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Biggest jerks in music

#162
See, my thing comes from those concert venues. Me and a couple of friends who couldn't afford to see gigs all of the time, would sign up and work for the venue as a ticket checker, and keeping people out from the back stages and stage fences. So we could "see" the gig for free. Actually, as during the gig we didn't have to "work". It was just before and after, and you had to show up hours before, and as such, being very aware about what was happening during soundchecks, inside the dressing room and so on. And afterwards, talking to that promoter. You had to do that kind of work, and he wanted college (young) people to guard, since it was college/university people going to these concerts. We hauled gear too, most of the time. So that's where my "tales" comes from. Later on I became involved in doing FOH sound and so on. But not for those big gigs, since they always had their own gear/foh.

I remember one from Hawkwinds management coming up to me before the gig and asked, very politely, though: "The boys in the dressing room wonders if you have any speed to sell...or know where one can get some?" that was 1975. I must've looked like a dope. I found out much much later on, that Lemmy was playing bass at that time (he got fired just a couple of months later), and he was the only one in Hawkwind doing speed. It wasn't until I read his book "white line fever" like ... in 2010..that it occured to me. My friends at the venue, just giggled a bit, and I told him to try somewhere else, as I didn't know at all where to get it...an university city for phuqs sake. I did get Dave Brocks autograph though...:thumbsup:
 
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#163
shawshank72 said:
I have never been a mainstream musician but many of years ago our band was friends with a radio host and got to see alot of stuff in a short time period.
My 2 cents is the people I thought would be a- holes turned out to be nice and the ones I thought to be nice were the a- holes.
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This is my experience too. Mostly. Those who purveys a certain shtick or act publicly, and behaves differently altogether when all the cameras, and mics are turned off, and no press in sight.
 
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#165
I think, it has mostly to do with that people knows that "someone else is making money out of me, seeing me, meeting me, hearing me". I e the professional work. A swedish rock journalist Anders Tengner wrote this book about it all, who's jerk and who's not, and he befriended the stars when they were starting out, and got the exposure in a magazine when they were trying to get some air under their wings. Now, years later on, when they were famous, they just turned out dickheads towards him, and thanked him for nothing. They wanted this and that much pay for him (or magazine) to grant an interview. Record company and management deals. Biting the hand that fed you... he was the most intimate friend even to Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, and Jon Bon Jovi... after they really hit it, they treated him like crap, and did not grant him any interview any longer. The magazine he wrote for was HUGE in Sweden. The biggest one too, and did NOT revel in tabloid crap, but he wrote only about the kind of hard rock he really liked, at heart. A true fan. Same with Guns'n'Roses even writing them up before their first album. The artist have no use of you, later on when they hit it big...and thinks that you made nothing to them. He hanged with them for long tours on their tour buses, and then all of a sudden....
 
#166
KeithPas said:
This is not a jerk story: good buddy of mine is a Nashville touring and recording bassist and he said that Micheal Rhodes is the nicest cat in town, just the nicest, most down to Earth guy you would want to meet.
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Sounds similar to what I experienced last week seeing Blackberry Smoke/Gov't Mule. Expected the bands to be a bit high and mighty, but damned if there wasn't a more decent group of guys. Actually chatted with Paul and Richard from BBS who were out front watching Mule during their show...
 
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#169
Stuart Hamm and Dave LaRue. I have met dozens of famous musicians. Most of them were either pleasant, or simply didn't have much time to interact. But none were rude.....except those two. It was the same night in fact. They were two of the bassists in the G3 tour. Buses were lined up outside the Venus and a guard rail ran from the buses to the outside wall. Behind the guard rail was their safe zone. Billy Sheehan and Steve Vai not only hung out and shook hands/signed autographs. They jumped the guard rail and stayed out there for a long time.

Stu sat down on the stairs outside the building. As people started cheering and yelling "Stu" he simply flipped them off and lit a cigarette. Dave wasn't much better.

I'm not saying you have to meet with the crowd. But if you aren't going to simply give a wave or a thumbs up as you board the bus and be done with it.
 
#171
two fingers said:
Stuart Hamm and Dave LaRue. I have met dozens of famous musicians. Most of them were either pleasant, or simply didn't have much time to interact. But none were rude.....except those two.
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I met Dave Larue at Bass Central. Very pleasant and we chatted for a bit. I saw Stu Hamm a few months ago but I didn't get to talk with him, he disappeared to the back right after the show. Very entertaining on stage though!
 
#172
Don't you think it's a sort of ...well, you know the mega mafia bosses, or drug dealers of south america?

When interviewing close relatives, family friends, they all go "HE WASN'T AN EVIL MAN AT ALL....!!!! What are you guys trying to insinuate!?!" and he was the perfect dad, generous, funny, kind, and all that sort of thing. As fast when someone close to him is not around, sort of "daddy's got to go to work..." their Jekkyl and Hyde comes forth.

Pablo Escobar anyone? ;)

No one sees both sides of them, everyone sees just one side of them. And make their prejudice conclusion of what their experience is, and refuses to even want to see the other side, as in the searching of missing FLIGHT MH370, whose investigations more and more points towards pilot suicide. All of a sudden, Malaysian officials, and relatives to the captain says this or that is wrong, because "he was a nice man, had no troubles, you are soooo wrong". This was so too, with the German pilot the other year..who dived his plane right into the alps. No one saw this coming. There is a certain mentality and penchant for not acknowldeging incriminating circumstancials get out in the public, and they want to keep that secret for as long as possible. In rock/pop music it's kind of different. Especieally in the punk movement and lifestyle thing where being a jerk is an absolute prerequisite from the start on. All things "rock'n'roll" are about being mischievious, rebellious, and upsetting the status quo. I e being that jerk, otherwise the tabloids doesn't write about you.
 
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#175
I heard that that guy from Limp Bizkit got some heat too after a certain incident...Durst something? Can't separate them Limp Park, or Linkin Biscuit...or was it the other way around...? ;) Nu rap metal bands, or ...flash in the pans.
 

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