Editing Elliott Smith (section)

=== 2001–2002: Addiction and scrapped recordings ===
[[File:Crystal Ballroom entrance - Portland, Oregon.JPG|alt=Crystal Ballroom from the street—a three-story brick building with an elaborate black awning|thumb|upright=0.75|The Crystal Ballroom music venue in Portland, Oregon. One of Smith's performances here in December 2001 drew concern from a reviewer.]]

Around the time he began recording his final album, Smith began to display signs of paranoia, often believing that a white van followed him wherever he went.{{sfn|Nugent|2004}} He would have friends drop him off for recording sessions almost a mile away from the studio, and to reach the location, he would trudge through hundreds of yards of brush and cliffs. He started telling people that [[DreamWorks Records|DreamWorks]] was out to get him: "Not long ago my house was broken into, and songs were stolen off my computer which have wound up in the hands of certain people who work at a certain label. I've also been followed around for months at a time. I wouldn't even want to necessarily say it's the people from that label who are following me around, but it was probably them who broke into my house."<ref name="Under the Radar 1" /> During this period, Smith hardly ate, subsisting primarily on ice cream. He would go without sleeping for several days and then sleep for an entire day.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Valania |first=Jonathan |date=2005-01-29 |title=Elliott Smith: All Things Must Pass |url=https://magnetmagazine.com/2005/01/28/elliott-smith-all-things-must-pass/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327143237/https://magnetmagazine.com/2005/01/28/elliott-smith-all-things-must-pass/ |archive-date=2022-03-27 |access-date=2022-07-28 |website=Magnet Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

A follow-up to Smith's 2000 album was originally planned to happen with [[Rob Schnapf]], but their sessions were abandoned. Smith also began distancing himself from manager Margaret Mittleman, who had handled him since the ''Roman Candle'' days.<ref name="Gowing" /> He finally began recording a new album with only himself and [[Jon Brion]] as producers sometime during 2001. The pair had recorded a substantial amount of music for the album when Brion stopped the sessions because of Smith's struggle with substance use disorder.<ref name="The Confabulators">{{cite web |url=http://www.confabulators.com/2005/elliott-smith-lives-again-from-a-basement-on-the-hill-v2 |title=Elliott Smith Lives Again! ''From a Basement on the Hill'' V.2 – The Confabulators Archive |website=The Confabulators |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060212172657/http://www.confabulators.com/2005/elliott-smith-lives-again-from-a-basement-on-the-hill-v2 |archive-date=February 12, 2006 |access-date=June 25, 2013}}</ref> Their friendship promptly ended, and Smith scrapped all of their work until that point. He later said "There was even a little more than half of a record done before this new one that I just scrapped because of a blown friendship with someone that made me so depressed I didn't want to hear any of those songs. He was just helping me record the songs and stuff, and then the friendship kind of fell apart all of a sudden one day. It just made it kind of awkward being alone in the car listening to the songs."<ref name="Under the Radar 1" />

When Brion sent a bill for the abandoned sessions to DreamWorks, executives [[Lenny Waronker]] and [[Luke Wood]] scheduled a meeting with Smith to determine what went wrong with the sessions. Smith complained of intrusion upon his personal life from the label, as well as poor promotion for the ''Figure 8'' album. The talks proved fruitless, and soon after, Smith sent a message to the executives, stating that if they did not release him from his contract, he would take his own life.<ref name="Gowing" /> In May 2001, Smith set out to re-record the album, mostly on his own, but with some help from [[David McConnell (musician)|David McConnell]] of [[Goldenboy]]. McConnell told ''Spin'' that, during this time, Smith smoked over $1,500 worth of heroin and [[crack cocaine|crack]] per day, often talked about suicide, and on numerous occasions tried to give himself an overdose.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-10-21 |title=Elliott Smith: 'Mr. Misery' Revisited, Years After the Singer-Songwriter's Controversial Death |url=https://www.spin.com/2013/10/elliott-smith-mr-misery-10-year-anniversary-death/ |access-date=2022-03-01 |website=SPIN |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Steven Drozd]] of [[The Flaming Lips]] and Scott McPherson of [[Sense Field]] played a few drum tracks, [[Sam Coomes]] contributed some bass guitar and backing vocals, but almost every other instrument was recorded by Smith.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}

Smith's song "[[Needle in the Hay]]" was included in [[Wes Anderson]]'s 2001 film ''[[The Royal Tenenbaums]]'' during a suicide attempt scene. Smith was originally supposed to contribute a cover of The Beatles' "[[Hey Jude]]" for the film, but when he failed to do so in time, Anderson had to use [[Mutato Muzika|The Mutato Muzika Orchestra]]'s version of the track instead.<ref name="Wes Anderson">{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/article/2004/12/20/life-aquatic-director-reveals-his-muses/ |title=The Life Melodic |last=Miller |first=Nancy |date=December 20, 2004 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=June 25, 2013 |archive-date=May 22, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522220138/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1008489_2,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Anderson would later say that Smith "was in a bad state" at the time.<ref name="Wes Anderson" />

