Tortured individual certainly - anyone who self-harms like he did has to be that - 'genius', I doubt. Cultural icon - again doubtful, but possibly labeled thus by virtue of the 'romance' of his apparent death, which appeals to the morbid side of every music fan, and we all have one. Alive? i doubt it. Again, the romantic notion that everyone from Elvis to Jim Morrison allows that they simply dropped out of the fame game, and are living quietly elsewhere. I just think they dropped out of the fame game, and that's it.