• From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Topic: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

Best examples today:
- AMY WINEHOUSE
- PETE DOHERTY

- OASIS TOO.
They want to be famous, but they can't handle fame.
There are a lot of other artists who are more successful, and do not appear in "gossip" papers.

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

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  • From: Tooele Ut
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 4,049

Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

Some people just can't handle fame as well as others.  There are many over the years who have either drugged out or died because of their cause and fame.  It's a shame really.  Who knows how we would handle it if we were famous.  We'd like to think we would be alright, but who knows?

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I have finally found happiness in my life.  Guitars, singing, beer and camping.  And they all intertwine wonderfully.
  • Zurf
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Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

The problem with fame is that a person reads the newspaper and begins to believe his own press releases. 

We are all people.  None better than another, or worse, just differently gifted.  In God's eye, we are all equal.  Knowing that, not just having heard it but really, sincerely knowing it to the root of your core is a sure protection against the damages of fame.  Many people do not have that firm foundation of understanding, and begin to think that they really are something other than human. 

Either that, or because they were self-destructive to begin with.  We've all known unfamous folks who were self-destructive.  Perhaps it isn't the fame that drives them to self-destruction. 

- Zurf

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
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  • upyerkilt
  • upyerkilt
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Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

if i had their fame and money I could not handle it.
I would have went out in style years ago after my first album lol
I would have caught every STD going just for a laugh

Ken

ye get some that are cut out for the job and others just get by from pretending
  • From: Wales
  • Registered: 2009-01-09
  • Posts: 220

Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

Nicky Wire - Manic Street Preachers
Kurt Cobain - Nirvana
Elvis
Just to name a few more.  It's the same with sports stars, some of the best were all barking mad. 
I think it's because it takes a certain type of mindset to be successful in certain things.  All seem vunerable perhaps??

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  • From: Grimsby, UK
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 604

Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

yeah, genius and self destruction seem to go hand in hand - if you think about it though, how interesting would it be if all the dead stars lived long enough to become mediocre?

This may seem like blasphemy to some people but how much mileage did Kurt Cobaine have in him?  Likewise Jimi Hendrix.  He invented a whole new concept of guitar playing but... a lot of his album stuff was incredibly self indulgent!

Thoughts?

cool

I'm the son of rage and love
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 2,662

Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

There are many more successful musicians who are non-self-destructive than those of which who are self-destructive. Pharmacists, doctors, lawyers, teachers, priests, preachers,etc., etc., etc........ all of these aforementioned professions breed some bad and some good eggs . Let's not paint all artists with the broad,  negative swoosh that society has done so with an uneducated, unjust, preconception thereof.....Every homosapian is totally unique, except for right-winged republicans( just joking)......

And to expand somewhat on bonedaddys' theory, Les Paul did OK without self-destructive behavior. Or  maybe he was just one tough old dude with an abnormal tolerance to the bad stuff. Who knows??.........And Cobain and Hendrix spent the majority of their final years of lives' in solitude, mostly. The interraction with others that they previously experienced were all but gone, according to most of what has been written. This is most likely( or maybe not?) the reason for the apparent swing of personalities to  their self indulgent behavior and writings that lead us( the general public) to believe this was their lifestyle.

MmmmKay?

Peace and Guitars,
SouthPaw41L

Give everything but up.
  • Registered: 2009-08-25
  • Posts: 2

Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

Tina Arena here in Australia was asked whether she'd like her son to become a muso like herself to which she replied "No Way' the reason being that the industry is Toxic, from my own years [30] odd I can only agree, if you combine that toxicity with the profound ego's of so many artists it's not really hard to see why some implode, living up to the legend or the image is a total drag and eventually people see through the smoke screen of the ego and there's not much there, oh dear, time to self destruct, again that's more of the same egocentic obsession, I see Hank Marvin quiet reguarly and he has a god in his life, that's what so many really need, sorry if that sounds like I'm a religious nut, I'm not, but seems to me that so many suicide because they feel there's nothing left, bloody shame that.........

  • Zurf
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Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

When I was 16 or so, I was playing upright bass professionally in a playhouse orchestra.  I was trying to decide what to do with my life, or at least what to learn in college.  It was down to a career in music or a career in business.  After a few cast parties and wrap parties, where I saw people in their 30s and 40s getting totally hammered, snorting cocaine, smoking pot to the point of complete indolence, I decided perhaps business was a better way for me.  I enjoy taking a drink, but not being around people who are hammered frequently.  Despite my previous comments in this thread, perhaps there is something that desires the wild and uncontrolled experience of life in performance artists such as musicians and actors. 

- Zurf

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude

10 Reply by gitaardocphil (edited by gitaardocphil 2009-09-04 15:02:26)

  • From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

This is a complex thread.
As "kilt" said: if I had the money.

THAT IS A CRUCIAL MOMENT, SOME CAN'T HANDLE SUCCESS.
I remember me AND WHO ELSE KNOW IT but in the seventies there was a DEAD LIST:
1) LOU REED
2) KEITH RICHARDS
on top, and see: both are alive. I also remember a fact from one of the many "biographies" that Keith survived because he had enough $$$$ to buy it = (drugs)pure

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

gitaardocphil's Website

  • Registered: 2007-03-24
  • Posts: 1,108

Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

gitaardocphil wrote:

This is a complex thread.
As "kilt" said: if I had the money.

THAT IS A CRUCIAL MOMENT, SOME CAN'T HANDLE SUCCESS.
I remember me AND WHO ELSE KNOW IT but in the seventies there was a DEAD LIST:
1) LOU REED
2) KEITH RICHARDS
on top, and see: both are alive. I also remember a fact from one of the many "biographies" that Keith survived because he had enough $$$$ to buy it = (drugs)pure

Keith Richards has no business being alive (I'm glad he is) ...sheer luck I'd say. Didn't he recently just fall out of a tree? he's over 60???
Zurf and Southpaw are right...we're all just people no one is any better than any other. Those who perish do so because of character weakness. It's not fame. There are many examples of famous people living a long time.

I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.
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  • KAP54
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Re: WHY ARE SO MANY MUSICIANS SO SELF DESTRUCTIVE.

I agree with Toney on this one. Take a look at any profession and you will find a percentage that goes the way of drugs/alcohol/death. It is not a musicians fate but I do think that when one is learning to play music at a young age they will be influenced by their peers. Drugs and alcohol is a big part of playing and writing and performing so if that is the route they are on then they will have a higher chance of addiction/death whether they make it to the bigs or not.
I don't think it is a character weakness, but more of a predisposition to any kind of addiction.

Just my Opinion. big_smile

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