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Re: Pearls of wisdom from Duff
Can You Hear Me Now?
By Duff McKagan in Duff McKagan
Thursday, Jul. 16 2009
My column from last week ("Summer Vacation, the Black Bag, and a Mini-Tirade (Or Two)") received more response than any other column in the near-year I've been doing this thing for Seattle Weekly. In my "mini-tirade," I quickly took a swipe at those who make comments on blogs, articles, and fansites without using a real name, therefore sidestepping any real responsibility for their often accusatory and mean-spirited script.
We have reached an age when information and opinions can be shared widely with a simple finger's touch. This is a very cool thing for sure. With these articles, opinions, and fansites online, we are experiencing a sort of letters-to-the-editor-on-steroids phenomenon.
Text-messaging on phones also has taken away some of the personality that an audible voice will parlay. If I have shitty news or am pissed off, I myself will often text instead of call. It is often easier and less confrontational to e-mail or text a tirade, and we can worry about the fallout of said tirade at a later point . . . putting it off. Is this better? No. Is it easier? Well, for the time being, and we ARE becoming a point-and-click, path-of-least-resistance society.
Newspapers have their Op/Ed sections and letters to the editor to provide a community voice in return. With these letters, though, comes the person's first and last name and hometown. If someone writes to a newspaper in response to something they feel strongly enough about, there seems to be pride in owning up to who you are . . . maybe that's old-school, but at least there is discourse with identity.
People say you could track back anyone on the computer if you tried hard enough. The comments section on YouTube videos and columns like this one have at times included nasty and unkind comments with some wacky made-up moniker attached. I would never have the interest to track down someone unless they'd somehow done irreparable damage to someone I love, but that is not what I am talking about. Who really cares to track someone down? What I am talking about is this: What does that say about us as a society when we say something online that we would never even dream of saying face-to-face? I am not sure. I am just asking the question, and from last week's response, so too are many of you.
When I was talking to my wife earlier today about some of this, she said that, especially with celebrities, some people just get fed up with all the nonsense and want to rail back, and the Internet supplies that forum. Fair enough. But doesn't the Internet also provide a forum to identify yourself when railing at a celebrity—like "That's right. I said it. What you gonna do about it?" Hiding behind pseudonyms seems to me like something an 11-year-old would do . . . and that brings up another point.
Back in 2004, when Velvet Revolver put out our first record, a great fansite popped up with our tour dates, recent photos, birthdays, and a fan forum (a place where fans could write in). Back then, I would read everything fans had to say, and certain veins of conversation did turn VERY opinionated, if not downright vitriolic. I would find myself taking some of this stuff to heart, until one day on tour, I met one of these people who often railed in the forum. He was 14 YEARS OLD!!! I realized then and there that KIDS were the ones mostly responsible for the maddening text. I was letting little kids get into my head, and they were just testing their boundaries as many teenagers do. I felt instantly enlightened and foolish, and I no longer read that kind of thing.
P.S., Punk Rock
Also last week, I commented that Green Day had somehow maintained a punk ethic well into their mainstream success. The term "punk rock" indeed means different things to different people, and I was glad to hear some of those differing opinions.
Brad Cox, a recent reader of my column, wrote a profound explanation of what "punk rock" means to him. His band plays metal and hard rock, but he felt that the way they live their lives, write their music, and put themselves out there was indeed punk rock. If you get a chance to scroll back to his comment on last week's column, please do.
Some people really feel a need to explain what punk rock is, and that it is their own private box of specialness that is not to be touched by anyone else. If that is what punk rock is to them, more power to them. But I think it is a much bigger and more powerful paradigm. Johnny Cash is punk rock, and so too in many ways is Katy Perry. Anyone who writes their own music and portrays it the way that they want—damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead—is in my opinion punk rock. That includes Charles Bukowski, Mastodon, and the Dalai Lama.
To conclude: I am punk rock and sign my name to this column week in and week out. If you are just commenting and have a cool and fun viewpoint or addition, sign under any name you like. The rest of you, don't bother.
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2 … _now_1.php
Thanks FunkyMonkey
- metallex78
- Rep: 194
Re: Pearls of wisdom from Duff
The more I read or hear from Duff, the more I really like the guy. He definitely has a no ego about him at all, despite once being in the biggest rock band in the world.
I still find it amazing that he turned from a bloated, drunken idiot, into a super-smart fitness freak. Goes to show you can still be a cool rock n roll guy without all the substance abuse.
Really hope that Loaded tours Australia too. We're due for a tour since VR canceled their 2008 tour.
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: Pearls of wisdom from Duff
Didn't that Brad Cox guy do a demo for VR the first time around? I think so... Interesting.