Smith's live performances during 2001 and 2002 were infrequent, typically in the Pacific Northwest or Los Angeles. A review of his December 20, 2001, show at Portland's [[Crystal Ballroom (Portland, Oregon)|Crystal Ballroom]] expressed concern over his appearance and performance: his hair was uncharacteristically greasy and long, his face was bearded and gaunt, and during his songs he exhibited alarming signs of "memory-loss and butterfingers".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-2607-elliott_smith_%281969_2003%29.html |title=Elliott Smith (1969–2003) |date=October 29, 2003 |website=Willamette Week |access-date=June 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130717071127/http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-2607-elliott_smith_%281969_2003%29.html |archive-date=July 17, 2013}}</ref> At another performance in San Francisco that month, the audience began shouting out lyrics when Smith could not remember them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://magnetmagazine.com/live/livesmith.html |title=''Magnet'' Live Review: Elliott Smith |last=Stoltz |first=Peter |website=Magnet | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013103320/http://magnetmagazine.com/live/livesmith.html |archive-date=October 13, 2007 |access-date=June 25, 2013}}</ref>

In the first of only three concerts performed in 2002, Smith co-headlined Northwestern University's A&O Ball with [[Wilco]] on May 2 in Chicago.<ref>{{cite news |last=Murtaugh |first=Dan |date=February 5, 2002 |title=A&O Ball Signs on a Second Headliner |newspaper=The Daily Northwestern | url=http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2002/05/02/Campus/Ao.Ball.Signs.On.A.Second.Headliner-1909814.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013100316/http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2002/05/02/Campus/Ao.Ball.Signs.On.A.Second.Headliner-1909814.shtml |archive-date=October 13, 2007 |access-date=June 24, 2013}}</ref> He was onstage for nearly an hour but failed to complete half of the songs.<ref name="Carpenter" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sweetadeline.net/5202.html |title=05.02.02 – Riviera Theatre – Chicago, IL |website=Sweet Adeline |access-date=June 25, 2013}}</ref> He claimed that his poor performance was due to his left [[Paresthesia|hand having fallen asleep]] and told the audience it felt "like having stuff on your hand and you can't get it off".<ref name="Carpenter" /> Smith's performance was reviewed as "undoubtedly one of the worst performances ever by a musician"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nucomment.com/archive/issues/020521/features/wilco.html |title=NUcomment – A&O Ball: Did You Behave? – 5.21.02 |last=Winn |first=Luke |website=NUcomment |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029131156/http://www.nucomment.com/archive/issues/020521/features/wilco.html |archive-date=October 29, 2007 |access-date=June 25, 2013}}</ref> and an "excruciating […] nightmare".<ref>{{cite news |last=Dombal |first=Ryan |date=March 5, 2002 |title=Shot in the Arm |newspaper=The Daily Northwestern | url=http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2002/05/03/Campus/shot-In.The.Arm-1909849.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080418161539/http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2002/05/03/Campus/shot-In.The.Arm-1909849.shtml |archive-date=April 18, 2008 |access-date=June 24, 2013}}</ref> A reporter for the online magazine ''Glorious Noise'' wrote, "It would not surprise me at all if Elliott Smith ends up dead within a year."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gloriousnoise.com/2002/just_say_yes |title=Just Say Yes |last=Brown |first=Jake |date=May 3, 2002 |website=Glorious Noise |access-date=June 25, 2013}}</ref>

On November 25, 2002, Smith was involved in a brawl with the Los Angeles Police Department at a concert where [[The Flaming Lips]] and [[Beck]] were performing.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lang |first=Alison |date=October 24, 2003 |title=Elliott Smith Found Dead at 34 |journal=The Queen's Journal | issue=27 |volume=131 |url=http://www.queensjournal.ca/articlephp/point-vol131/issue17/arts/story3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040905170843/http://www.queensjournal.ca/articlephp/point-vol131/issue17/arts/story3 |archive-date=September 5, 2004 |access-date=June 25, 2013}}</ref> The officers allegedly beat and arrested him and girlfriend Jennifer Chiba. The two spent the night in jail. Smith's back was injured in the incident, causing him to cancel a number of shows.<ref name="Under the Radar 1" /> [[Wayne Coyne]], lead singer of The Flaming Lips and a friend of Smith's, stated concern over Smith's appearance and actions, saying that he "saw a guy who had lost control of himself. He was needy, he was grumpy, he was everything you wouldn't want in a person. It's not like when you think of [[Keith Richards]] being pleasantly blissed out in the corner."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/68521/friends-peers-mourn-elliott-smith |title=Friends, Peers Mourn Elliott Smith |magazine=Billboard | access-date=June 25, 2013}}</ref>