By MM Dameron
“BODY OF MISSING ROCKSTAR FOUND LOCKED IN DROWNED SPORTSCAR” read the headline on every single newspaper along the West Coast that cold November morning in 1999. The rambling story inside, obviously hastily written in order to get it to print in time for passerby’s morning commute, was riddled with uncertainty and conjecture about the events which unfolded the night before, but one that would reveal certain facts about this case which would turn what seemed like just another rising star afraid of the spotlight running off into a full blown conspiracy for the next 25 years. The star in question? None other than Seattle’s own, Nathan “Narcissus” Richards, former frontman of the grunge group, “Myth.”
In order to understand why exactly this story is so alluringly mysterious to so many people, we first have to go back in time a few years before the article’s publication. The year is 1989, and a new era of music is on the rise in the rainy city of Seattle, Washington. It would be a few years before classic staples of the grunge genre like Nirvana or Pearl Jam would burst onto the scene and change the landscape of music forever, but nonetheless there was an active underground scene which had been stirring for some time. One of the small successes of this time was a little group known as “The Box Cutters.” Making their debut within seedy dive bars of the area, The Box Cutters were a group that separated themselves from the competition pretty early on, due in large part to the fact that each of their members are names which would eventually become synonymous with the music of that time. On guitar was Pete Orson, who wrote most of the band’s hits but had a hard time playing the frontman role onstage. Next was bassist Gryff Sun, who is still well regarded as one of the most advanced bass players of his time, especially for his age. Meanwhile on drums was Laura Boxx, the band’s namesake who brought a female presence to the field which was uncommon for the time. The Box Cutters made small waves between 1989 and 1990, with a few songs which became local hits of the area and a single which did manage to chart in the top 100 with their song, Painful Reminder. However, despite their combined musical prowess and unique novelty of the group’s roster, most people agreed that their live performances left something to be desired. They just didn’t seem to be able to capture that spark, despite their prowess both lyrically and musically. It was painfully clear that they were missing something. Enter, Nathan Richards.
Nathan Richards was well regarded within the local punk scene around town as someone who knew everyone. He was a man who was naturally gifted in the art of charm, and he seemed to effortlessly make friends with everyone he met. He also just so happened to have some pretty good looks too. To top it all off, he could sing as well. He was the perfect frontman they were looking for.
“I think it was the summer of 1990 that I met [Nathan].” recalls Gryff during an interview he gave in 2000, a few months after the article came out. “I was at a party at my buddy Tim’s house and he was chatting up everybody in sight. I mean everyone. And everyone wanted to talk to him too. At one point I remember he did a song for karaoke, I think it was ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra, and the guy blew everyone away, absolutely captivating. After his performance he passed me and flashed one of his signature, like, ‘Hey there, stud’ looks. I think he said something along the lines of ‘Hope you’re getting into trouble tonight!’ or something witty like that before shooting a wink and walking off. I knew immediately that was what we were missing. So I tried tracking him down later on to have a real conversation with the guy but he just seemed to vanish. Heard from one of my pals at the time later that he had seen him walking home with some girl. Managed to get his number from someone else, gave him a call the next day.”
Nathan was quickly added to the band’s lineup as their frontman and singer, and almost immediately began making sweeping changes to the group’s dynamic in order to improve their appeal to the masses.
“First thing [Nathan] did when he joined was change the band’s name.” said Pete, during that same interview from 2000. “He came in with that shit-eating grin and said ‘I like your sound, but I hate what it’s attached to.’ I don’t recall Laura taking that very well, especially since it was her band and her name. She came around to the name “Myth” in time, but I’ve always referred to our band as “The Box Cutters” in my head. Sentimentality, I guess.”
Along with changing the band’s name and image, Nathan also encouraged the rest of the group to take on stage names in order to stand out in the field. In an interview with The Seattle Times in 1993, he gave a little bit more context, “Well, we’re Myth, right? We can’t be just normal people with normal names. We have to be legends. Idols, even. So, I pitched the idea to the group and they seemed to like the idea! Pete was on the fence, of course, but I said ‘Hey, just try it out for a time, and if you don’t like it, you can always go back to being good ol’ Petey-boy if you want.’ Well, he obviously hasn’t given up Orpheus yet, so I guess he likes it better than good ol’ Petey-boy.”
In March of 1992, after a year’s hiatus, the group returned to playing shows with a new name, a new sound, and a new member who dominated every room that he performed in. Along with that, they each had new stage names, which Nathan was sure to remind the audience whenever he got the chance. Nathan, Laura, Pete, and Gryff might as well have been lost to history in his eyes. Instead, they were now Narcissus, Pandora, Orpheus, and Icarus.
