Originally Posted by
GuitarGeek
I remember listening to a college radio show, where the host read this lengthy excerpt from a Kurt Cobain interview where he just went on and on about Axl Rose. First he starts talking about how Axl telling him to "Tell your bitch to shut up" at the MTV Video Awards, then he starts talking about how Axl replaced the whole class of neanderthal jock types who picked up on him in high school. Then he says that he had heard there were people who liked both GNR and Nirvana. He seemed doubtful that anyone could possibly like both bands, as if to suggest that his fans are too intelligent to be also into GNR or whatever. Maybe it didn't go on as long as I remember, but it seemed to at least be several paragraphs.
I also recall that, apparently in the early part of the "grunge explosion" or whatever the frell it was that happened at the end of 1991, beginning of 1992, Cobain was mouthing off about Pearl Jam on a regular basis. So apparently, finally when the two bands played at the MTV Video Awards (the same one where Novoselic demonstrated how not to engage in onstage theatrics), Cobain apparently spent some time hanging out with Eddie Vedder. I think the subsequent MTV interview where he commented on it, Kurt said something like "He seems like a nice intelligent guy...but I still think his music sucks".
One that's always stuck in my mind for some reason (though I kinda half way agree with the point) was Johnny Marr's infamous comment in Guitar Player that "guitarists like Yngwie Malmsteen should be forgotten as quickly as possible". Ooooh, that touched off a whole shit storm of comments in the "Letters to the editor" section of the magazine for months to come, which indirectly led to GP's running joke throughout the late 80's linking Yngwie to Tallahassee, Florida (apparently because many of the pro-Yngwie letters they received came from that area).
And he probably didn't mean it as an insult, but I remember one of the guys REM saying he had to wait a few years to be able to join a band, because he had to wait until "you didn't have to be Keith Emerson to get a gig". I also vaguely remember Steve Stevens making a mid 80's remark about either Wakeman or Emerson.
And in the Ornette Coleman boxset that Atlantic Records put out back in the 90's, there's all kinds of comments from various musicians, both pro and con, about Ornette. I can't remember who it was, maybe Dizzy Gillespie who said "I think he's jiving" (meaning he thought Ornette's music was bullshit), that's the main one I remember, but there was a just lot of guys just sort of attacking Ornette and his "new approach" to jazz.
Maybe not aimed at anyone in particular, but when explaining why he didn't like Electric Mud, but he said that "If you a need a wah wah and a fuzztone to make your guitar say things, you're not playing the blues". Johnny Winter referred to Electric Mud as a "lump of shit" (though I guess that was aimed more at Marshall Chess , who produced the damn record than at Muddy and the musicians Chess hired to back Muddy for the afternoon).
Howlin' Wolf told Pete Cosey to his face to "take your wah wah and your fuzztone and the rest of that shit, and throw it in the river on your way to the barber" (apparently, Wolf didn't approve of Pete's beard and hair style, as well as his "psychedelic" guitar style).
Miles is said to have insulted Eric Dolphy just weeks before Eric passed away.
I think it was Nick Mason who was apparently asked in a late 80's interview what his vision of Hell would be like, or what his worst nightmare would be (something of that order, I forget exactly how it was phrased), with his response being "Roger back in Pink Floyd".
Ritchie Blackmore once said the reason he left Deep Purple the second time was because he got sick of unprofessional behavior, specifically citing he prefers to work with singers who "can remember the words to the songs", apparently meaning Ian Gillan. Ritchie also pointed out when Straight Between The Eyes came out that the title of one of the songs was deliberately spelled on the back cover "MISS Mistreated" as if to put the emphasis on the fact that there was no connection to the Deep Purple song Mistreated, with Ritchie saying that "Oh, I know someone's still going to complain", apparently referring to Coverdale (who co-wrote the earlier song).
