When Heroes Do Crazy Stuff

Over time, the musicians you revere can have their image changed in your eyes. Some of the touring underground bands that I admired during my 20s seemed, in retrospect, to have more in common with me and my music pursuits than I thought. The only real difference was they were in a bigger city and there was a label backing them up. Sometimes superstars turned out to be not so super. John Lennon, in all his infinite wisdom, might qualify for what some people would call a deadbeat dad. There was also at least one older musician I met that seemed to be more interested in making inane banter with young ladies than talking about music.

And some people are just batshit crazy.

Everyone's entitled to be batshit about some thing - the type of food they eat, the way a soundcheck should go. But upon reading yesterday that Exene Cervenka - the once and forever vocalist of X - went on at length saying that last week's shootings in Santa Barbara were a hoax, I started to wonder if the woman who helped alter my listening habits in 1980 (which really did change my life in the following years) is crazy in a bad way. I didn't realize there are people who had this mindframe. I thought the people that would deny history were the ones who didn't believe in the Holocaust, a belief based out of hatred.

Reading that really messed up my morning yesterday. It felt worse than realizing that Mr. Anti-Capitalism Jello Biafra had ripped off his ex band. Not bad enough that I'm ready to get rid of my X albums (the first four of which are autographed!). But enough to make you feel really odd.

But just now, I discovered that Exene had backed down from her original statement - sort of. Here's an quick article about it. Reading the post on X's Facebook page actually makes me feel a little more relieved. It also serves as a reminder that people might not always be as extreme as they're perceived.

But the thing that really bothers me is that anytime a musician speaks up about something like this, good or bad, there's always some idiot online who has to counter with, "they're just saying that because nobody knows who their band is, and they're just trying to get publicity/make money." I almost find it more offensive that people think that it always comes down to money. That's all we care about. All of us.

But I guess when you sit at home all day and do nothing but surf the web and comment on stories, it's easy to get in the mindframe. I'd stay and try to type more but I need to have breakfast and get ready for work.