Egotism. How does it affect a rock band?
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words egotism means the practice of talking and thinking about oneself excessively because of undue sense of self-importance. It is inherent to every human being; however, strong egoism, including egocentrism on a high level can bring a lot of troubles to the community or a group of people and can be the reason for its break-up.
EGOTISM IN A BAND
Every band is like a family or a strong union which includes people who share common interests, values, musical tastes. Although the more band becomes popular, the more misunderstandings appear between its members, mostly because of the so-called egotism, which leads to the rivalry between bandmates and results in dramatic aftermath. Here are examples of musicians, who are famous for their egotistical tendencies.
Axl Rose. The frontman of a legendary rock band Guns’N’Roses who is famous not only for his vocal abilities but also for his actions on the public.
For example, he attacked a fan who was holding a camera during the band’s show at the Riverport Amphitheater near St.Lois on July 2, 1991. After that, he walked off the stage with the words, “Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I’m going home!”
Another accident happened in July 1993 in Buenos Aires. He was late to the show because of a special food request he had made right before he was supposed to go on stage and sing in front of 80 000 people. The rest of the band was already in the venue locked and loaded. Craig Duswalt, Roses’s assistant, quietly angered; however, he wasn’t surprised. Duswalt knew that if Rose failed to get his order, the whole show would be under the threat of disruption.
These accidents harmed the relationship between Axl and other members of GNR and had led to the break-up of the original line-up.
Liam Gallagher. Two brothers who formed Oasis has been in conflict since the beginning of their music career, and their rivalry still can be seen even though they don’t communicate with each other. We don’t take into account Liam’s attempts on Twitter.
Let’s go back to 1996 when the band was asked to do an acoustic taping for MTV Unplugged, Liam refused singing because of pharyngitis (a sore throat) so, he had to set this show out.
“You’ve got the four ugly ones tonight”, said Noel before the band started playing. However, Liam wasn’t absent at that show. He was watching it from the balcony sipping champagne with his then-wife Patsy Kensit and smoking. Liam continued to heckle his brother and the band during the set. Finally, at the end of the show Liam appeared on the stage, he banged the piano a few times waving to the crowd and then strolling off.
In 1994 the band played at Whiskey Go-Go, one of the most important and famous venues in the world which was; however, one of the worst shows they ever played. The set was full of issues, from Noel playing wrong songs because his setlist was completely different from the rest ones to exploding bass amps.
The whole band was falling apart. Liam kept changing the lyrics of the song, snorting lines of crystal meth during the performance, and escalating the situation by hitting his brother with a tambourine telling him to go “f*** yourself”.
It was so bad that Noel quit the band and flew to San Francisco. Later, he would rejoin it but the band wouldn’t be the same.
The incidents continued to appear more and more often while the band was getting bigger and eventually it turned out to the break-up. “It is with some sadness and great relief…I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer”, told Noel Gallagher in the statement that appeared on the Oasis official website.
David Lee Roth. By the time Van Halen got big, the band had already been experiencing some problems. One of them was tension between David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen.
In 1985 David released his debut solo EP “Crazy From The Heat”, including his cover versions of «Just a Gigolo” by Louis Prima and “California Girls” by The Beach Boys. However, that wasn’t enough for him. Diamond Dave decided to do something bigger: he wanted to dip his toes into acting, which was a nice idea because of his unique charisma and his talent in making videos for the band. He already had an idea for his film. The movie centered on a rock star named Dave who travels to Dongo Island where he gets into capers with his manager Bernie. David asked Eddie if he could make a soundtrack for the movie but Eddie declined. The guitarist remembers, “He wasn’t showing up for rehearsal. He’d call me and say, ‘Oh, I don’t feel so good today, man — tell the guys I don’t think I’ll be making it.’ And he’d be at the office, doing interviews for his solo thing. After a couple weeks of that, I just laid it on the line. I said, ‘What’s going on here? Do you want to do a record or not?’ … “And he said no. He wanted to make his movie — and he actually asked if I’d write the music for it.”
Later, Eddie went to the singer’s mansion in Pasadena to have a final conversation with him, but Dave told, that he couldn’t work with them anymore, he wanted to do a movie and maybe, when he’d be done they would get back together.
Gene Simmons. Yes, the bassist of the legendary rock’n’roll band KISS has a legendary and huge ego, that helped him to become the face of the band and turned KISS into a business company. Seriously, how much merchandise has been sold by the band (that’s a compliment)!
But what makes him an egocentric person is his statements and comments. For example, according to Gene, “there are a lot of famous bands. Kiss had become culture, had become iconic. There were holidays when people dressed like us. Nobody takes Bono’s face and tattoos it on their ass”. Of course, it’s rock’n’roll but what about having respect for other musicians, because sometimes these statements can lead to horrible consequences.
Nikki Sixx, the bassist of Motley Crue, railed against Gene’s comments on Prince’s death, calling him “an overrated, lucky guy that dresses like a clown…I don’t like my heroes to be egotistical assholes”. In the end, he stated that Gene Simmons was no longer his hero.
Later, Sixx told Norfolk Virginia radio station FM 99, “We have no respect for Gene Simmons anymore — nobody in rock does. And I’m not gonna sit back quietly and allow a bully to go out there and put down people he doesn’t know anything about … I think that Gene should call it a day, and that we should look at this beautiful catalogue of music that Prince has given us.”
This is a perfect example of how the egocentrism can affect relations with other people even with those who think you are their hero.
But let’s get back to our topic.
On the other hand, we have bands that prefer teamwork and partnership. We have bands whose members scarify their desires, wishes, and personal ambitions in the name of music.
Led Zeppelin, despite their tremendous popularity, refused to continue their music activity after the death of their drummer John Bohnam. There was no rivalry between members of the band and that was one of the reasons why they were so phenomenal live. Led Zeppelin were like the road warriors.
Def Leppard. They didn’t break up after the dramatic event when their drummer Rick Allen lost his arm. The other members supported his recovery and never sought for replacement. The same thing happened with another band — Scorpions. During the recording of their “Blackout” record, the singer Klaus Meine lost his voice and had to have a voice surgery. Although after this incident the band had been working with Don Dokken for a little period of time, and when Klaus finally came back, they re-recorded those songs with his vocals.
All things considered, we should say that when one person puts his interests, his desires, appetite for fame above the band, or even above his friends, making them a background for his life, it can turn into a catastrophe, into a warfare that will ruin their life, and it doesn’t matter how genius or talented the person is.
