — the hard-rock singer is a living reminder that help is out there for people who need it.
The band that will headline Friday night's "Pick Up the Phone Tour" at In The Venue. The tour was created through a partnership between the nonprofit organizations To Write Love on Her Arms and the Kristin Brooks Hope Center, the founder of 1-800-SUICIDE — The National Hopeline Network.
Just seeing Furstenfeld onstage is proof that those who suffer from mental illness don't have to suffer in silence.
In 2009, the day before Blue October was due to begin a tour to promote its album "Approaching Normal," Furstenfeld suffered a debilitating panic attack and blacked out in an airport. The stress of going on tour was coupled with news that his wife was having an affair and the couple were on the verge of a separation. He was heading into a custody battle for his daughter.
The entire tour was canceled at the last minute — and for good reason. He checked himself into a mental hospital and received treatment. "I did the right thing," he said. "I asked for help."
Furstenfeld scoffed at critics who said he was faking his illness. "It wasn't a publicity stunt," he said. "It was a man who hadn't seen his child for four months."
Now aware of how to remain healthy despite mental illness, Furstenfeld and his band are on the road promoting suicide awareness — not a new single or a new album. "When [the audience] leaves, I want them to know how to find help," he said.
Furstenfeld "could not [be] a better spokesperson" for the tour, said Reese Butler, founder of the Kristin Brooks Hope Center, which launched the National Hopeline Network, 1-800-SUICIDE. "He is an inspiration to those who think they have a death sentence [because of a mental-illness diagnosis]. … He has a real first-hand understanding."
After losing his wife, Kristin Brooks, to suicide in 1998, Butler founded a center named for her. In 2000, he gained the support of the late senators Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), as well as Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Butler raised more than $7 million to expand and support the National Hopeline Network, comprising 200 community crisis centers in 48 states.
Callers who dial 1-800-SUICIDE are routed to the closest crisis center for referrals to behavioral health services. Since 1998, 1-800-SUICIDE has received more than 3 million calls, helping more than 4,000 people who stated they were planning suicide, according to the center.
"Kristin was diagnosed as bipolar with a borderline personality disorder," said Butler, who added that his wife also suffered from panic attacks. "She considered herself a broken person. She blamed herself for being broken."
Although it has been 12 years since the opening of the center, there's still a stigma associated with mental illness, Butler said. That's why it's so important that people like Furstenfeld can use music as a bully pulpit to alert rock music fans that mental illness doesn't have to be a death sentence.
Pick Up the Phone Tour
P Blue October performs, with Parlotones opening.
When • Tonight at 7
Where • In The Venue, 579 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City
Tickets • $25.50 at 24Tix and SmithsTix