Then give him, like, pneumonia, man. Although it'd make singing hard, so maybe that's why he passes out on stage? It just gets, like, too hard or something and he kind of forgets to breathe? Maybe he can have like a normal cold for some time, and it finally gets ridiculous when he passes out, and then he goes to the hospital and they tell him he has pneumonia or something. So then... he won't be sick the whole time, apart from a 'normal' cold?

Funerals are like the hardest to write, I find, but you would do it so well, I know you would. You write with enough emotion to get everyone through a funeral so that it will feel completely real. (Which is usually good, but will probably break everyone haha).

do it. i can totally handle the angst.