Music Editor's Note
Commentary by Benjy Eisen
Listen:
Last month I interviewed Bill Wyman (previously of The Rolling
Stones) and Jason Ross from Seven Mary Three. Both of the interviews were
conducted over the phone and both times, after my fifteen minutes were up,
the respective artist said something like, “Well, it was great talking to
you, man. If you come out to the show, you should pop backstage afterwards
and say hi.” Okay. You can stop reading right now if you think it actually
happened. What, you think I can just walk up to security and say, “But he
told me on the phone that I should go backstage...”? Oh that’s going to
work. Sure. And the artists know that. Seven Mary Three’s tour manager had
me wait by the side of a fence for an hour before telling me it wasn’t
going to happen and Bill Wyman’s tour manager was, well, “unavailable for
contact.” It’s okay. You can always tell when a person really wants to
meet you. Neither one really wanted to meet me. What they really wanted
was for me to write a nice article, in which I say nice things, explain
that they’re a nice person, and make everything out to be, you know, nice.
Ted Nugent isn’t nice. He called the office last week and not five seconds
after I picked up the phone asked if he was going to want to punch me in
the face by the end of our conversation. When I said no, he replied, “I’m
not so sure about that.” Over the next fifteen minutes, he said, “fuck
you” four times. He said “eat shit and die” twice. Once he even called me
a “motherfucker.” He was also my favorite interview. Ever.
Down with artists as politicians. The very heart of art, the stem from
which its flowers grow, the kinetic energy upon which all art is built
around, is communication. Expression. At its best, art, in any of its
forms, is supposed to be the individual voice of the artist, put forth
into the world in a more tangible way when its stuck in the soul. Art is
the insides, taken out. Art is supposed to cause a genuine reaction, and
according to laws of physics, only genuine actions can beget genuine
reaction. And the larger the one, the larger the other.
Art is also supposed to teach us. It is supposed to act as a metaphor to
the human experience so that we may learn how to fully experience it. And
one of its lessons is honesty. Art that lies is transparent. Temporal.
On-sale for $5 in the discount bins.
If Bill Wyman or Jason Ross want to keep pretending that they give a shit,
then fine. But Bill Wyman’s show was almost cancelled at the Whitaker
because of a lack of ticket sales and Jason Ross’ band bombed at Hershey.
Meanwhile, Ted Nugent was a part of one of the five top grossing tours
last year (with KISS), wrote a New York Times bestseller, has sold over 30
million albums worldwide, was honored on the floor of the Senate, named
Father of the Year at his children’s school and Man Of The Year by
Michigan Recreation and Parks. Need I go on? Yeah, well fuck you.
BENJY EISEN
Music Editor
Note: The opinion of MODE Weekly’s Music
Editor is not necessarily the opinion or position of management, and, if
at any time, any of our readers or advertisers are offended by this, or
any editorial appearing in MODE Weekly. . . well. . .
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