OK, it’s a silly question, but I was just thinking about this… it seems the tradition of morally bankrupt, reprehensible rock stars has come to an end. I mean, there’s that guy from Oasis who is always making tabloid headlines for his behaviour, but even I could kick his ass. So, who are/were the greatest badasses in rock music?
-Iggy Pop was pretty crazy when he was with The Stooges.
-Axl Rose is a given
-GG Allin was a pathetic sack of s**t, but I think he takes the title in this category.
Hmmm… let’s be quite frank… it’s the very nature of rock music that the majority of people who are involved in it are involved because they weren’t really suitable for anything else.
In particular, it’s very, VERY rare to see someone in rock music who’s actually a genuinely strong, muscular, robust, physical specimin. Indeed, it’s a sub genre of the entertainment industry which actually revels and gives adulation to those who are “average, or below”.
So, unless one were to describe being “bad ass” as being some sort of unhinged psychotic maniac who would as soon as throw a tomahawk at you as say good day to you, I would respectfully suggest that I, being a very healthy fit man of 6’1’’, would rarely if ever feel physically threated by someone involved in the rock music caper.
But as for gangster rap? No doubt. Some of those fuckers grew up in some really nasty neighbour hoods and they sleep with very, VERY big guns under their pillows. Certainly, I’d avoid those kinda guys given the choice.
Rock music dudes - all things considered - are invariably skinny, scrawny, not overly intelligent, quite unfit specimins. It’s the marketing which would have us believe otherwise.
I rather think that your typical battle hardened soldier who’s just returned from a really nasty 12 month assignment overseas seeing some genuinely awful scenes of carnage and horror - well, I rather think that such a soldier would have little but condescending mirth for your typical rock music idiot who’s trying to come across as “bad ass”.
The only muscular rockers I can think of are AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, Glen Danzig, and of course Henry Rollins…those three I would want on my side in a bar fight. A lot of others like Flea and Anthony Keidis are pretty muscled (compared to most regular slobs at least), and are rarely fully clothed anyway. There are probably a lot of more obscure punk and metal people who are built as well.
“Bad ass” to me didn’t connote physical toughness, just a reckless don’t give a f*ck attitude.
There’s one band whose name has always clearly said to me, “You do NOT want to meet these dudes in a back alley when they’ve been drinking whiskey all day”:
The Oak Ridge Boys. It just sounds like they’re liable to knock you on the head with a shovel.
Lemmy Kilminster from Motorhead, without a shadow of doubt. He’s so toxic through 40 years of intensive drug use that he can’t receive blood transfusions as it would kill him. For a while last year he lived in my area and was in the pub every day knocking back JDs and Coke all day. He’s 57, I don’t know how long his lifestyle is sustainable, I mean, he really should be dead. But as he says, “That’s the way I like it Baby,
I don’t want to live forever!”.
An Arky - I wouldn’t worry. Angry Anderson’s just became a cuddly bald bloke that does charity things for sick kiddies. Turn up on A Current Affair too many times and you kind of lose any Rock n Roll edge you may have once possessed.