Artists you are certain are assholes even though you've never met them or talked to them

Shockah.

Siouxsie's generally awful. Curt Kirkwood too. Paul McCartney's "nice guy" image is a total front. Björk is a real bitch. Lewis & Graham from Wire are pompous fucks. But 99% of the musicians I've met are polite at the very least, and many are really wonderful.

Gene Simmons OTM

myself, for enjoying this too much.

The correct answer to the thread is probably Pete Doherty.

Lewis & Graham are the same person (Lewis being his surname).

-- Lotta Continua (autobahn7...), April 29th, 2006.

actually graham lewis is two individuals in one, kind of like a mini-voltron that forms together everytime there's a wire reunion.

From this thread, it seems Gene Simmons is the winner.

I used to think the same - but Julian Cope was really nice, so I had to change my mind about it.

"Oh, so yeah, between hanging out with the Danielson Famile and recording albums about all 50 states, I HARDLY have any time for Jesus anymore. BTW, Pitchfork said I made the best album of 2005. Better luck next year, M.I.A. Hey, M.I.A. how appropriate, right brah? Right? Hey, shithead, laugh when I make a joke or I'll shove my banjo up your ass!"

someone else i know met eminem -- he is apparently very introverted in person, even a bit shy. but that doesn't mean he isn't an asshole.

i vote for the assholes every time. they make better "copy" too.

My problem with this thread is that almost NOBODY has been mean to me who is actually in a group, as like pdf I tend to meet them when they are eager to be met and I'm interested in talking to them.

nice people i've interviewed:
rick springfield
iggy pop
the guitar player from weezer
hootie
julian casablancas
john doe

Definite ones are Lou Reed and Miss Kittin.

Then there are people who I just assume are asshole, which includes pretty much any one that has ever made or gone under the guise of electroclash.

I interviewed him twice, he was okay…but both times, out of nowhere, he started to inveigh against people who flip him off at shows…he talked about how this is disrespectful to him for about five minutes each time…I thought it was so weird that I just let him go without attempting to steer the convo elsewhere…

Bowie was lovely…but then, it was his job to charm me…

GAH Weller a complete tosser, not to mention a total lech.

Adam Green, probably

Ted Nugent, obviously

We subsequently met up with him at the ICA after a Wire gig were I suggested she might want to apologise after a blinding set, to which he replied "But I am a wanker!"

I've met him twice and each time he was chatty and down-to-earth. This was long before the whole "you are captain, I am REM" fracas though.

my friends the antiseen say that GG was a nice, sociable guy when he wasn't around his fans and was just "Kevin Patrick".

It was only when he had fans present that he turned into GG, the angry fecal tosser.

don't confuse nervousness or anxiety or stage fright with assholeness!

I second Don Henley.

:D How can the guy who wrote the music for The Sims and Rugrats be a bastard! =)

-- s1ocki (slytus...), April 30th, 2006.

might be but how can you be so sure?

-- s1ocki (slytus...), April 30th, 2006.

might be but how can you be so sure?

-- lovely man who (...), Today 1:35 PM. (later)

trust me i can, in at least one of those cases!!

:D How can the guy who wrote the music for The Sims and Rugrats be a bastard! =)"

And the great music to The Life Aquatic what I am listening to right now...say it isn't so...

of Built To Spill? had an awful interview with him for NME once, where he basically wouldn't answer a question without twisting it into some dumb unprintable joke to impress his bandmates. he gave me so little to work with, i didn't bother writing up the feature.

billy corgan was a bit of a pissant when i interviewed him, eddie vedder was pretty sweet though.

R. Stevie Moore
Ariel Pink

i guess r. stevie is really nice, he stayed w/some ppl i kinda know

I heard he relentlessly hits on scene girls, though maybe if i had been playing music my entire life and was undergoing some cult re-discovering i'd probably do the same.

My friends toured w Nine Inch Nails and said Trent Reznor was a super great guy.

peter murphy

gotta be, right?

i saw some interviews w/him and was kinda surprised at how relatively unpretentious and chill he came off

i don't know much abt him though, and these were fairly recent

Gavin Rossdale
Pink
Glenn Danzig
Iron Maiden
Diana Ross
Barbara Streisand
Pete Townshend
― xgurggleglgllg (xgurggleglgllg), Saturday, April 29, 2006 9:36 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

friend has worked for rossdale pretty extensively and gone on many tours w/him and that's totally not true at all, nice dude

I met R. Stevie in a non-interview style situation once and found him to be v. nice... not that you can extrapolate *that* much from talking to someone at a festival for half an hour.

XP: I've spent a total of about four or five hours talking to Pete Murphy on a couple of occasions and found him to be charm personified but you can extrapolate even less about someone's quotidian personality from interview situations, I guess.

XXP: I also found him very able to laugh at himself.

XXXP: Steve Harris is possibly the most down to earth guy I've ever spoken to... to the extent it's really fucking weird.

Glenn Danzig is a bit of a twit.

that's kinda blowing my mind that you've spent 4-5 hours in the same room as peter murphy for some reason! :)

rossdale has always seemed like a bro!

maybe I'm the asshole

he also said weird al was the nicest dude ever to his crew, which didn't surprise me but hearing otherwise would have broken my heart in two

For a while me and my mate from school, an illustrator called Phil, used to do pieces together where I'd do an interview while he'd sketch and photograph the subject and we'd stick the drawings, photos and text together into pieces for The Stool Pigeon paper in the UK. He was very generous with his time and we went out for a meal with him, then to a coffee shop, then to a nice Hawksmoor church. The other two (possibly three times) were on standard press junket things (two Bauhaus, one PM solo). I really liked him... but I'd still stress it's only an impression.