There's at least one Dio era Rainbow version of the Deep Purple song, where Ronnie introduces it by saying, "It was written by...someone who's name escapes me", though maybe that was a cute way of trying to be funny, rather than actual dig.
I remember someone telling of how he met one of the guys from Cheap Trick after one of their club shows in the late 90's. Apparently, the summer before, Cheap Trick and Boston were supposed to tour together, but Tom Scholz pulled the plug on the tour because he re-injured his back or whatever. So this guy made the mistake of telling, I can't remember if it was Robin Zander or Rick Nielsen, anyway he said that he had been planning on seeing the Cheap Trick/Boston extravaganza, and this caused whichever Cheap Trick guy it was to go thermonuclear and totally rip Scholz to shreds for backing out of the tour.
ANd I remember seeing a video on Youtube a few years back, of Ronnie James Dio, apparently signing stuff after a show, I think it looked like he was signing Stratocaster pickguards, I think. Anyway, someone mentions Vivian Campbell, who played guitar on Dio's first three solo albums, I think it was. The thing I remember about it was Dio saying "He's an asshole" in this matter-of-fact tone of voice, not angry or anything, just calling the guy an asshole like it's just a natural fact or whatever, and then at least the one I saw, he didnt' really explain why Viv was an asshole. I think there might have been some insinuation that, by extension, there must be something seriously wrong with the Def Leppard guys for keeping Viv on the payroll as long as they have.
Then you've got Gene Simmons, who just can't stop insulting various members of his own band. He calls Ace a racist, because apparently, when Ace got drunk on tour, he liked to dress up in Nazi gear, go knock on Gene's door, and when he answered, he'd launch into the seig heil thing. As Gene puts it, "This guy knows my mother is a Holocaust survivor". I'd prefer to think that Ace just has a warped sense of humor, and when he's had a few too many beers, he's one of those kind of guys who thinks it's cute to push other people's buttons.
Gene then goes onto explain how little business sense Ace has. He says Ace built a professional quality studio in his backyard, but it couldn't be used by anyone but himself because his neighborhood wasn't zoned for businesses (in other words, Ace legally couldn't rent it out to anyone else for use). He also comments on Ace failing to get a copyright on the thunderbolt design that Gene says Ace was the first to use on a guitar strap. I guess he feels Ace could be making money off every guitar strap company that makes a strap with thunderbolts on it (and Gene puts it, all of them producing such straps), but Ace blew it by not securing the copyright back in 1973 or whenever it was.
Then there's the time that he referred to I think it was Mark St. John (who played guitar on the Animalize album), who he says "is a musician, we're entertainers, and there's really is a difference". I guess his point was that Mark was too much into the flashy shredding style of guitar (then why did you hire him, stupid?!). Then he does the exact same thing to Bruce Kulick (who at the time was still in the band)..."It took him a couple albums to get that crap out of his playing". Again, why would you hire a guitarist who plays that way if you didn't want that style of playing in your band?!
In that same interview, there was also a bit, I guess referring to why the band kept going after Ace and Peter left, and he said something like "Why should I let some bum's ruined life affect my life?!". Wow, way to diss everyone who isn't in the current line up of the band in one sentence, Gene.
Oh, and I remember Glenn Dantzig back in the mid 90's throwing a shit fit because there was a rumor going around that one of the guys in Def Leppard gave him a bloody nose backstage at some festival gig in Europe somewhere. I think his insinuation was that the rumor was started by the Def Leppard camp because they're a bunch of pussies who want everyone to think they're a bunch of bad asses because one of them supposedly kicked Glenn's ass. And Glenn basically says "Oh, if you think you're so tough, why don't we settle this man to man", basically challenging whichever Def Leppard guy it was to a fight.
And that reminds me of the long running brawl in the late 80's between the Motley Crue and GNR camps, which climaxed with Vince Neil challenging Axl to a boxing match on MTV. He literally said "It's put up or shut up time, Axl!". Said boxing match never happened, though.
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