I was able to get in contact and conduct interviews with the surviving members of Myth, and I decided to ask Pete Orson about how he felt when Nathan took over the frontman position.
“I mean, it was always so hard to tell him no, you know? I don’t think that most fans get that. It’s easy for people on the outside to look back on those days and those events and say ‘Well, why didn’t you step in and say something earlier if you didn’t like it?’ and… Well, I guess I come up blank on that. But you weren’t in the room with the guy. He just had a way about the way he talked and the looks he’d give you that made you feel like you could trust him. Like he always knew what he was doing.”
I also asked Gryff Sun about Nathan, and he seemed to have a more pleasant mental image of the man.
“As far as I’m concerned, Nate saved our ship, man. I mean, sure, the stage name thing is cheesy looking back on it, but it was fun at the time, you know? You know, well we’re Myth so we’ll name ourselves after Greek myths and shit. Really lean into the rockstar attitude, like KISS or Sabbath, man. I always loved those bands growing up, so of course I was immediately on board for that shit. Laura took some convincing but came around in time. I don’t think Pete ever really got it. As many issues as I have now with the shit he did back then, I can’t say he ruined us when, thanks to him, we got put on the map in the first place.”
Unfortunately, Laura Boxx passed away in 2018 due to lung cancer, so I was unable to interview her for this story. However, I did manage to track down an interview she did with NPR in 2003 relating to this time period for the band, and she does talk a little bit about Nathan’s involvement.
“Nate was an ideas guy, first and foremost. Sure, he could sing well too, but if we needed a voice then Pete was obviously way better. No offense to the guy, but I’d imagine if you had pressed him even he would’ve admitted it. But, Narcissus, excuse me, Nate… he had the stage presence and he had the ideas. And the face. God damn, did he ever have a fuckin’ face.”
Myth quickly rose to great heights within the city, and got the attention of multiple big names in the punk and grunge scene at the time. They spent their first few years opening for more notable acts at the time, such as Mother Love Bone and Nirvana, but eventually in early 1994 they got their big break with the hit single, Smoke and Mirrors. The song, which gained much praise both commercially and critically, made it all the way to the Top 20 in the charts that February, and earned them a record deal with Sub Pop Records. This all but guaranteed that they would be granted a spot amongst the greatest of Seattle’s music scene. However, a terrible scandal soon overshadowed their rise to fame.
“It was an open secret that Nathan was a party guy,” Pete recalls to me during our interview, “but he never really knew when to stop himself. I mean, I tried for years to try and help the guy out, stayed sober all that time, but he refused to listen. I knew that it would end up causing us trouble. That it would lead to some shit down the line. None of them listened to me! Well, look who’s still here!”
Gryff had his own outlook on the situation. “Nate liked to have fun, so what? You want a scapegoat? Then blame Laura, man. She was the one who was always supplying him with that shit. She was an enabler, dude.”
It was well known by everyone that Nathan and Laura were an on-and-off item, and especially during the spring of 1994 when rumors of a nasty breakup made waves in the streets of Seattle, only for them to come out and announce they were back together less than a month later. What was speculation, however, was that Laura was the person supplying her boyfriend with illicit substances. Whispers began to spread that she kept him up on multiple hard drugs for weeks at a time, such as cocaine and heroin, which caused him to constantly act irrational and get into trouble. Laura, for her own part, refuted this in multiple statements given to both the press and to the police.
“Did I take drugs with Nate? Sure, lots of them. Lock me up if you want for that. But I never supplied him with fuckin’ shit. Nate would always go out, disappearing for days at a time sometimes, before coming back with pockets full of ‘presents’ he called them.” She claimed in a statement given to police in 1999, weeks after the original article about his corpse being found was released. “So when he disappeared, I wasn’t too worried. The rest is already in your books.”
While Nathan’s drug use and affairs with his drummer were scandalous, it wasn’t enough to truly affect his reputation as the good looking show stopper that he was garnering. Myth was beginning to headline their own shows, and even sell out crowds in some locations. Their second hit single, Lies, Lies, Lies, once again reached the top of the charts, all the way to the Top 20 in September of 1994. With an album on the way and sold out shows at well respected venues in and around Seattle, it seemed nothing could stop their rise, not even the murky rumors about drugs.
It was upon this backdrop of success in the face of scandal that Ellie Cho entered the story of Myth.
Ellie Cho, affectionately nicknamed “Echo” by the group, was a young and dedicated fan of Myth, and especially Narcissus. She was only seventeen years old when she attended her first concert, though she would quickly become wrapped up in the drama which was buzzing behind the scenes. It was at an after party for that very show which Ellie had attended, that she met Nathan.
