Don't You Just Hate It

Don't you just hate when you get to meet a famous rock star and they turn out to be the biggest jerk you ever met...That happened to me recently. It stung so bad that I decided to get rid of their cd's and never buy their music again.. What really gets me is they are suppose to be a huge Christian band but truthfully after the way they acted ...

A friend of mine worked in a record store I frequented and he frequently said he was more surprised when musicians who came for meet-and-greets were nice than the other way around.

Granted, I get being on tour and tired, but this was some next level negative from what he was telling me.

brokentulsa wrote:

Don't you just hate when you get to meet a famous rock star and they turn out to be the biggest jerk you ever met...That happened to me recently. It stung so bad that I decided to get rid of their cd's and never buy their music again.. What really gets me is they are suppose to be a huge Christian band but truthfully after the way they acted ...

I'd wager your issue lies more in them being a certain type of Christian than the way you were treated ? Maybe they responded to the way you were treating them ? No matter, pretty rash way of judging somebody for you being involved in just a "snippet" of their everyday life. Your prerogative and maybe try again under different circumstances without preconceived notions.

So far I've had good luck with any "rock stars" that I've met. They've been super nice almost to a man.

Now I'm REALLY curious to know which band you were referring to, brokentulsa.

Quote :

I'd wager your issue lies more in them being a certain type of Christian than the way you were treated ? Maybe they responded to the way you were treating them ? No matter, pretty rash way of judging somebody for you being involved in just a "snippet" of their everyday life. Your prerogative and maybe try again under different circumstances without preconceived notions.

I do expect more out of a band that calls themselves Christian evangelist however any artist who treated me this way would lose my support. I have had run ins with this guy on line as well...several of us on other forums had had problems with him. He gets so belligerent the other members of the band even have problems with him....the singer has trashed lots of other artist..the more I think about it what should I have expected....if he trashes others publicly and acts ignorant online to fans then......oh well, I am still dumping his music...

I've met numerous musicians over the years and the only one who was a douche was Ace Frehley. I never let it ruin my enjoyment of his music, tho. It was a long time ago anyway.

I don't think I have ever met any "rock stars" but have met a ton of New England Pats due to my job. Sorry you had that experience, brokentulsa, I am sure it was a bummer. If it won't hijack the thread, FF please tell the Ted Poley story one more time. Please?

I've been very lucky. The rock stars and celebs I've met have all been very nice. Rock stars I've met are Stan Ridgway, Bob Mould, and Gary Numan. I was very surprised how accessible and friendly Ridgway is. Will have conversations with his fans (including me). Just the most down-to-earth person. Numan, too. Though I paid for a VIP ticket, he sat down and talked with all of us. Not all rock stars will do that. Mould was nice enough. More abrupt than the others but let me get a photo with him, so I left very happy. I had my photo taken with Paul Stanley, but it was a very quick thing because there were thousands at a bookstore to get a signed copy of his book. He didn't have time to talk with all of us.

Sorry you had a bad experience. My uncle (a drummer) met one of his heroes, Buddy Rich, way back in the day. I don't know the particulars, but Rich was a jerk to him. It probably really hurt him because Rich was one of the people who inspired him to be a drummer.

Musicians are just people...some are cool, some are assholes. That's life.

I meet Alice Cooper when I was 19 years old and he was the nicest guy to me. Asked if I was going to college, about my grades and even about living in Florida, and this was one of the most influential rock stars talking to some star struck kid

Witchfinder wrote:

So far I've had good luck with any "rock stars" that I've met.  They've been super nice almost to a man.

That's been my experience too. Someone on here said that Onslaught were massive assholes but they were great to me. Even Kerry King who has a reputation for being a dick was super nice. I haven't met many though.

You gotta separate the artist from the art.

brokentulsa wrote:

Quote :

I'd wager your issue lies more in them being a certain type of Christian than the way you were treated ? Maybe they responded to the way you were treating them ? No matter, pretty rash way of judging somebody for you being involved in just a "snippet" of their everyday life. Your prerogative and maybe try again under different circumstances without preconceived notions.

I do expect more out of a band that calls themselves Christian evangelist however any artist who treated me this way would lose my support. I have had run ins with this guy on line as well...several of us on other forums had had problems with him. He gets so belligerent the other members of the band even have problems with him....the singer has trashed lots of other artist..the more I think about it what should I have expected....if he trashes others publicly and acts ignorant online to fans then......oh well, I am still dumping his music...

What band is this just curious??

John Sykes is a dick. Gorham even confirmed it for me.

Johnny Rod was one of the coolest/craziest dudes I have ever met, though.

brokentulsa wrote:

Don't you just hate when you get to meet a famous rock star and they turn out to be the biggest jerk you ever met...That happened to me recently. It stung so bad that I decided to get rid of their cd's and never buy their music again.. What really gets me is they are suppose to be a huge Christian band but truthfully after the way they acted ...