By all accounts Bowie is the master at making interviewers feel good. Remembers the names of interviewers's kids, what the last interview he did with them was like, asks them about themselves etc. My limited experience of Chuck D is that he's similar, got what appears to be a photographic memory for meeting people.

bono helped extract my mom from a dangerous crowd crush at a U2 show

Henry Rollins seems like he can either be intimidatingly affable or a complete asshole depending on whether he thinks you're worth the effort. I never had a conversation with him so I have no idea really.

I've met a zillion musicians and not one of them has been an asshole, but some of them have been hungry or needed a nap

GEOFF TATE LOCK THREAD

from what i know, jd souther = apparently a charmer!

I met Geoff Tate. He was charming and well-spoken and self-effacing about his smoking, which we did at the time outside of a Seattle warehouse while I was interviewing him.

I do realize that the guy who is talking to a media member is not always the guy, of course.

He also didn't have any sharp objects with him. At least, he didn't pull one on me.

Phil Oakey

XXXXXXXXXXXXXP - Bruce Gilbert was really nice to me and indulged my rambling about the Mzui Waterloo Gallery record with good grace.

oh Thom Yorke, who after being complemented about a solo performance was hilariously unpleasant to a musician friend of mine, who retorted by calling him a numpty.

I once sent Pete Townshend an e-mail, and he responded about 10 minutes later, very kindly answering my question about Sun Ra.

what did he say abt sun ra??

Guy Garvey

Ian Svenonious is the only well-known musician I've been in the company of long enough to make any kind of assessment about, and he was a totally nice and down to earth dude.

'yes "sun ra" is two words, not one. hope that helps! -- pt'

^ bingo

I'm Facebook friends with an awesome Met soprano and I've been out drinking with Joshua Bell and Robert Spano (who briefly dated a friend of mine) and they were/are all awesome, if that impresses anyone

I also got the nicest, most amiable rejection letter from the dude from Men Without Hats when I sent him an email asking if their ad looking for a keyboardist/backup singer meant they were totally wedded to the singer being a good keyboardist

Sun Ra was listed on Pete's old site (circa 2000) along with Morton Subotnick and Terry Riley as being influential on Lifehouse, so I asked if he listened to Ra's contemporaries, and what in particular about Ra's music inspired/influenced him. He said he listened to Miles, and a lot of Coltrane, but Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 1 was a record he listened to a lot while writing the songs for My Generation. "You can't hear it in the music, but it's there somewhere."

xp

Steve Reich

oh, and if anyone was thinking that Shawn Colvin was a total dick, I am more than happy to confirm that you are correct

"I'm Facebook friends with an awesome Met soprano and I've been out drinking with Joshua Bell and Robert Spano (who briefly dated a friend of mine) and they were/are all awesome, if that impresses anyone"

*impressed*

I went to a dinner once with a musician who was so unpleasant a dinner guest that I haven't wanted to put on any of his records since then.

I'd tell you who it is ~but~ the primary source of his unpleasantness was that he was trash-talking other musicians at the dinner table, so lesson learned I guess.

"I've met a zillion musicians and not one of them has been an asshole, but some of them have been hungry or needed a nap"

if they agreed to do an interview, why should they be assholes?

you cant judge the amount of assholeness from an interview/brief meeting

also, it's subjective, and variable etc

hope that at least the food was good

xpost

can we guess? I wanna say it was Chad Kroger

Steven Tyler

Chad wasn't an asshole but he ruined my dinner party with his party tricks

sigur rós seemed like dicks in their npr interview

There's a guy who posts on [another message board] and he worked for a couple years as a house monitor engineer at a club in Chicago. When he quit his job, he posted a list of all the bands he'd done monitors for, and invited everybody to ask for the dirt. It was an interesting thread! And the guy was a better writer than he was a monitor engineer. But my takeaway from it was, like, aren't you kind of transgressing some law here? I mean, if you're hired to work for a bar, you must understand that it took that band eight hours to drive out to Chicago or whatever, and they might just want some privacy and a moment of silence before they get to work, you know? It seemed somehow unfair. But carry on.

I can confirm Chad Kroeger, or at the very least someone in Nickelback is an asshole.

This is how it went down:

My SO at the time and I were sitting at a restaurant having a jolly good time. The booths were back-to-back. There were maybe 3 or 4 booths between us and the corner of the room.

Suddenly, we see a few waiters go up to at least three tables and talk to their patrons. We're wondering what the hell happened. After 10 minutes or so, all of them leave and that area is enclosed with those red velvety stands.

At this point we're wondering what the hell just happened and my SO says to me, "Uh, that's that guy from Nickelback" and starts laughing.

Lo and behold, the entire Nickelback gang move into that area and have a quiet get-together.

I don't know, seemed a little rude to kick people out while they were enjoying their meals, in my opinion.

Steve Reich

― SongOfSam, Thursday, February 14, 2013 4:32 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't get this at all but it is maybe because i am so endeared by the bit in steve reich's capsule bio where he decides to go to africa to listen to drum music for a while which is p much the sound of the WKIW klaxon to me

i've met/talked to kristen hersh a few times, she is kind of astonishingly funny and nice and generous.

There's a guy who posts on [another message board] and he worked for a couple years as a house monitor engineer at a club in Chicago. When he quit his job, he posted a list of all the bands he'd done monitors for, and invited everybody to ask for the dirt. It was an interesting thread! And the guy was a better writer than he was a monitor engineer. But my takeaway from it was, like, aren't you kind of transgressing some law here? I mean, if you're hired to work for a bar, you must understand that it took that band eight hours to drive out to Chicago or whatever, and they might just want some privacy and a moment of silence before they get to work, you know? It seemed somehow unfair. But carry on.

