When Vallee was on radio, everyone hated him. He used to punch underlings in the nose and gave crap to anyone for any reason.
Speaking of Gene Simmons, I was listening to the Dropping Names podcast with Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes (actually I was watching it on YouTube) and they were talking about an episode of Next Generation where Gene Simmons was a guest star and how in awe they were of Gene Simmons. And I’m thinking “WTF? Gene Simmons was never on Star Trek.” Then they mentioned the episode “The Drumhead” and I realized they were talking about Jean Simmons! (Even the CC got the name wrong.)
This is something another poster wrote long ago, so I have no accurate this is, but he described Ray Bradbury as “Ed Meese with horn-rimmed glasses.”
Jack Lord had a reputation of being an arrogant egotistical asshole. Many examples. For instance, he played Felix Leiter in Doctor No. When asked to reprise the role in Goldfinger, he asked for co-star billing, a bigger role, and more money. He was replaced.
Lord painted. He would brag about the number of museums that displayed his paintings. Turns out, he would offer them big donations if they put his work on display. Some refused, but others didn’t want to turn down the money.
Trent Reznor said that Prince once wanted him to remix one of his songs. He came to Trent’s studio but wouldn’t speak to him directly and would only communicate to him through his entourage. From what I gather this was a typical Prince interaction.
I hear all different things about Prince. I’m not sure what he was really like, but I would say that treating Trent Reznor like that is very odd.
I will quote Reznor on Prince now, though.
I like what Charley Murphy had to say about him.
Please spill.
May be that’s what Charley Murphy had to say about him: nothing ?
NPR did a pretty long story about Springer; this was before he died. It was really about what a waste of huge talent and intelligence Springer’s life and career ended up being. He had the ability to be a Democratic leader and possibly even a high office up to president. He was well spoken, passionate about progressive issues, and very eloquent and relatable.
After his scandal, he threw all of that away. Then once his TV show began to go trashy, he leaned in on all of the worst things.
Shame
Well, not that - he wasn’t a natural-born citizen.
Also, if Wikipedia can be relied upon, his political career continued with some success after the scandal.
In her excellent memoir Rememberings, Sinéad O’Connor details a really weird encounter with Prince at his home after her version of Nothing Compares 2 U blew up, in which he (allegedly) berated her for swearing in interviews and (allegedly) assaulted her, causing her to flee his house on foot, after which he chased after her in a car.
Everything I’ve read about him makes me think he was a very talented dude who got waaaaay too high on his own supply, so to speak.
I’ve never given all his stuff a listen, but have heard Purple Rain and maybe one or two albums from that time. It’s impressive stuff.
Reznor seems to think Prince’s final 10+ albums suck. I’ve not heard a single song.
I didn’t peg him for dying young, I can tell you that.
You learn something new every day. He also had a somewhat unusual entry into the world: he was born in a London Underground station during WW2.
Yep - his parents were Jewish refugees from Poland, who got out just ahead of the Germans. His extended family was not as lucky. He was born in London, and moved to the U.S. when he was 4 years old.
I’m surprised we are this far and we haven’t heard much about:
Glenn Danzig
Now, I should point out that we didn’t hear much because despite his belief in himself, the reality is his star has fallen so far that none of us thought of him.
I don’t know if he is Gene Simmons level of jerk/pig, but Danzig has always been known to be a giant, uh, asshole/jerk/douchebag or whatever. It’s actually quite comical. His concerts nowadays are quite small affairs, but he is very much like Trump in that he seems to think he is still popular because his dedicated fans really like him.
The really funny bit is his latest(?) album is him singing, get this, Elvis songs. Somehow he convinced himself he could pull that off. He…does not.
Hey I just checked it out!
(and any second, now, too)
meh the Misfits always bothered me too.
He shone brilliantly, however, in Aqua Teen Hunger Force…
My brother did PA? AD? work on-set back in the 80s with Jane Seymour and apparently the whole crew eventually tried to have as little to do with her as possible.
Probably no one remembers hunky-hunk soap actor Anthony Geary, but my brother recalls him back in early 80s being a “hey!” kinda partying handful. Thought he was the coolest thing since John Travolta or something.