# Who best epitomized the out-of-control lifestyle of rock and roll? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2015, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677 "2015-01-01T14:32:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/41 "2015-01-02T05:01:01Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > Good Lord. Who is that on the far right? His head looks _huge_. Keith Moon ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/42 "2015-01-02T05:19:24Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > G.G. Allin? In the summer of 1993, I worked with a man who had lived for a while in Austin, Texas, and we were all talking about concerts we had attended. He sheepishly said, “I saw GG Allin” and I replied, “Before you say anything more, all I know about GG Allin is that every time he performs, he always ends up getting arrested. What does he do onstage, or do I want to know?” "Oh, he shits onstage - " Other co-workers: “You are lying!” " - he sticks his microphone up his butt - " “You are making this up!” When asked why he went to something like this, he replied, “I just wanted to find out if the guy was for real.” He got another job (the co-worker, not GG Allin - just thought I’d clarify that) and the day after he quit, I read in Rolling Stone that Allin was dead. Too bad; I would have loved to have been the one to tell him. Guess he didn’t get to blow himself up onstage after all; instead, he quietly OD’d at an aftershow party. [Findagrave.com](http://Findagrave.com) said that his headstone had to be removed because relatives and friends of other people buried at that cemetery complained about all the vandalism, mostly people taking a dump on Allin’s grave. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/43 "2015-01-02T05:24:15Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > As for Motley Crue, I finally read their group autobiography “The Dirt” a couple years ago, and it’s really, really obvious that at least two of them (Vince and Nikki) were horribly abused as children. It was one of the saddest books I have ever read, and not just because Vince’s daughter died and Nikki’s sister was a big family secret. I was going to come in here and nominate them, I’m not even talking about the depraved level of heroin use but an anecdote they shared about a competition to see how nasty they could make themselves before groupies would refuse to sleep with them, it involved months of not bathing or changing clothes and other nastiness. It honestly sounded like they both had serious mental health issues. ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/44 "2015-01-02T05:51:13Z")
Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were right up there, weren’t they? ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/45 "2015-01-02T06:03:41Z")
No votes yet for Ozzy Osbourne? Who can forget the bat incident? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/46 "2015-01-02T07:17:42Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > No votes yet for Ozzy Osbourne? Who can forget the bat incident? I was just thinking of that. Didn’t he also bite the head off of a dove, too? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/47 "2015-01-02T07:28:29Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > No votes yet for Ozzy Osbourne? Who can forget the bat incident? I grew up in Des Moines and about half the people I knew were at that concert. Really. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/48 "2015-01-02T08:39:57Z")
I’m inclined to vote for someone who didn’t kick off at an early age. I’m a little more impressed if you raise all kinds of hell AND manage to give the Grim Reaper the slip over and over again. Give me Nikki Sixx or Keith Richards … maybe even Steven Tyler. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/49 "2015-01-02T09:01:16Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Sure. > > Whoever is still alive is the loser due to weak commitment. Unfair standard. As a cocaine mummy, Keith Richards cannot die (and in fact cannot be harmed by conventional weapons). ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/50 "2015-01-02T09:14:45Z")
Anyway, Iggy Pop’s gotta be in the running somewhere. Dude literally crawled onstage puking his guts out and begging his public for heroin, would roll around naked on broken glass and play bleeding everywhere… The last show he did with The Stooges ended up in a brawl between them and a bunch of bikers in the crowd ! He cleaned up his act but he still looks like something ancient that was found in an iceblock somewhere up Siberia. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/51 "2015-01-02T09:15:13Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > No votes yet for Ozzy Osbourne? Who can forget the bat incident? I was about to mention him. I read his autobiography, the man is a lab experiment. Between him and Keith Richards blood is the ultimate antiserum. ---
**Author:** ![by-tor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/by-tor/32/266_2.png) [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/52 "2015-01-02T11:55:49Z")
Joe Walsh used to bring a chainsaw with him on tour to use on hotel rooms. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/53 "2015-01-02T16:03:33Z")
Elvis was just batshit crazy. His life from about 1960 on is one awful, hedonistic train wreck. For consistency he has to be up there. Rory Gallagher for literally drinking himself to death. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/54 "2015-01-02T17:34:40Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > I disagree. After reading one of the KM biographies, I think he had serious mental illness, and 60’s-style rock stardom was one of the worst things that could have happened to him. Pete Townshend’s autobiography covers a bit of this, Moon’s self-destructive behavior. As I recall, for a long stretch when he was severely in his alcoholic extremes, Moon would call Townshend daily at some awful hour in the middle of the night to talk, because of how lonely he was, how much pain he was in. Pete always indulged it because he wanted to be a good friend. And the calls would end with Keith saying, “I love you, Pete,” with Townshend answering, “I love you, too.” It was sad. ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/55 "2015-01-02T20:47:05Z")
I always had a soft spot in my heart for that time [Courtney Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBTl611c9fs) hijacked a Madonna interview by throwing trash at her and then drunkenly stumbling up. It may not be pretty, but it is exactly the kind of rock-and-roll this thread is all about. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/56 "2015-01-02T22:47:27Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Rory Gallagher for literally drinking himself to death. Yeah, but my understanding is that he mostly did so pretty quietly without as much of the typical explosions of hedonistic rock and roll excess. He didn’t come off as a terribly happy man. Apparently his two limited pleasures in life were playing guitar and watching movies and he was never fully satisfied with the first and quickly tired of the second. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/57 "2015-01-02T22:59:26Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > Good Lord. Who is that on the far right? His head looks _huge_. > [@Subterraneanus](#): > > Keith Moon But it’s actually just an optical illusion. Later at night his head is normal-sized again. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/58 "2015-01-02T23:39:37Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > I’m inclined to vote for someone who didn’t kick off at an early age. I’m a little more impressed if you raise all kinds of hell AND manage to give the Grim Reaper the slip over and over again. Give me Nikki Sixx or Keith Richards … maybe even Steven Tyler. Lemmy is unkillable. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/59 "2015-01-02T23:50:58Z")
None of these people could probably match Bob Stinson of the Replacements. He made some of the others look like choirboys. And by all accounts, the Go-Go’s were awfully wild, and Belinda Carlisle has admitted to relapsing on heroin in recent years. :eek: I can’t believe all of them are still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2015, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677/60 "2015-01-03T07:48:16Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > Lemmy is unkillable. Indeed - these days when he sings _The Ace of Spades_, he replaces the line “But that’s the way I like it baby I don’t wanna live forever, and don’t forget the Joker !” with “I don’t want to live forever… but apparently I am” 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-best-epitomized-the-out-of-control-lifestyle-of-rock-and-roll/708677.md?page=4)