― flamboyant goon tie included, Thursday, February 14, 2013 3:07 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would take "dirt" from a sound guy with a grain of salt.

Eddie Prévost

Yeah, there are situational assholes.

The same guy who might be a total prince when the cute girl from Rolling Stone is interviewing him might be a flaming douchebag when his monitors sound like shit.

The truth, as always, is complicated.

That said: Johnny Lydon wins this thread. How hasn't he been mentioned yet?

xp to chr1s Yeah it had less to do with his specific occupation and more like "duuuude but you're on the same team". Still, nobody expects the monitor engineer

*suspects

Eddie Prévost

― :C (crüt), Thursday, February 14, 2013 4:15 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Some serious passive-aggression with this dude.

(that said, he was very friendly the one time I met him)

I know people who know Guy Garvey and he's meant to be lovely.

Patrick Wolf is meant to be a asshole, but I interviewed him once and he was lovely.

A certain singer in a certain band I've done work with has a reputation for being an asshole and upsetting everyone at record labels and PR companies and radio stations and gig venues and so on and so forth. I've known him be lovely and sweet, but I've also known him be an asshole.

> sigur rós seemed like dicks in their npr interview
>
> ― polski smak (clouds), Thursday, 14 February 2013 21:01 (19 minutes ago)

Hate to break it to you, but they're just really mean to the (mass) media, not including their "off days".

I've hung out with them. Jónsi is the nicest and friendliest guy. Georg is fun but reserved and distant if he doesn't know you; he seems to be the more normal one.

Kjarten is really wacky and easygoing.

Orri is very quiet and calm.

At least in the situation I met them in, as an outsider.

xpost:

The name of this certain band wouldn't be a word that means "to clasp or hold close with the arms, usually as an expression of affecton", would it?

Barry Manilow is an infamous douchebag.
Ariel Pink is kind of a dick.

i know someone who met lydon and said he was very nice, signed autographs and chatted and everything.

i know someone who's met lou reed and said he was super nice, so you never know...

If I ever meet Lou and he did anything less then kick me in the shins and ruin my credit score I would be hugely disappointed

http://25.media.tumblr.com/54b4d6d6e6b0bb5da33e966823a8f6c3/tumblr_mi6kvwe9ot1s54i6co1_400.jpg

Lou: "Hey Chr1s you look cold do you want to borrow my jacket?"

Me: "I'm SO DISILLUSIONED!!"

yeah, this guy's lou story was sort of disappointing. he didn't ask him about old velvet underground bootlegs or anything (i think they talked about photography).

The name of this certain band wouldn't be a word that means "to clasp or hold close with the arms, usually as an expression of affecton", would it?

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Thursday, February 14, 2013 3:30 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the Snuggles are dicks irl? :(

I was talking to friend once and he was relating story about a band he played with getting all bent out of shape and depressed cuz Mark E Smith was insulting them and he was like "MES just called you a twat! How can you not be on cloud nine?"

Band in question was not Mumford & Sons FYI

the Snuggles are dicks irl? :(

― 'glown' with the king (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, February 14, 2013 9:42 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I actually LOL'd! Good work! :D

yeah, this guy's lou story was sort of disappointing. he didn't ask him about old velvet underground bootlegs or anything (i think they talked about photography).

― tylerw, Thursday, February 14, 2013 4:41 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've heard/read a bunch of stories like this where the famous person is really friendly and pleasant when talking about something other than what they're famous for.

That does surprise me at all? How would you feel if people wanted to talk to you about work all the time?

*doesn't

I dunno, some famous people dig incessant validation/affirmation, no matter how annoying.

Everyone else in said band is beyond lovely, it must be said. Bassist has about half a dozen ragdoll cats.

Everyone else in said band is beyond lovely, it must be said. Bassist has about half a dozen ragdoll cats.

― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, February 14, 2013 9:59 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Gotcha ;)

I'd list Mike Doughty here but I actually have interacted with him a bit (and he is most definitely a prick)

Kristin Hersh did something so lovely and considerate regarding the family of a friend of mine who were going through a very rough patch some years ago that if I weren't such a man, I'd well up thinking about it. As it is, it must be grit in my eye. And my direct experience of her is that she's very, very funny and charming to a fault.

Lou Reed's the only person I've ever hung up on before my allotted time was up. It was weird, I felt at the time like he was being a total prick to me but on listening to the tape a few times, I'm pretty sure he was only messing about and it turned out he was giving me a lot more of what I wanted to know than I was kind of registering. Still doesn't make that much sense to me.

John Lydon started screaming and shouting at me at one point but still hung around long enough for us to resolve the issue calmly and for him to say "have you got enough" and "peace" before hanging up... it's easy to forget there's an element of... showmanship... even off stage, even on some relatively unimportant (to them) trans-Atlantic phoner for some magazine they've never heard of and will never read for some of these old timers.

Fair play to them.

i've met/talked to kristen hersh a few times, she is kind of astonishingly funny and nice and generous.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, February 14, 2013 4:14 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, she's on the lists of "artists who have responded to me/interacted with me on Twitter" who seem super nice and cool. Her, Jane Wiedlin, Kathy Valentine, A.C. Newman . . . That's about it.

