In their completely debauched state, reveling in the depths of the drug and alcohol ridden life that a Rock Star lives, sometimes they find themselves participating in activities that make others look askance.
In fact, sometimes they do some stuff that’s just downright kinky, and other times they walk the line between personal assault and artistic expression. But like in all things, Rockers are, more than anyone else, much closer to the human animal and all the things that come from the melding of a irrational beast and intelligent mind. Today, we’re going to find the place where the animal meets the artist.
Do you really want to hurt me?
Well, actually, yes.
I will be the first to admit that Boy George, part of the New Romanticism movement and often classified as a form of ‘blue-eyed soul’, seems an odd person to add to this mix of rock-driven debauchery. But if the story about to unfold doesn’t sound like something you’d hear at a post-concert bacchanal, then I don’t know what is. Boy George had been travelling in Norway when he met up with local escort Audun Carlsen. Carlsen, convinced he was heading back with George to participate in a photo shoot, instead started the night by sharing cocaine with his patron. Cocaine has a tendency to make one paranoid, and so it was that George, utterly convinced that Carlsen had broken the security on his computer and invaded it, ended up handcuffing him and beating him with a chain. Conclusion? I guess he really did want to hurt him.
It’s all relative to the size of your steeple
No matter who you are, you have to agree that Marilyn Manson deserves a place in the halls of Rock n’ Roll. He challenges the status quo and faces off against the religious right just about every day of his career. He even turns on Hollywood, commenting on the tragedy of the “Beautiful People”, and even the madness of the Rock and Music industry in general. He has been praised by the Satanic Church of America and reviled by the Christian fundamentalists of America. All in all, Marilyn is a shining example of a modern Rock god challenging conformity. However, sometimes we go a bit far, or maybe we don’t! Marilyn Manson was charged with being a disorderly person, assault, and battery. But the base of the charge was that during a 2001 concert he was accused of grinding his hips, thighs, and private areas against a security guards head. The reason was nothing more than spectacle, a thing for which Manson is well known.
These are just two more ways that the Gods of music, crossing the entire pantheon of music, rage against conformity and the status quo by performing bizarre and sometimes heinous acts. They are creatures of the middle road, balancing the line between humanity and beast, and this sometimes drives them over the edge as they seek to eek every tiny bit of excitement out of their lives. They challenge all things, and stand down before nothing. Maybe it’s the pressure, maybe it’s the money, maybe it’s an overinflated sense of self-importance, but whatever it is, it is intrinsic to them, and music wouldn’t be the same without it.
