Doug Sahm (Sir Douglas). On tour in Boston. “Who wants the last Lone Star beer?” (I did!)
Roth used to treat Anthony like that, but he hasn’t for a long time. In fact, he wanted Anthony to tour with them. The Van Halens, on the other hand, haven’t changed.
Your principal point, that Mike is a great guy, is, from what I can tell, 100% correct.
The bullying allegations were made by one guy. Other band members have come to Dave’s defense, including the current drummer. Apparently the first drummer was upset that Dave re-recorded the guy’s drum tracks with his own drumming. I can understand that that would be annoying, but it’s hardly bullying. The Foo-fighters are basically The Dave Grohl band, he calls the shots.
I know a few people who know him, and I’ve never heard a bad word. If I’m going to think negatively about someone who appears to be a decent guy, I’d like more of a consensus.
As far as the first marriage goes, yeah, infidelity sucks, but “Rock star is horndog” is hardly earth shattering news. It hardly makes him a horrible asshole, just a young guy who became famous and succumbed to temptation. And he seems to have gotten over it, though growing old will do that to you.
I worked at a lot of concerts, and the nicest famous musician I ever met was Bruce Hornsby. He was always really excited to talk to people after the show–we had him on solo tours, when he traveled with just his brother, and you could tell he had extrovert energy to burn. If you told him you played piano, he’d drag you back out to the stage to show you stuff he’d been working on.
Warren Haynes is also a super nice guy, and seems to really value the friends he’s made after years on the road.