Back to the thread premise... Clapton.

yes

thank you

James Taylor. His whole mellow vibe always seemed like a total put-on to me.

otm

we saw him at Bridge Benefit a few years ago and he kept making these shitty asides to the soundguy and he just seemed so pompous and bleeeeehhhh

Robert Plant is a good friend of someone I went to school with and he is the biggest sweetie in the world apparently

he comes off very well in the new led zeppelin book.

i love when it turns out they're nice. i work with visual artists and whoa boy there are some awful ones

I haven't read the new book. The thing is, if all the stories in Hammer of the Gods and Stairway to Heaven are to be believed, then all the LZ guys are a bit sketchy. I'm never sure how believable they are though.

xpost

http://cdn-media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=24298&format=mGallery

2012 Kennedy Center honoree Robert Plant comforts fellow honoree Natalia Makarova after she tires of having her photo taken at the end of a State Department dinner on Saturday.

so not gonna happen

hahahahahahahaha

irl lol, vg

RP dates a very nice singer in Austin...can't remember her name

I haven't read the new book. The thing is, if all the stories in Hammer of the Gods and Stairway to Heaven are to be believed, then all the LZ guys are a bit sketchy. I'm never sure how believable they are though.

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, February 14, 2013 6:34 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the new book is far far better than those and way more comprehensive, no one comes off as an angel, page seems downright evil but plant in general seems like a nice guy at heart, as nice as one could be.

shit gets dark though, the last few years of the band is like the end of goodfellas

Can't believe nobody's mentioned Ringo. he seems like a real douche. peace and love, peace and love.

the new book

When Giants Walked the Earth?

i've got the jimmy page interviews book and the new oral history sitting at numbers 11 and 12 in my pile of next books to read. Hate to have them cut in line but what the hell...LZ binge time!

Toby Keith is an asshole for "Beer For My Horses."

FYI I've had very limited James Taylor interactions but he always has come across as very gracious and committed to being a decent human being, which makes me a little sad that I hate so much of his music

yeah, i've heard some shitty things about ringo, kinda breaks my heart. it's kind of horribly ironic that the only ex-beatle who seems to have been unfailingly nice to fans was lennon.

Many moons ago I worked in a restaurant on the Kings Rd that Bob Geldof used to come into all the time. It's no surprise I guess but he was the most unbelievable asshole and in the worst do-you-know-who-I-am way. Bawling out waitresses because his cappuccino wasn't exactly how he wanted it, insisting on having his pet poodle served pasta under the table, just godawful, if I'd been the manager I'd have banned him.

when i was 18 i went backstage in nyc to have throwing muses do a promo for my radio show (had my sony professional. also bootlegged the show. this was right before house tornado came out.) and i have honestly never been that nervous around anyone ever in my life and i thought i was gonna die and KH and the rest of the band were sooooooooooo nice to me. you have no idea. i thought i was gonna start crying like a smiths fan. but for real the four sweetest people. i mean they could have just laughed at me.

Weird i never heard a shitty thing about Ringo. What'd he do? I thought it was common knowledge that Lennon was a prick.

I was literally just saying to people on Monday how it was obvious that everyone in The Beatles was an asshole EXCEPT Ringo.

john martyn amirite?

Nick, I ha that exact conversation w/ my dad, except he thought ringo was the biggest asshole.

Can it be possible that this thread has been going for seven years and no one has mentioned BOB DYLAN? Who could be a more certain asshole than that?

some of the artists/bands i have interviewed ranked by how friendly they were:

DJ Harvey - the easiest interview you could imagine. He doesn't shut up, is funny, gives you tonnes of quotable stuff, has an amazing voice. Top top dude.

Tanlines - Jesse was really welcoming and nice, Eric was a bit more reserved. It was my first face-to-face interview and they both gave me some good pointers/advice for the future.

Derrick Carter - anyone who can turn an interview from a standard 'tell us how you chose the tracks for your latest mix' piece into a discussion about the merits of sunday roasts and the limits of fiction has to be alright.

THE WORST: Surgeon - rude fucker.

Oh, and Robbie Williams is clearly quite an unpleasant man.

I spoke to Surgeon briefly just after he'd finished a set a few years back and he was exceedingly nice. we talked about noise music iirc. several months after that I went to see Whitehouse and he came up to me in a heaving venue to say hi. I was astonished that he even remembered speaking to me. in conclusion Surgeon is a champ, fuiud

I heard Kode9 is a bit of a tool. He seems like a moody sod, but then again so am I

why would you judge someone an asshole or a nice guy based on a one-off social occasion or interview setting or whatever impression they leave when they're in work/performance mode?

more comfortable with labelling people like ariel pink, who hold really unpleasant and poisonous views, as assholes

ime people who self-define as "moody sods" are just using it as an excuse to be rude to people

very true

You two are moody sods.

"i thought i was gonna start crying like a smiths fan"

lol

why would you judge someone an asshole or a nice guy based on a one-off social occasion or interview setting or whatever impression they leave when they're in work/performance mode?

thank you for this!!

because let me tell you a fuckin lot of people will in fact judge you on the one time they wanted to talk to you while you were sequestered in a shitty loud room having just gotten off a plane, sitting around waiting to do what you came there to do

so you're not an asshole?

I am sometimes an asshole but generally speaking I'm not, y'know, cranky and unapproachable

"please, call me an asshole for who I am, not for superficial reasons"

yeah lex otm

I'm not trying to run some First Impressions Police but these sorts of discussions-with-evidence work better when they're anecdotal rather than conclusive, imho? i.e. a friend of mine got shushed by Bjork at a concert once and came home and was like "Bjork is some bitch for shushing me" and my feeling was "maybe you were being loud"

pretty sure she sang it's oh so quiet at every venue on that tour?

lol

The only musicians who I would not want as dinner guests, based on completely unsubstantiated impressions, are Lauryn Hill and Stephin Merritt

Weird i never heard a shitty thing about Ringo. What'd he do?

made that absurd video wherein he told people to stop sending him things to sign

But maybe he gets an absurd amount of stuff sent to his office (or other places), or only 45% of them have return postage? Maybe they don't have the storage? I mean he looks like he might be a bit of a douche and that 'peace and love' message was some shit, but the dude is old.

