Harvey Pekar, author of the “American Splendor” comic book series became a recurring guest on the original “David Letterman Show” and was a fan favorite of the audience. He then infamously made an appearance where he verbally attacked Letterman & his audience, accusing them of ripping him off & making fun of him. (Pekar later admitted he was over-reacting, and made up with Letterman.) Re-enacted in this quasi-documentary movie.
Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols finished the last show of the band’s one & only American tour by asking the audience “Did you ever feel like you were being cheated?” He’s said in numerous interviews that he felt like he was the one being cheated, and trashed most of punk rock’s followers as 'boring trend-chasers."
It’s hard to say what Hideaki Anno (the director of Neon Genesis Evangelion) thought of his fans. In one of the NGE movies (I forget which), he posts a montage of the hate mail he got from the fans, almost as if he was saying back to said fans: "You thought you hated me before? Well, you haven’t seen NOTHING yet, douchebags.
I recently cataloged a video of him giving a reading in the early '60s. He must have been sober – he sat hunched forward in a chair, hardly moving and reading in a monotone the entire time, while twentysomething hipsters sat slumped against the wall behind him and stared into space. Riveting it wasn’t.
Her name escapes me, but the Bass player for The Pixies?
We caught their SOLD OUT tour a few years ago, and she just HATED being on stage. She HATED the audience. It was so apparent that she was doing this to pick up a paycheck.
And the guy, Greg Alexander? Of the New Radicals? They only had one hit (Don’t Let Go) because he hated performng live. Just couldn’t stand his audience. Hated the whole musician thing.
No proof and no cite, but you tell me that Walther Keane and Thomas Kinkade didn’t/don’t have serious issues with their audience!
Johnny Rotten must be a great actor, then, because I met him once at a book signing, and he couldn’t have been nicer. He shook hands, took pictures, was smiling and friendly (“Cheerio!”) There were plenty of little punk kids there, and he seemed very pleased that so many people turned out, and stayed late to be sure he met everyone. The girl in front of me had him autograph her back, and she told him she was going to have it tattooed on her. He seemed pretty impressed with that!
Kim Deal?
Nitpick: that song was called “You Get What You Give.” Great tune.
He probably got pissed off at everyone asking him if he had to split his royalties with Todd Rundgren.
Since I haven’t and don’t intend ever to read that series, mind spoiling it all for me? What was the original ending, what was the “real” ending he felt badgered for, and what was the hubbub? Feel free to spoiler box it. TIA.
I’ve always had a suspicion that audiences love assholes thinking they must be geniuses if they despise their audience. I’d wager that a lot of famous people have always been audience haters, er… assholes.
Thats her. I don’t throw this around a lot, but she was acting like a complete See You Next Tuesday.
What, for real?
Roger Waters using a fan as a spittoon was the first thing I thought of, too. It’s pretty clear that these days he feels more of a connection to the fans. (leaflets and get-out-the-vote-pigs notwithstanding)
Johnny Rotten? Heck, the Pistol’s entire shtick was “we hate everything”, wasn’t it?
Who can forget his parting words at Winterland back in '78?
Really? Kim Deal usually has a pretty engaging, strong, and friendly stage presence. Perhaps you caught her on an off night.
Yep (about 4 minutes into the second part). It was their money and they were welcome to do anything they wanted with it. They could have easily spent the same amount on recording another album, making a music video, making a “low budget” feature film, giving it to starving people, investing it to make more money, etc. Instead they chose to make an “artistic” statement about society’s obsession with money.
I interviewed Jane Siberry twice. As she began to realize that I was also a fan of her work, and not just a journalist doing my job, she began to close up. Eventually she closed off entirely and became the most difficult interview I’ve ever done. She was a stone cold bitch, in fact. One of the nicest performers I’ve met, strangely enough, is Diamanda Galas. Go figure.
It’s possible that Siberry thought that you were taking up time that would have more productively been spent with someone who could have had more positive impact on her career (not that she has done her own career any favors). But then she was tough on a lot of interviewers. And fellow musicians, several of whom have stated that they never plan to work with her again.
The second half of your paragraph is why I don’t agree with the first half. Thanks for supplying my argument for me!
To clarify: I wasn’t a fan passing myself as a legitimate interviewer: I was interviewing her (along with another doper, who can chime in if she wishes) for an actual radio show. Her coldness was very clearly not because she thought I was wasting her time, but because I was–shudder–a fan–in *addition *to being a legitimate interviewer.