His ending was pretty predictable. I remember some kid in the gym got to talking to me and Rich Piana came up in that conversation and I said he would be dead within 2 years, he had no idea what I was talking about. Less than a year later he was dead. People seemed to like him because they perceived him as being very "real" but I doubt many of the fans understood how messed up he was. Perhaps a very "American" story, like the Michael Jackson of bodybuilding.