50 years of being sent things to sign, I'd be cranky.

But maybe he gets an absurd amount of stuff sent to his office (or other places)

Bags full iirc

http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/ringo-starr.jpg

No one I've met through music has been anywhere near as much of a twat as a lot of the people I met through working on a football magazine. The only time I've been annoyed was when after an interview which dwelt a lot on the singer having a hard time with his fans - because it was clearly the only thing on his mind at the time, and I rather toned down what he had to say for his own good - said singer tweeted to his disappointed fans that he had been "sensationalised" by journalists (near identical themes appeared in a Rolling Stone piece that ran round the same time). But he was lovely to my face.

Despite my love of REM, I would never like to meet Michael Stipe.

let's get that football dirty washing out there, you'll feel better

According to Chuck Rainey,

"We always stayed in the same hotels as them. I remember explicitly: George and John were great. They hung out on the airplane with our band, played gin rummy, joked--real people--they never stayed in their part of the plane. But Paul and Ringo were perfect assholes. We never saw either, and when we did, they had their nose in the air, aloof--or so it appeared."

chuck rainey kinda pissed off in general though. to be fair. this is even better for this thread:

"We all know that Roberta Flack had just left him--he did not like Roberta, very few people do. When he came to Atlantic he was forced to do duets with her. Roberta had been his teacher at Howard University, in choir. He didn't like her then, and he certainly didn't like her as a pro."

Hate to break it to you, but they're [sigur rós] just really mean to the (mass) media, not including their "off days".

― kafkaesque (c21m50nh3x460n), Thursday, February 14, 2013 3:26 PM (Yesterday

i don't get that. why choose to be shitty to certain ppl and respectful to others?

Jools Holland
Jeff Lynne

Nina Simone, although I guess that was more of a mental illness rather than straight up assholery.

I mean, I've had some terrible neighbors but "she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with a pneumatic pistol after his laughter disturbed her concentration" is pretty insane.

i tend to give the benefit of the doubt to people like ringo and dylan just cuzza the whole suffering fools for 50+ years kinda thing.

I recall reading a story about Nina setting her dog on a French journalist and calling him a motherfucker! Not very pleasant but it does add to the legend.

well listen aero if you weren't such a ~diva~ with all yr scarf-related tantrums maybe ppl wouldn't think so poorly of you

i still think of that time i saw an impeccably dressed charlie watts just strolling leisurely down chestnut street in philly looking in antiques store windows. not a care in the world. by himself. a day or so before their big show circa 1989. would totally hang with. mick and keith not so much.

i know its probably really tempting to people, but not bugging people before they play a show should be a fan's default setting.

Yeah, if I saw Watts, I'd totally be an annoying weirdo to him.

also, in general, meeting people when they are on tour is not like really meeting people sometimes. they are tour-weird.

and as far as people being jerks/dumb/weird in press situations, musicians should always do that cuz the press are scum.

Azealia Banks

i was just thinking how funny it was that this thread and the az banks one have been bobbing around next to each other all day

i kinda never want to meet the people i love/admire anyway. or people i loved/admired in the past. its too embarrassing for me. i still cringe when i think of my throwing muses moment and that was years and years ago. or the time i accosted george carlin...oh jeez that was bad.

The most unpleasant behaviour I ever encountered from a famous person was when I asked Geoffrey Boycott to sign my battered copy of one of his books at a new book signing in the lunch interval of the 1981 Oval Test, when I was 12. "I'm only signing books people have bought today. If you want my autograph, buy a book. Or get lost."

*Americans - this is cricket stuff. Just ignore it.

surprising dearth of rappers on this thread

charlie watts once came into the jazz dept that i worked in (his big band were playing ronnie scotts, which was just round the corner.) as scott sez he was just abt the most dapper human being i have ever seen. also, he was a total charmer, def. knew his jazz and kept things v. low key, w/out at any point playing the aloof celeb. most amazing thing was how the whole atmosphere of the space literally changed as ppl noticed who it was - clearest demonstration i've ever had of the effect that the very very famous have on almost any situation (and yeah, totes made me understand why ppl like dylan might behave the way they do)

A friend of mine interviewed Vanilla Ice -- this was during one of his late-90s "comebacks" -- who was just kind of meh for the interview, until my friend brought up the outsider art sculpture in the background of Ice's promo photo. Vanilla perked up; he knew the history of the sculpture, knew about the artist, and ended by saying "This was the best interview I've ever done."

xpost whoa *bows down*

I reckon Tupac might've been a jerk

Hate to break it to you, but they're [sigur rós] just really mean to the (mass) media, not including their "off days".

― kafkaesque (c21m50nh3x460n), Thursday, February 14, 2013 3:26 PM (Yesterday

i don't get that. why choose to be shitty to certain ppl and respectful to others?

― polski smak (clouds), Friday, 15 February 2013 15:50 (2 hours ago)

i don't think you speak for many bands out of mainstream.

ithappens: Talking of cricket and signings... My friend Stool Pigeon Phil, who I have a feeling you may know, went to a Hot Chocolate record shop signing when he was about ten with his mum and (for reasons that he's never made clear to me) took a cricket bat to get autographs on. Errol Brown signed the bat: "Dear Phil, I love you, Errol Brown xx"

Apparently his mum was outraged and wouldn't let him stay and chat.

i don't think you speak for many bands out of mainstream.

― administrator galina (Matt P), Friday, February 15, 2013 10:17 AM (17 minutes ago)

'Many' has the fortune to be ambiguous. So if I talk for a handful of bandmates and bands I've been in, it can qualify as talking for many of them, because I've had this conversation with nearly all the bands I've been in (in over 15 years). Of course, it has to do with surrounding yourself with 'like-minded' people.

