You’ve probably all heard of Chuck Berry. People credit him for “inventing rock and roll,” which is, of course, hyperbole(because Muddy Waters was better, and is more true cult. And Little Richard was more extreme, and inspired Motörhead and Venom), since it wasn’t invented by one person. Metal is part of rock and roll, so, this is important to us.
But Chuck Berry also was the prototypical “rock star.” He bought a bar, after getting rich off of music, and had sex with a 14 year old, who worked as a waitress. He went to prison for it, in the 1950s, back when rape and pedophilia weren’t taken as seriously. He fired his band, because they helped write a bunch of material, and he didn’t want to pay them. He spent most of his life going on tour, with just a guitar. He booked the venue, and told them to provide amps and cables for him, and to find a backing band. His music was so well known, that he had no trouble finding one, anywhere he toured. Most of the time, he wouldn’t even talk to the band, and he never told them the set list. He just started playing the first riff, and expected them to know which song it was(I’m guessing that these band members tended to not be young women, so he had no interest in speaking with them). I couldn’t find out whether they got paid, but if they did, it was probably the promoters who did it, not Chuck Berry.
His egotism and sexual predation never stopped. In the 90s, he was sued, by a bunch of women, who found out, that he had put cameras, in the stalls, of the women’s toilets, at a restaurant he owned, so he could watch them take shits. Supposedly, detectives searching his house found tapes of this, and an R Kelly-style video, of him pissing on a woman, then getting under her and saying “now it’s time for my breakfast,” and eating her shit.
He sounds like a very immoral person. I remember hearing about some of this, years ago, but I recently found out more details, by reading his Wikipedia page, and double checking the citations. Have any intentionally offensive grindcore bands covered his songs? It seems like they share common interests with him. Did he ever admit to eating feces? Or did he maintain some nice guy pious Christian image? I thought about bringing him up, and pointing out his sexual predation, and egotism, next time that someone tells me that heavy metal is just a bunch of edgelords making noise, but then I realized, most people who worship Chuck Berry are either dead by now, or a extremely old, and it’s not worth arguing with them.
Why didn’t the music instruction, that I received, in primary school, teach us about true cult stuff, like Muddy Waters? “Champagne and reefer” is too profane, but the pious do-gooder music teacher told us all about Chuck Berry creating rock and roll? He was still alive, back then, and probably would’ve gone after us. This is why we should denounce all of the “rock and roll hall of fame” celebrity worship crap. I guess metal heads are not the only ones accepting fucked up behavior.
_________________ The only “-isms” you need, are individualism, and GISM. I like Slayer solos
With my weed, I smoke every day If I'm not high, the hate will escape I smoke and smoke, stoned as a fuck Weed is my life, weed is my love… -John Gallagher
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