Remember when rock stars trashed hotel rooms, inhaled groupies like so much pot smoke and said things like, “We’re bigger than Jesus?”
Rockers once lived lives we feared, pitied and envied — all at the same time. They were raging Ids who spiked their music with hedonistic delights.
It wasn’t pretty, nor did we want our sons and daughters to emulate them. They still represented a cultural rebellion, the sense that they couldn’t be controlled.
That’s rarely the case now. Today’s rockers are more polite, less willing to offend. Mumford & Sons’ Winston Marshall literally quit his band after daring to recommend a book critiquing Antifa.
The Who’s Keith Moon hasn’t stopped spinning in his grave.
Meanwhile, the erstwhile “Boss,” Bruce Springsteen, is yukking it up with President Barack Obama on their dual podcast.
The following rockers are different. Sure, some are well into their 70s, but each clings to a semblance of their rock personas. They won’t get fooled again.
Roger Daltrey
The Who’s thunderous voice isn’t ready to retire any time soon. He’s 77, but he made waves earlier this year when he mocked today’s woke g-g-generation.
“It’s just getting harder to disseminate the truth,” Daltrey said. “It’s almost like, now we should turn the whole thing off. Go back to newsprint, go back to word of mouth, and start to read books again. It’s becoming so absurd now with AI, all the tricks it can do, and the woke generation,” he said.
“It’s terrifying, the miserable world they’re going to create for themselves. I mean, anyone who’s lived a life and you see what they’re doing, you just know that it’s a route to nowhere. Especially when you’ve lived through the periods of a life that we’ve had the privilege to. We’ve had the golden era. There’s no doubt about that.”
Just try to cancel a rock god like Daltrey. Plus, he previously supported Brexit, a stance that put him at odds with the creative community here and in Great Britain.
Ted Nugent
Where does one start? Pro Trump, hunting, free speech and a willingness to offend everyone within earshot. Even more outrageous, by rock star standards? He’s a teetotaler.
It’s one thing to be right of center in the overwhelmingly liberal music field, but Nugent takes his anti-groupthink ways to a nuclear level.
Sometimes he goes too far, at least for some right-minded souls. It’s the price to be paid for being a rebel, one who hasn’t slowed over the years. Oh, and he’s also chums with socialist rocker Tom Morello, a credit to both men given their disparate views.
Van Morrison
The ageless troubadour became an unlikely hero for anti-lockdown critics. Morrison penned several songs last year detailing his objections to the draconian measures, worried they would cripple live music (they did) and leave a dramatic wake of damage in its wake (yes, again, as we assess how helpful said lockdowns were).
The music industry, including the press, didn’t take kindly to Morrison’s warnings. They couldn’t stop his rebellious nature, nor his willingness to ignore the COVID-19 groupthink.
Agree? Disagree? It’s hard to do the latter when Morrison is exploring the erosion of free expression in the western world.
“Just as there should be freedom of the press, there should be freedom of speech, and at the minute it feels like that is not in the framework. If you do songs that are an expression of freedom of speech you get a very negative reaction.”
That shouldn’t be a rare comment from the rock n’ roll community. It is, though, making Morrison a hero for simply stating it.
Eric Clapton
Mr. Slowhand himself teamed up with Morrison for some of the singer’s anti-lockdown songs last year. Clapton took his free speech campaign further this year after he reported suffering serious side effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine.
According to the rocker, the first dose caused serious issues, but they abated after 10 weeks. The second jab proved far worse.
“About six weeks later I was offered and took the second AZ shot, but with a little more knowledge of the dangers. Needless to say the reactions were disastrous, my hands and feet were either frozen, numb or burning, and pretty much useless for two weeks, I feared I would never play again, (I suffer with peripheral neuropathy and should never have gone near the needle.) But the propaganda said the vaccine was safe for everyone…”
Clapton indirectly went public with his thoughts, and he quickly lost some friends in the music community as a result.
Did he back down? No. Instead, his most recent song with Morrison asks, “Where Have the Rebels Gone?” It’s a darn good question.
Alice Cooper
Why would you ask an aging rocker, one known for his ghoulish on-stage antics, for political advice?
Cooper couldn’t agree more, one reason he retains some of his rebellious nature into his 70s. The “School’s Out” singer once vowed never to preach from his rock pulpit.
“I don’t like to mix politics and rock’n’roll. I don’t look at Bono, Sting and Bruce Springsteen as political. I look at them as being humanitarian. I’ll contribute to anything humanitarian. Helping people who can’t help themselves. But when musicians are telling people who to vote for, I think that’s an abuse of power. You’re telling your fans not to think for themselves, just to think like you. Rock’n’roll is about freedom – and that’s not freedom.”
Gene Simmons
No one self promotes quite like the KISS rocker. He’s also good at defying expectations, standing up for Israel and reaching out to the men and women in blue.
Earlier this year Simmons praised a Massachusetts cop for showing empathy in the line of duty. The former Chaim Witz is a loud and proud defender of the Jewish state. He’s also willing to question the Left’s open borders mantra. He once wondered aloud if allowing wave after wave of illegaly immigrants into the U.S. is sustainable, without giving his direct opinion on the matter.
He also tweaked the Pope on that issue, acknowledging Pope Francis’ call to end “inhumane” walls in the Trump tradition.
“The Vatican,” he said, “has a nice, big wall around it for the same reason. They want to keep people out.”
John Lydon
It takes a thick skin to be an openly conservative musician in the modern age. The former Sex Pistols singer takes that stance to a whole new level. He’s publicly bashed the Democrats, excoriated the sorry state of California and threw his unequivocal support behind then-President Donald Trump.
‘nuff said.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.