A few weeks before that party, Nathan and Laura had another public and vitriolic breakup. Many speculated that it would end up splitting the band up, but Myth continued to play and record their album. However, the tense mood between Nathan and Laura was apparent during their onstage outings around that time, and there were many stories of Nathan flirting and engaging in quick flings with girls after their shows.
As usual, the rockstar quickly charmed the young girl, and while there aren’t many details on what exactly happened that night, from then on Ellie was constantly present wherever Nathan went. She had VIP seats for every show, was hanging on Nathan’s arm at every party, and even accompanied him in multiple public appearances.
However, while Narcissus was enjoying the affection and attention which Echo provided, the rest of the band wasn’t so receptive to her presence.
“She’s only around to make me jealous.” Laura claimed in a TV interview around that time in 1995. “If I could give her one piece of advice, I’d tell her ‘Run, bitch, run.’”
In that same broadcast, Nathan was also asked about Ellie’s involvement. “She’s great, you know, she’s great. She’s crazy, but she’s great, yeah. She keeps it fun around the studio and in the crowd. I love having her around. I’ve been telling her to bring her friends for my buddies too, ha ha! Maybe get that virgin Orpheus laid, ha ha ha! No, I’m joking. O gets bitches alright, yeah. Hey! There she is! What do you think, Echo? Bring your friends around next time? No, no, don’t nod your head! You’re supposed to say no! Ha ha! Isn’t she great?”
Pete had his own perspective on the situation when I asked him about Ellie Cho.
“Nathan wanted me out of the band, it was clear. He wanted me out, and so he brought in this… Korean schoolgirl to constantly be around and make me nervous and mess with my head when writing. What a fucking creep… I hope he rots in hell for what he did to her.”
Echo hung around the band for most of 1995, always present, always in attendance, and always with Nathan. Of course, it was obvious to outside observers that Nathan was encouraging her to engage in the same behaviors that Laura supposedly encouraged him to do. It was alleged that he would disappear with her for days or even weeks at a time, only for them to show back up completely wasted. It became such a big issue, that reportedly investigators got involved, though no wrongdoing was found to be taking place.
“That was bullshit. They were paid off. Had to be.” Is all that Pete had to say on that matter when I asked him.
I asked Gryff about Echo as well, but he had less to say about her. “Look, I liked Echo. She always brought a good vibe when she was around, but if you ask me, she kinda got between Nate and us. The band. He lost sight of the music, man. Started spending more time with her than actually working on new shit. He changed, man, and I guess I still kinda blame her for what happened to Myth.”
This life on the edge with Echo would eventually come to a head in the most tragic way possible. On June 8th, 1995, an emergency call was made anonymously about a corpse found in a river on the outskirts of Seattle. When police arrived on the scene, they discovered Ellie Cho’s body, face down in the water. A later autopsy reportedly showed that her bloodstream contained three times the lethal amount of heroin, and that she had been dead for almost a week. Nathan was soon arrested at his home, but was released on bail only a day later. No charges were ever made against him.
Ultimately, the case was ruled as a suicide, but in the days to come, Myth as a band fractured completely. Pete was the first to go, then Laura. Nathan and Gryff reportedly tried to find replacements for their friends, but nobody wanted to be associated with them anymore. Their record deal fell through just days before it was scheduled to release. The dream was officially dead.
“I remember Nathan would always take a long time getting ready in front of the mirror before a show.” recalled Gryff during my interview with him. “Before Echo’s death, he would take almost an hour just looking at himself, collecting his nerves or something. But after? He rarely even glanced at a mirror. It was like he couldn’t stand to see himself. Whatever splendor he had, whatever enchantment it was, it must have scared the shit out of him.”
I can’t help but imagine Narcissus up on stage, staring out at a crowd which was quickly diminishing in size. His charms no longer worked on them, and even if he didn’t play a physical role in Echo’s death, it was understood by many that his actions and influence had a direct affect on her fate. I think he must have known that as well.
On October 8th, 1995, one month after Echo’s death, Narcissus left one of his shows by himself in his 1992 Dodge Viper. Apparently, nobody saw him leave, he just vanished. Then, he was never heard from again alive. Four years later, on November 23rd, 1999, his car was found within a lake surrounding an overpass with his body still inside, decayed from all the years spent in the frigid Washington waters.
According to rumor, when he was pulled out of the water, his body was found still with the broken rearview mirror in his clutch. It seems then that, even in death, he couldn’t be without the one thing that had carried him so far in life; his own reflection. Perhaps that was even the very thing that led to his demise.
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