artists who plausibly appear to be good people

I'm sorry, everyone. Weird Al is the only good celebrity.

John Cage belongs here, no? Intrinsically kind, curious and warm.

He has been mentioned.

Isn't Dave Grohl supposed to be The Nicest Guy In Music (TM) ?

― StanM, Tuesday, November 14, 2017 3:54 PM (yesterday)

I've heard that...he is not.

― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, November 14, 2017 3:57 PM (yesterday)

holy shit

― jesus and figs and science and the foo fighters (unregistered), Thursday, November 16, 2017 2:15 AM (five hours ago)

Dave Grohl, former promoter of AIDS denialism

y'all should get into opera and follow Christine Goerke's career because a) she's incredibly talented, and b) she rules

best Grohl zing is still Courtney's "He’s just sub-mediocre type who does this ‘nice guy’ nonsense"

I know people who have witnessed first hand Grohl sleaze. But I'm not sure any worse than most rock stars. Or most people, for that matter. Just mundane sleaze.

grohl's gonna ride into the rock and roll HOF on being enthusiastically corny and rocking out in a hard + forgettable fashion.

Foo Fighters were at their best as a grunge Rentals

there should be a wing in the rock and roll hall of fame for dave grohl, keith urban and maybe jack white. they themselves would stand on pedestals 24 hours a day, ready to jam, on demand, with anyone who walks into the room, and to accept any and all awards offered. in between, they would do as many good deeds as possible. or bad deeds. whichever they prefer. with any remaining time beyond that, they would give speeches and make documentaries.

i feel like weird al has a slight but essential meanness at his core. like if you went in his dressing room and accidentally punctured a hole in his fat suit, he wouldn't yell or throw a tantrum or anything, but he might toss off a withering sarcastic comment that you'll remember forever.

b-but the Rentals were grunge

didn't they sound like Weezer?

founded by Weezer bassist Matt Sharp

if your point is that Weezer weren't grunge then I will fight you

Matt Sharp comes across like an egotistical knob who was known for not crediting his bandmates for songwriting contributions or indeed paying them

dolly parton seems like an amazingly wonderful person

xp a counterpoint to assessments like that is to consider some of their friends. for instance can you imagine Petra Haden consorting with assholes, I can't, but she's friends with Matt

Dr Alex Paterson and Mixmaster Morris seem nice.

― El Tomboto, Wednesday, November 15, 2017 4:11 PM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dr Alex Paterson is not highly thought of by this former bandmate to say the least - https://web.archive.org/web/20140723181240/https://krisweston.com/index.php/rant/ (though who you believe on this kind of stuff I have no idea)

jonathan richman seems like a nice guy based on the ilm thread titles i have read.

REM are such dbags the only good bloke split 15 years ago

hmm Dolly is a good one, she does seem like legit good people

Grohl seems still too hung up on his high school notions of what’s cool and real, and too judgmental of those outside those parameters, for me to think of him as a mensch.

just sweet, funny, welcoming, generous, never a bad word about anybody

xp

Xp yup.

My love of Dolly presupposes her awesomeness as a human , so don’t nobody come in here and post any shit about her, y’hear now?

Yeah I didn't even want to bring up Dolly in case someone comes in and messes with my perception of the world.

Dolly is a sweetheart. One of my friends worked on the lighting for the musical version of 9 To 5 (she was around for the last few weeks as a musical consultant) and when they finished the dress rehearsal she brought out brownies she had baked for the cast and crew.

Re: Feldman, there seemed sufficient reason to reserve judgment on that one - Marcus appeared to be suffering some sort of psychotic break or something like it

Plenty of predators have been brought to light in classical music though. See Ian Pace’s blog

Isn’t Dolly constantly donating to charities? I know that only this year he gave money to almost 1000 families who lost their homes in the Tennesse fires.

Although then this bit came out after:

https://amp.usatoday.com/story/664460001/

Although it doesn’t appear that Dolly was involved?

Ariel Pink

I basically think he's alright.

Not that I think everyone else mentioned itt is a monster deviant who belongs in a cage, but Dolly Parton is the first one I feel comfortable signing off on sans reservations.

I read that the Grateful Dead arranged for their roadies/crew members to be paid as much per show as the band members.

(At least, that was the case in the '70s...dunno if that extended into the '80s or '90s.)

xpost Like many of her awesome and down-to-earth biographical details are stuff she downplays or keeps private (like the guy she's been married to for basically her entire adult life and her younger siblings who they raised together).

I feel like it’s harder to pinpoint the artists who are generally awesome people to the terrible ones. It’s hard to hide when you are awful, whereas genuinely decent people do good without expecting it to be a PR stunt and might actually be very private about it.

haha yeah it helps if you actually know them!

Ray Manzarek gets a lot of anecdotal love.

I mean if you bring up Dolly Parton why not bring up Emmylou Harris or Bonnie Raitt or Shelby Lynne etc

van morrison seems like a top bloke

I read that the Grateful Dead arranged for their roadies/crew members to be paid as much per show as the band members.

it is also my understanding that they offered health insurance to their roadies, which is so far beyond “good” i don’t even know what the word for it is.

godz must be nice surely

van morrison seems like a top bloke

Such a sunny happy-go-lucky fellow.

yeah lol, on a list of assholes, Van Morrison would be the first to come to my mind to add.

Fairly low-level everyday none of the wider public's business assholism tho, or the other kind?

The former.

I don't even know if he's an asshole so much as a stereotypical red-faced red-haired did-you-spill-my-pint Ulsterman.

whatever happened with bunita marcus? that's the first I saw of that; there seems to be little follow up on her mental state, etc after what sounds like a fairly public, sinead o'connor-esque meltdown.

Van is ridiculously unpleasant by all accounts. nothing major I guess but a weird inclusion

I want to believe that Brian Wilson is a good nom for this thread. I'm reading his memoir, I am Brian Wilson (with Ben Greenman), and he comes off as such a tender soul. I do know that he had some aggressive acting-out issues (supposedly he greeted Elvis Presley with a flurry of karate chops), but to me they seem less the mark of an a-hole than of a man unable to regulate the rage left in him by his abusive father. I realize these aren't mutually exclusive characteristics, but in him I definitely sense it to be a case of the latter.

Shirley Collins is definitely a good person.