Photos: Remembering Sean Costello

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Photos: Remembering Sean Costello

Guitar prodigy Sean Costello battled demons and lost, but his legacy lives on. This month, in a ceremony at the Georgia World Congress Center he will be ushered into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

“I’ve played with all my heroes,” Sean said. Here he performs in 1997 at a benefit concert for the Ma Rainey House in Columbus with (from left) Buddy Guy, Rufus Thomas, B.B. King and Ruby Wilson. PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENN AND DEBBIE SMITH

Atlanta blues musician Sean Costello was performing at age 11, touring and leading a band at age 14, recording at age 15 and already on his way to national prominence – and trouble – before he graduated from high school. PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY GLENN AND DEBBIE SMITH

Sean was on the cover of Blues Revue magazine’s February 2002 issue.

Before he was old enough to buy a ticket, Sean was a regular performer at the Northside Tavern, and he and his band set the attendance record there during the CD release party for his first album, “Call the Cops.”

Sean liked to put on a show, and even when he was in middle school he organized concerts in the basement of his home in Marietta where he performed for his friends. PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENN AND DEBBIE SMITH

By 2006, when this promotional photo was snapped, Sean’s music was changing, incorporating more soul and growing away from the blues. That same year he was diagnosed as bipolar. He would be dead two years later. CONTRIBUTED BY KEITH TAYLOR

Sean Costello in 1999, unknown venue. Atlanta blues guitarist Sean Costello died in April, 2008 just shy of his 29th birthday. This October he will be inducted posthumously into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. What many fans and fellow musicians didn't know at the time of Costello's death was that he suffered from bi-polar disorder, and was self-medicating with illegal drugs, along with a prescribed medication. In his high impact career, Costello traveled to the edge of the kind of limited fame that the blues can provide, and was poised to cross into new musical territory. Now his mother, Debbie Smith, is working to turn Costello's legacy into a foundation to help others with the same syndrome. PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENN AND DEBBIE SMITH

Sean’s mother, Debbie Smith, and his stepfather, Glenn Smith, began a memorial fund the year Sean died to raise money for research into bipolar disorder.BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM

As a 15-year-old performing with his band Counts of Rhythm, Sean favored vintage suits and hollow-body guitars. Here he’s onstage at Underground Atlanta. PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENN AND DEBBIE SMITH

Allison Smith (from left), Glenn Smith, Debbie Smith, Sean Costello, Bridget Costello. PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENN AND DEBBIE SMITH

Sean Costello at Northside Tavern, 2002. PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENN AND DEBBIE SMITH

Posthumous portrait by a French artist. PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENN AND DEBBIE SMITH

Sean Costello By Paul Natkin

The funeral for Sean, dead at age 28, was held at Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Atlanta. It was standing room only, as members of Atlanta’s music community came to pay their respects. SARA HOPKINS / SPECIAL

Sean Costello. Photo: Cooper Holmes

Sean Costello. Photo: Jerry Tobias

Sean Costello.Photo Credit: Flournoy Holmes

Sean Costello at Northside Tavern's blues jam in 2004. Atlanta blues guitarist Sean Costello died in April, 2008 just shy of his 29th birthday. This October he will be inducted posthumously into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM

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“I’ve played with all my heroes,” Sean said. Here he performs in 1997 at a benefit concert for the Ma Rainey House in Columbus with (from left) Buddy Guy, Rufus Thomas, B.B. King and Ruby Wilson. PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENN AND DEBBIE SMITH

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