Post
by freddie » Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:50 pm
I try hard not to mention famous people I met/know because people instantly assume you are trying to gain some sort of social advantage out of mentioning it, or that you are lying. It's funny because I know I am a nobody and am quite comfortable with that, but there are some good stories, so I made a new account and here I go-
I grew up with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. He was a grade ahead of me in school and a really cool guy. I always admired him for being an intellectual guy without being an intellectual bully. Amazing guitarist even in High School. Not exactly creative at that point though. He sure as hell figured that out though.
I also grew up with Adam Jones of Tool. Also a really nice/cool guy. Very talented musician. At one point he was feeling constrained by his guitar playing because he could play almost anything, but couldn't make up his own stuff. He asked me to teach him how to play "punk rock guitar." I thought he was trying to pull one of those high school humiliation tricks on me, so I called him on it. He made it clear he was being sincere, so I gave him two lessons. They were very "karate Kid" type things- play one week without playing anything you ever played before, and then play one week only playing what you hear in your head from what you made up the previous week. I don't know if those were the actual lessons, but something like that. There wasn't a guitar anywhere near at either lesson.
Maureen Herman from Babes in Toyland went to our high school too. I didn't remember her until we were at a party at Tom's and hung out with her. We used to make fun of this one girl who was actually pretty cool during study hall.
I auditioned for the Smashing Pumpkins in 1991 or so. Billy Corgan was really up front about his intentions and what he wanted to do, and that he was the artistic force of the band etc. Also a top notch person. Anyone who tells stories about him being an ass is probably someone who tried to take advantage of him and didn't succeed. He doesn't suffer fools, and takes credit for what he does. We talked on the phone a couple of times, we met once to share the music we were writing. He asked me what I thought of his music, I told him I thought the songs were too long, too slow, and that he whined too much when he sang. He took that like anyone who is honestly asking your opinion, with a smile and a thanks. Even after basically telling him I didn't like the music, we still met to play music at the Metro in Chicago in the small stage area. Afterwards, when I was loading my bass amp, he said "it was fun, but we both know it's not a match." He shook hands and I left. This was before they were really famous, and if I had it to do all over again with knowlege of the future, I wouldn't change a thing. They would have sucked even worse with me and I wouldn't have had fun.
Another thing he told me, not verbatim, but this is close- Imagine there is an apartment building with all the songwriters in the world living in it. Some live at the lower levels, which is not a bad thing, it's an honor to even be in the building. Someone like George Michael gets to live a little higher than he should, and all his neighbors hate him, and Tom Waits could live in the penthouse, but he choses to live in the gutter. Billy told me he wanted to live where he belonged, and he figured that was somewhere above the middle, but not the top. He asked me where I wanted to be, I told him "single family detached, so I can have my own studio in the basement and nobody to tell me to keep it down."
This is getting long, so that's it for now.
