musicians who never reached their potential

i don't mean someone who died tragically at a young age....i'm talking about someone who lived a full life, but for whatever reason(s), was never able to recapture whatever spark he (or she) had out of the gate. sales/commercial success is irrelevant here....just list (or talk about) someone who once had "it", and now....doesn't.

my easy pick would be syd barrett. having spent the majority of his life in seclusion, i can't help but wonder if things turned out differently, what kind of music he would've created in his later years. he had a few decent solo albums post-floyd, but by many accounts, alot of outside help was needed in order to patch them together & make something coherent out of 'em. but even those albums were years before he disappeared altogether...

another pick (and i'll probably get laughed at for even suggesting it) is tom scholz. love or hate boston, the first two albums were ahead of the curve from a sonic standpoint, and there was no reason to think scholz didn't have more in the hopper. instead, "boston" released only four more studio albums in the next 35 years, and each one was progressively (and exponentially) worse than the last. and sonically, each album has regressed alot as well, the newest album having a programmed drum sound an 8-year could do a better job with on a casio keyboard. love him or hate him, scholz did have an ear once upon a time...WTF happened?

fire away....