Like anything in the arts and conversations in ILM, it is anecdotal. There is no real meaningful data that can be extrapolate from anecdotes.

I actually have been frequenting the Sigur Rós message board on their official site since about 2002 (in its older permutation, too, when it was 18 seconds before sunrise and 'unofficial') and people talked about Sigur Rós's reticence about talking to interviewers in those early days, too.

But I shall cut it here, as I surmise you are trolling.

So, touché, I guess!

Geri Halliwell

See i feel like Charlie Watts and Ringo both got lots of "Oh you are so lucky you have a career w all these talented guys" and since then are just naturally a little more humble than their more famous bandmates.

or the time i accosted george carlin...oh jeez that was bad.

― scott seward

Your therapist would view your purging of this as a positive step for self-forgiveness...

i can't remember details about ringo but i've heard a bunch of stories about ppl running into lennon in his last year in NYC and being surprised at what a sweet, chatty, down-to-earth guy he was. i think you can see footage of him talking to ppl in the park in the 'imagine' documentary. obv there are also a ton of stories about him being a jerk to ppl when he was young.

is J Mascis too obvious? Dinosaur Jr. stories too, a buddy of mine was telling a story about how Mascis went to some friend of his' house and stole her Degrassi box set which is assholish in the most hilarious way

lol

isn't that youtube video where ringo announces to the world he's never signing another autograph pretty much enough to put an end to this question

Mick fleetwood says Ringo was always running around going "I'm a Beatle, you're not" in 80s LA, which I think is pretty funny.

Evan Dando

Sigur Rós

isn't that youtube video where ringo announces to the world he's never signing another autograph pretty much enough to put an end to this question

i thought so too but he's kind of earned the right to do that wouldn't you say

I prob would be tired of signing autographs after half a century of it but I think there are better ways of going about it

isn't that youtube video where ringo announces to the world he's never signing another autograph pretty much enough to put an end to this question

Ringo stole the idea from Neil Peart (Modern Drummer, August, 1996):

For almost twenty years I have made the time to answer everybody who has written to me through Modern Drummer. A couple of times a year I would set aside a whole day and spend it reading these letters and writing out postcards in response -- at first by hand and later on the keyboard -- answering each letter individually and uniquely (i.e. no form letters).

By now the total of those responses would number in the thousands, but I was always able to keep up with them at my own pace. Because I was careful never to talk about it in interviews and such, the numbers stayed under control -- it remained "our little secret." Until now.

In the last year or so the number of letters has doubled or tripled all of the sudden, and although it might be flattering to consider this just a reflection of my ever-growing popularity, I know that's not the case.

All it took was a few people to go on the World-Wide GossipNet and start telling people that I had answered their letters through Modern Drummer, and the floodgates were open. These big mouths (or big fingers) have spoiled it for everyone.

Including me. Personally, I feel terrible about this situation, for it has always given me a glow of satisfaction to spend that time on a little bit of altruism -- knowing that I might bring a smile to these people's faces, or even encourage them a little bit. However, this is not something I want to devote my life to, and as I face the ever-growing pile of mail in the corner of my office, I know I will never again be able to keep up with it.

So to any of you whose personal messages and requests reside in that pile, I offer my sincere apologies for not answering them. This unfortunate consequence of the much-vaunted Inter-thingy is a shame, and I do regret it.

But hey -- it was good while it lasted!

Neil Peart
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Weird of him to post his address at the end

, Earth, The Milky Way, the Universe

I prob would be tired of signing autographs after half a century of it but I think there are better ways of going about it

such as?

I had no idea Neil Peart lived in the Universe. Totally going there tomorrow.

If you just write "dude, PEART" on an envelope, it gets delivered to him.

Evan Dando was surprisingly nice when I met him 20-odd years ago. But it was the week It's A Shame About Ray came out, so he wasn't indie famous yet. Both he and Juliana Hatfield were super happy to talk to fans and hang out.

steve albini
odd future

James Murphy is a totally rad dude. just throwin it out there

such as?

just not responding to mail

To:
Mr Peart In The Tiny Hat
RUSH IS AWESOME

would totally get delivered

Albini is actually a really nice dude from everything I've heard from folks who've interacted with him

xpost to Doran. Actual LOLs.

just not responding to mail

imo its better to just tell fans to not bother rather than have them go through the trouble of mailing shit out

I recently read an old piece that Simon Reynolds wrote about the Pixies shortly after the recording of Surfer Rosa and Kim Deal made it sound like they all hated Albini and that he was a total creep, but that was a long time ago...

I was introduced to Evan Dando back in the mid-90s. He was tripping on shrooms at the time and seemed pretty friendly. Then again, who wouldn't be....

friend of mine who is not a LZ fan ran into Plant in Austin recently (they hve mutual muso friends) and says Plant is the coolest, funniest guy.

<i>Kim Deal made it sound like they all hated Albini and that he was a total creep, but that was a long time ago...</i>

she worked with him on title tk and mountain battles, plus i think was as the PRF BBQ i think this past one

There's a bit in that long rant Albini posted that was going around the net a decade ago where he goes out of his way to praise Kim Deal.

Here's a separate bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ah1VtCOhl4

guess they warmed up to each other

Not responding to mail anymore is not a big deal but the "peace & love, peace & love" stuff is annoying. I saw an interview where Ringo was dissing Yoko a bit and then doing that exact same "peace & love, peace & love" thing. I get the impression that he's a guy who knows he can just do and say whatever he wants and get away with it because he's RINGO.

i wanna hang out and listen to records with robert plant and tom petty.