Re: Pearls of wisdom from Duff
its also why its so hard to get some of these guys to come and chat with us or answer questions or whatever
Guillermo del Toro, who is directing the The Hobbit movie, occasionally posts on a LOTRs fan site with some nuggets of information.
He had this to say after he had chimed in earlier in the thread to correct an inaccuracy in an interview he had given to Empire:
I try not to read the speculative threads AT ALL. I read the ones regarding news and revelations because I like to chime in with nuggets and ideas, etc but no- I dont read the others- wisdom prevails.
Ardent defenders of every polar opposites can be found in any given forum so, its best not to dwell- we have enough debates amongst ourselves, giving birth to many a great spontaneous, scholarly and passionate simposium.
In the incoming weeks we will explore a lot of ideas and technical possibilities. I will let you in on a few if I can find the time. For now, back to writing-
Much Peace
GDT
He posted that a few months back but it really stuck in my head, it really made me think about debates I've had over the years based on speculation. Nowadays I can rarely summon the will and desire to get drawn in too far to any online debates.
But it makes me wish that GNR could keep an open mind and contribute now and again, and not let the negative and frustrating aspects of the forums put them off completely.
Re: Pearls of wisdom from Duff
Good job Duff. Now spread the word to many others out there, including your old buddy Axl.
You ever read MySpace? Or Facebook? Or Twitter?
BOTTOM - OF - THE - BARREL
I remember awhile back, after that one woman made an underage girl commit suicide by harrassing her on the internet, that some U.S. representative or something wanted to pass a law, to force, at least Americans, that all blogs, forums, or social networking sites on the internet, had to require your FULL name, publicly shown, at all of these places, everytime you post.
Well obviously it never came to fruition, because it's nonsense. All it does, is end the internet. That's right folks, the internet is not indestructible. If that were to ever happen, blogs, forums & social networking sites were drop their traffic by about 98% in a week.
This whole thing Duff spoke of, I actually did a paper about in college this past year on.
The internet is escapism. Period. What does it say about our society? It frankly says people get angry and frustrated, and vent it on the internet, because it's safe. No different than me jumping on Grand Theft Auto, and chainsawing a cop's face, or watching domination porn that sees women humiliated. Or going to the next Friday The 13th, and rooting for Jason to bury a machete in someone's skull. The internet is no different. People escape with it.
I know i'm making up numbers, but i'd say just about ALL of the people on these social networking sites that list 'some college' or 'college grad' on their page, probably dropped out of high school at 16 and work in food prep. Well that's a gross generalization sir - absolutely. But it's an accurate one too. I know this might come as a shock to people so i'll pause for a moment...
Before you read any further, please prepare yourself for what i'm about to say. It's very adult, it's very serious. If there are children in the room, ask them to leave for a moment, this is for adults only. If children are reading this, stop now, and go ask your parents permission to read on.
With the children gone... here goes...
People do - LIE
95% of those social networking pages are BULLSHIT. Always have been. High school drop outs, suddenly have master's degrees. Guys that work at the Wal-Mart Tire-Lube Express, suddenly make over $100,000 a year. 13 year old girl's are 25 and single. A god fearing, Church-going virgin, suddenly becomes a slut and talks about how "big" it was with this guy she was with last night. They make it up baby.
And these guys, like Duff, or Axl, or anyone that was a mega star at one time, want to know why the internet fixates on them? Because they're a superstar. The internet is a way to secretly overtly love or hate these guys, without getting hell for it. Worst case scenario, Axl calls you a cunt. Then people bitch at the guy for not talking enough. What is there to say? So he comes in, and Twitter's "going to the store. Thinking about steak tonight", and some geek that can't lay off Warcraft for six seconds runs over to his computer and spends the next 9 hours waiting on him to say something else. The guy doesn't realize that Axl Rose, or Duff McKagen, does not wake up in the morning and think about Guns N' Fuckin' Roses every waking hour of the day, unlike the geek. And why does the geek do this? Because he's playing PlayStation. Basically. It's no different. He's using the internet, for the same thing people play games for. Or go out and see a ball game. Or go see a movie.
It's all the same. I might dress up like Michael Myers on Halloween, but it doesn't mean i'm gonna become some neo-Druid in a mask bent on the curse of Thorn. The same reason that if i'm making love to a girl, i'm not going to turn on "Back Off Bitch" for background music. That if I were to run into Axl Rose, i'd shake his hand and bullshit with him, and not try to act like a douche bag, and not run on the internet 5 seconds after it happened to tell everyone. Why? Because I 'escape' on the internet. I don't 'live' on the internet. There's a difference.