In 1991 I went backstage for an Ozzy show during "No More Tours". Zakk was a complete jerk. So I hung with Randy Castillo and I gotta say he was such a down to earth guy and VERY friendly. I got him to sign a CD they gave us while back stage, a limited edition CD of some No More Tears Demos.

That reminds me, another nice guy was Jack Blades. I met him at a Damn Yankees show and he was super friendly.... And this just shows what a great guy he is (at least in my book).... I saw them again much later in the tour and met him again. When I walked backstage he said "MIKE! What's up man? How you been?". That made a huge impression on me that he remembered my name from a previous meeting. Either that or he calls everyone Mike!

S.D. wrote:

Musicians are just people...some are cool, some are assholes.  That's life.  

And some you might catch on a good day and some on a bad day.

Most of the famous, or underground, musicians I met have usually been okay.
Testament's singer was silent and just stared at me when I spoke with another band member, who was really cool.

mikeinfla wrote:

That reminds me, another nice guy was Jack Blades. I met him at a Damn Yankees show and he was super friendly.... And this just shows what a great guy he is (at least in my book).... I saw them again much later in the tour and met him again. When I walked backstage he said "MIKE! What's up man? How you been?". That made a huge impression on me that he remembered my name from a previous meeting. Either that or he calls everyone Mike!

That's good to hear, because I have read more than once that Jack Blades was full of himself and treated everyone badly.

Quote :

If it won't hijack the thread, FF please tell the Ted Poley story one more time. Please?

Haha, seriously? it's not much of a "story," but OK...

Danger Danger's Ted Poley is from the same neck of the woods as I am (northern New Jersey). I never liked D.D. much (if I can be blunt, I thought they sucked... haha), but that's neither here nor there. So anyway, in the early 90s I was working for KMart and Ted Poley was trying to get a new band called "Bone Machine" off the ground, playing the local dives. I'd just seen them opening for a KISS tribute band (!) and didn't think much of them either. Lo and behold, who comes walking down the aisle of my KMart a week or two later while I'm stacking shelves, but Ted Poley himself.

It must be noted here that being the nonconformist longhair rocker type I was wearing a big Gene Simmons pin (the face from his '78 solo album) on my company issued KMart red vest. When Ted walked by he nodded at me and said "Cool pin." I sez "Thanks man. Hey, you're Ted, right?" He stopped in his tracks, his eyes lit up like "YEAH! What's up man, how you doin'?" he shook my hand and we chit-chatted about bands & stuff for a minute or two before he went on his way. He seemed so thrilled that someone had actually recognized him and came off like a genuinely nice guy so I didn't have the heart to tell him I was never much of a fan.

choosemetal wrote:

What band is this just curious??

My guess is Michael Sweet of Stryper

You have to understand, fans are typically the real dicks. Sure, some musicians are asshats, but imagine having to deal with entitled, arrogant, stupid, rude fans all the time?

I've met very few that weren't at least pleasant. One that I did have a problem with was in a Christian band unfortunately. I share that story on my Crucified page on NLTM. However, the majority I have met were very cool.

My friends band recently played the opening of Kiss Rock and Brew in Albuquerque. Paul and Gene said they wanted to get up on stage with them and perform a song, which he was delighted about. He is a big Kiss fan. However, he said that they treated them like dirt, even cussing them out on stage in front of everyone because of the PA issues. They did the show for free even, even though tickets to the opening night were $150 a pop. (The money was said to be going to charity.) Needless to say, he's not as big a fan at the moment.

Actually I think the guys that bugged me the most were the bands that were douche bags because of omission. For example, I won meet-n-greet passes to meet Cinderella, Dokken, Slaughter and Poison. The guys in Slaughter were super cool. They walked into the room full of people, chatted and signed every piece of paper thrown their way. Cinderella sent two guys from the band into the room to meet people. They sat behind a table and people stood in line to meet them. They were cool as well, just not quite as personable as Slaughter. Apparently Tom Keiffer was not feeling well and needed some rest, which is understandable. Likewise Dokken sent out Mick Brown and guitarist Reb Beach. Towing along, as he lives in New Mexico, was Kip Winger who is friends with Reb. Again, very personable. Signed all the stuff people threw at them, especially Mick Brown who brought along a pile of cards to give to people. When asked about Don Dokken his band threw him to the wolves and said he couldn't be bothered to meet fans.

Poison, on the other hand, couldn't be bothered to come out at all. People stood around for hours waiting for them. I didn't really care 'cause I was there to meet Slaughter and have Mark sign my Vinnie Vincent CD, as well as Cinderella. They never came out. Could not be bother to spend 20 minutes sitting behind a table and meeting the handful of fans that won these tickets. To me that is pretty douchy.

I have met some rock stars that were cool...Dimbag, Ted Nugent, Krokus (smoked weed in the bus with them back in 1980 something), Accept, Coney Hatch, Waylon Jennings, Scotty Moore, 50s group The Coasters, Whiteheart... all super cool to hang out with...

Jerks list I have met....Kevin Dubrow, Gene Simmons, Michael Sweet, Rudy Sarzo, Rod Stewart, "Christian Singer" Carmen