"I get the impression that he's a guy who knows he can just do and say whatever he wants and get away with it because he's RINGO."

this totally works for me. he is indeed RINGO. plus, i'd be paranoid if i were him what with the gunshot/stabbing of former beatles.

i met Ringo (and Barbara Bach ) on the street in NYC one afternoon. I thanked him and he was really nice, shook my hand and said "You're very welcome!" in THAT voice. I still feel kinda blessed by that. (Barabara smiled)

A bunch of people I knew when I lived in Tucson met Paul McCartney (back when he used to have his ranch there) and all said he was massively nice.

love sasu ripatti to death but he sounds terribly arrogant from interviews I have read

In the late 90s I worked in IT for a talent agency in Beverly Hills so I got to meet/interact/observe a lot of famous folks. It's a work context so the meet and greet is different from a "I'm your biggest fan!" The best story I have goes like this:

1998. Mid-week, late afternoon. Standard Office Bullshit Time Zone. I'm answering tech support emails. Two officemates are printing off contracts for a big tour and are talking. There's a knock at the door. It's Chuck Berry.

Chuck: "Hi, I'm Chuck Berry. I just want to thank you for all of the hard work you've done for me this year." he then extends a hand, and smiles The Chuck Berry Smile.
Me: *stands up* "Uhhhhh thanks Mr. Berry" *shakes Chucks hand* "i'm a big fan" he then introduces himself to the two officemates "hi, I'm Chuck Berry", talkative, totally charming, grateful and then he's' off to the next office "hi, I'm Chuck Berry!" I'm completely dumbfounded for minutes until I just blurted out "holy shit, that was Chuck Berry!" Officemates don't seem to care one way or the other, but I don't care - I shook the hand of Gandalf.

that is awesome!

wow Elvis damn son

Like I said though, the employer-employee-agency context is different from just running into someone v. very famous randomly out on the street, but that cliche about how folks treat the help is truth. Donna Summer came by the office one day and went around thanking everyone just as Chuck did - totally charming and badass. As mentioned upthread, seeing high-wattage celebrity change the space around them is pure whoa to see in action.

Another story...

Encounters with the Famous can be kinda annoying to deal with on a workday basis and you just learn to deal with their peculiarities and accept them into your life. Mr. Cosby never came into the office, but he was always addressed as "Mr. Cosby" on the phone, in conversations with co-workers, etc. At home, I saw a re-run of I Spy and immediately thought "hey, Mr. Cosby"

Not music-related but I've had a couple of similar encounters - not as impressive though :) We get celebs through our office to promote movies from time to time - usually they stop off to gladhand the VP's and then will do an autograph signing or q/a later on for the employees as a group. We don't usually see them til the 'official' meet and greet. But Peter Riegert walked around the sales floor and shook everyone's hand, even got on the phone to some people's customers to say hi, he was really genial and friendly. Super nice dude. Biggest shocker of all was Mark Ruffalo and Orlando Bloom. They barely acknowledged the VP's at all...it was like they had 'normal people' envy and literally camped out at a couple of sales people's desks and talked to them about whatever, to the point where they were waving off their handlers because they were so into talking to the sales staff. And then for the actual event they sat next to people in the audience and introduced themselves. Like they had decided they'd have as much fun with the experience as we were, it was kinda funny to watch.

Jeff Goldblum on the other hand outwardly fake-charmed the pants off everyone and then had his manager call my coworker and ask for her number. :/

you know where goldblum's from of course

PEE BURG

funnily enough he was there to promote his movie of the same name

he's no michael keaton, but still

He has a lovely speaking voice though...I admit I was 100% starstruck for a good while.

I told him I liked his tv show Raines and he said 'Ah! so you're the one who watched it' lol

haha, I was alone in an elevator with goldblum once for like one or two floors and he was really talky. I just wanted to stand there quietly awkward but he was determined to make conversation.

It can get annoying though... The agency I was at was booking a lot of high-profile alternative bands and when I started there, most of them were already running aground from drugs and/or creative ennui and that made folks pretty grumpy. The worst was seeing former mid-level players stand around like shellshocked survivors in the aftermath of the Seattle War of 1992. Drunk Jimmer from the Rave-Ups would hang around in the reception area and wouldn't leave until he got a meeting. Uptight Tommy Stinson giving mad attitude to everyone about how great the Perfect album was going to be. Pearl Jam vs. Ticketmaster reaching Thunderdome and everyone involved just stressing and griping.

x-post

Have a similar elevator story from then. I get on the elevator to go down to the parking garage to get something out of my car. Elevator stops, Harry Belafonte gets on. Before I even get to "HFS!" stage, I swear he detected my awkwardness and was totally disarming "hi, I'm Harry" *shakes hand* "I'm a big fan!" high-wattage charisma laser going full-bore. Completely awesome, cool and in total control of their celebrity power.

xposts otm about Ruffalo, bumped into him just under a year ago (right around the time Avengers came out) and dude was totally affable

he sat down next to my friend & she nervously introduced herself & said "i follow you on twitter" bcz she didn't know what else to say. he lit up & was all "awesome" - pulled out his phone, asked for her handle & followed her. after he left she tweeted her photo with him & he retweeted it with the caption "my new friend hollie" sooo fking cute

Most unexpectedly nice encounter was Springsteen.

The Promise was given a UK cinema premiere at BFI Southbank. Two screenings. He was due to do a Q&A after the first, which had a largely invited audience, then disappear when the second, with a paying audience, screened. I was in the first screening, and then went to the party in the bar. Lots of rumours he might appear. After 90 minutes, no sign of him. Turned out he hung around to do an impromptu appearance at the public screening. Then he turned up at the party, with Landau and Mike Smith (then head of UK Columbia and more). The execs planted themselves in a corner, and Springsteen sat on the back of Landau's chair, facing the room, and basically received supplicants for a further 90 mins, exchanging words, signing things and having photos done with anyone who wanted. And yes I did. I was struck by what an unnecessary but wonderful gesture that was.

