Elliott Smith’s Unlikely 1998 Oscars Performance Still Resonates on the 20th Anniversary of His Death — Watch It Now (Video)

Elliott Smith died 20 years ago today, on Oct. 21, 2003. News of his death by an apparent suicide was a blow, as the singer had battled depression and drug addiction for years and had at the start of that year successfully completed rehab that by all appearances had worked.

Smith, who struggled with the fame that came after his song “Miss Misery” — alongside four other compositions — was featured in “Good Will Hunting,” poignantly performed it at the 1998 Oscars ceremony, sandwiched between Trisha Yearwood and Céline Dion, who sang “How Do I Live?” and “My Heart Will Go On” respectively.

That Smith was onstage to perform the song in the first place is a feat. The singer didn’t want to be there in the first place, and he was described as “clearly uncomfortable” by MTV after the fact. Re-watching the performance 35 years later only underscores how unusual it was for Smith to share a stage with Dion, who ultimately won Best Original Song for her epic “Titanic” theme.

The singer later told the Boston Globe of his two minutes onstage, “[T]he Oscars was a very strange show, where the set was only one song cut down to less than two minutes, and the audience was a lot of people who didn’t come to hear me play. I wouldn’t want to live in that world, but it was fun to walk around on the moon for a day.”

“Miss Misery” was an incredible contribution to the impeccably curated soundtrack that Danny Elfman produced for “Good Will Hunting.” Director Gus Van Zant had hoped to work with Smith on another project but the vibe wasn’t right; he told the Globe that when he took on the film he immediately thought of Smith. Van Zant said, “I thought that it would be really nice as a sort of musical backdrop of the movie.”

Smith wrote “Miss Misery” after watching the entire movie with Van Zant, who really wanted an original song to tie the story together. His performance became emblematic of the movie itself, production designer Missy Stewart explained.

“I remember because [at the Oscars] Celine Dion played this giant music number from ‘Titanic’ and then Elliott came out with a white suit and his guitar,” she said. “He just played acoustic guitar. It was just sort of the essence of that movie. You can do something simple and make it true.” (Smith actually played before Dion.)

Smith’s story epitomizes “what might have been.” After moving from New York to Portland, Oregon, in the 1990s, became heroin user and developed alcoholism as well.

Amid worsening depression and suicidal thoughts, Smith attempted to clean up several times during this period. But after moving to Los Angeles, he fell into addiction again, culminating in a string of disastrous live performances throughout 2001 and into early 2002 that shocked fans and sparked speculation that he might soon die.

During the period he started work on what would eventually become his posthumous album, “From a Basement on a Hill.” But the early sessions were marred by his increasing dependence on drugs, and these recordings were eventually scrapped after Smith and the record’s producer, his friend Jon Brion, fought over Smith’s substance abuse.

But Smith appeared to be getting his life in order in the last year of his life. In late 2002 he entered a Beverly Hills addiction treatment center that by all accounts worked. By early 2003 he was playing occasional live shows again and had returned to the studio. He also quit drinking on his 34th birthday.

Smith died on Oct. 21, 2003 under circumstances that have never been fully understood. According to his girlfriend Jennifer Chiba, the two of them had been fighting in the late morning when Smith stormed into their bathroom and locked the door. She told police later that after hearing him scream, she broke into the bathroom where she found him on the floor with a knife in his chest.

Chiba pulled the knife out and called 911, and Smith died an hour later in the hospital. His death was originally ruled a suicide by the Los Angeles medical examiner’s office, but the autopsy report left open the possibility he may have been murdered. Toxicology reports later revealed Smith was completely clean when he died.

30 years after his death, Smith remains one of the most celebrated artists of his generation and a huge influence on musicians who came after him.

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