One fella had taken the precaution of turning up with an original Thunder Road movie poster which he had once had signed by Robert Mitchum. Wonder how much that ended up worth with both signatures.

I've interviewed a couple of rock stars here and there

Lars Ulrich, despite the perception of him, was a delight and I could have talked to him for another hour

Slash was great as well, and whether just sober or (I suspect) not playing the character of ”Slash”, was great and very well spoken and perceptive

I think it helps I was interviewing them about Guitar Hero and thus not asking them questions they'd heard a million times

Worst interviews I ever had: Glenn Danzig, Phil Anselmo.

And this surprised absolutely nobody.

Slash seemed p cool in his Conan appearances.

Slash was a complete jerk on Space Ghost but it was awesome.

bb king and buddy guy are both tremendous dudes.

My boss worked for a big concert promoter for years and like hates ray charles to a sort of striking degree, said he was pretty vile, especially to women, was kinda surprised that was her answer when I asked who was the worst person she dealt with, and that ws like a decade plus of doing shows for huge stars

(&she is super awesome & charming)

She said lots were aloof or kinda rude or unfriendly obv, but charles was so verbally abusive to every one of the employees I guess

yeah, just because he is blind doesn't mean he can behave like that!

it is because he is dead that he can't behave like that

yeah, replace "is" with "was" and "can" with "could"

dead and blind... poor guy...lol

is Kurt vile?

yeh my dad worked with ray charles & said he was super sleazy
someone i know did some work for noel gallagher and said he was surprisingly nice, also makes a good cup of tea. how terribly english, guv.

my friend met gallagher in nyc once, talked to him a little, and said he was very nice

He was really mean compared to other ppl I guess, but he was still alive when he was doing concerts

Yeah, I couldn't help but notice that he stopped performing right around the time he died. I figured it was just because he's an asshole.

It's hard to say, death affects everyone in different ways

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/fe859089f415c90eb5378a5935e38aba/214183.jpg

heard bad shit about michael gira & it feels true

would be kinda disappointed if michael gira wasn't an asshole tbh

are the butthole surfers buttholes?

Ask the good folks at Touch & Go Records.

A super religious friend of mine asked Gibby to sign his t-shirt once upon a time and ended up with a giant spurting cock instead of a signature, but I think that actually makes him awesome

gira does seem to be an exemplary arsehole in terms of putting his vices to good use, but i would not kiw

There was a Spin oral history of the Buttholes & they basically sounded like drug crazed maniacs

Ringo Starr, Sting, Patrick McGee and Bono.

Detachable Penis is one of the greatest songs EVER.

Worst interviews I ever had: Glenn Danzig, Phil Anselmo.

I've had really pleasant interview experiences with both. Anselmo thinks he's smarter than he is (expresses boneheaded ideas in really convoluted ways, uses big words where they're not needed, etc.) but was friendly enough. Another supposedly horrible dude I've had very pleasant interactions with: Dave Mustaine of Megadeth. Gira, Eugene Robinson of Oxbow, David Thomas of Pere Ubu, Mike Patton: all super cool.

The hands-down biggest asshole I've ever dealt with in a professional capacity? Joey DeMaio of Manowar. The only interview subject I've ever had hang up on me.

are the butthole surfers buttholes?

― nostormo, Saturday, February 16, 2013 6:51 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ask the good folks at Touch & Go Records.

― Put Another Quarter In The Pukebox (Old Lunch), Saturday, February 16, 2013 7:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

kinda weird that people never look at the BH side of the coin here. I worked for T&G at one point and have nothing but love for them but the thing people call the 'Surfers dicks for is wanting to get some terms going instead of working in perpetuity on a handshake deal.

You worked for touch & go?

They put out Pump, didn't they?

Ringo Starr, Sting, Patrick McGee and Bono.

I met Bono briefly on holiday and had a little chat and he was very jovial and chatty. This was after I'd been looking over and sniggering to my boyfriend at the guy over there in the weird glasses who 'thinks he's Bono'.

Where do you holiday?

Where the Streets Have No Name

A place called Vertigo.

This was in Florence, in the Uffizi gallery. iirc he queried why Michaelangelo's David wasn't circumcised even though he was 'one of the top 5 Jews'
xp it WAS on a Sunday and I remember having to stop myself from making any Alan Partridge 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' jokes

You worked for touch & go?

yeah. briefly. retail promotion. I was terrible at it.

Like, going around to Sam Goody's and trying to convince them to hang up Coco Rosie posters or something?

You worked for touch & go?

yeah. briefly. retail promotion. I was terrible at it.

― available for sporting events (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, February 17, 2013 6:53 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalin

Those Quarterstick releases never got into Sam Goody :-(

so many ppl deprived of june of 44 records

Pretty sure I bought all my Rollins spoken word albums at Sam Goody, actually. Aerosmith strikes again.

” I'm telling you, this Rollins guy is the next Dennis Leary, with the musical talent of Adam Sandler, you gotta get in on the ground floor”

Like, going around to Sam Goody's and trying to convince them to hang up Coco Rosie posters or something?

calling them on the phone to convince them to hang Kepone posters

if you can even deal w/that concept

You wouldn't have had to convince me to hang a Kepone poster. I loved those guys!

toldja he was an asshole

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/tn-818-0318-british-goth-rocker-arrested-for-alleged-dui-hitandrun-in-glendale,0,7800622.story

sorry, alleged asshole

I'm not gonna even venture a guess here. Once upon a time I'd have said Phil Anselmo. Then I met him, and he turned out to be a really nice guy. So who the fuck really knows?