Blind Items Revealed #18
March 6, 2018
So, if you were born in the 70s, grew up in LA or thereabouts, and liked indie or at least "indie" rock, there was one area band that you went to see less maybe for the music (although you liked that too) as for what might happen during the show. This band never got the traction of say the Chili Peppers and Janes Addiction, but its frontman went on to national stardom for a certain type of reality tv - a type very much connected to What Might Happen.
One of the times the band performed they were playing at a certain historic So Cal theater (spelled "re") that was almost destroyed by a recent and record-breaking fire (within two blocks). I didn't know it at the time but someone was recording the show, or at least parts of it - including their probably most known song (the one about the rocker turned booze baron). It ended up on YouTube, and is there to this day (near the top of the search list for the song).
When you find the video, you'll notice first his shaved head. Early on in the show, the singer announced that his girlfriend had just dumped him (you can probably guess why), and for that (which is to say some) reason he had crudely lopped off his hair. The set, or at least the part of it they got through, went well enough, but in between songs the singer grew increasingly agitated, drinking beer and gin and snorting something he'd fetch from his pocket. Just after they finished that song came the meltdown, a tantrum about the band, the girlfriend, and women in general. He was slurring his words, and when challenged by one of the bandmates threw a bottle of beer at him. The band left the stage and the crowd was alone with him, the audience and the singer. The crowd was then treated to a roughly ten minute monologue about his troubles, much of it some combination of self-pitying and incomprehensible. At the end he pulled a knife from his rear pocket - a switchblade, in fact - and threatened then and there to end his life, Harikari style. That's when the lights came on and two men who looked like orderlies rushed onstage and dragged him away.
There is a theory about the video given the size of camcorders back in the day, it's hard to imagine anyone being able to smuggle even one of the smaller hi8 ones into a show. The theory is the singer gave one of his fans advance approval for filming the show, already planning to kill himself at the end. He would have become famous in death to an extent he wasn't yet in life. Ironically, it's his troubles, and getting over them, that made him that kind of famous.
According to a witness at the show, after the orderlies took him away, a certain doctor came out to address the audience about the singer, and drug abuse in general. He was going to get the help he needed, he said, and a couple of women threw alt radio station swag into the audience. He encouraged the young people in the audience to seek help if they had been abused, or were self-medicating, or self-harming. The singer had been a semi-regular caller to the doctor's then radio show, often obviously drunk and on drugs. There was one particular episode in which a neo-Egyptian sex temple leader was the guest, and he called in to angrily denounce the leader, who had sex with thousands of women without protection. Now, of course, the singer was right, but he was obviously not coherent. This is how the singer and the doctor got to know each other, as host, and caller.
Bob Forrest/Drew Pinsky
So, if you were born in the 70s, grew up in LA or thereabouts, and liked indie or at least "indie" rock, there was one area band that you went to see less maybe for the music (although you liked that too) as for what might happen during the show. This band never got the traction of say the Chili Peppers and Janes Addiction, but its frontman went on to national stardom for a certain type of reality tv - a type very much connected to What Might Happen.
One of the times the band performed they were playing at a certain historic So Cal theater (spelled "re") that was almost destroyed by a recent and record-breaking fire (within two blocks). I didn't know it at the time but someone was recording the show, or at least parts of it - including their probably most known song (the one about the rocker turned booze baron). It ended up on YouTube, and is there to this day (near the top of the search list for the song).
When you find the video, you'll notice first his shaved head. Early on in the show, the singer announced that his girlfriend had just dumped him (you can probably guess why), and for that (which is to say some) reason he had crudely lopped off his hair. The set, or at least the part of it they got through, went well enough, but in between songs the singer grew increasingly agitated, drinking beer and gin and snorting something he'd fetch from his pocket. Just after they finished that song came the meltdown, a tantrum about the band, the girlfriend, and women in general. He was slurring his words, and when challenged by one of the bandmates threw a bottle of beer at him. The band left the stage and the crowd was alone with him, the audience and the singer. The crowd was then treated to a roughly ten minute monologue about his troubles, much of it some combination of self-pitying and incomprehensible. At the end he pulled a knife from his rear pocket - a switchblade, in fact - and threatened then and there to end his life, Harikari style. That's when the lights came on and two men who looked like orderlies rushed onstage and dragged him away.
There is a theory about the video given the size of camcorders back in the day, it's hard to imagine anyone being able to smuggle even one of the smaller hi8 ones into a show. The theory is the singer gave one of his fans advance approval for filming the show, already planning to kill himself at the end. He would have become famous in death to an extent he wasn't yet in life. Ironically, it's his troubles, and getting over them, that made him that kind of famous.
According to a witness at the show, after the orderlies took him away, a certain doctor came out to address the audience about the singer, and drug abuse in general. He was going to get the help he needed, he said, and a couple of women threw alt radio station swag into the audience. He encouraged the young people in the audience to seek help if they had been abused, or were self-medicating, or self-harming. The singer had been a semi-regular caller to the doctor's then radio show, often obviously drunk and on drugs. There was one particular episode in which a neo-Egyptian sex temple leader was the guest, and he called in to angrily denounce the leader, who had sex with thousands of women without protection. Now, of course, the singer was right, but he was obviously not coherent. This is how the singer and the doctor got to know each other, as host, and caller.
Bob Forrest/Drew Pinsky
I think Dancing Boy wrote this.
ReplyDeleteWho is the neo-Egyptian sex temple leader? Michael Aquino?
ReplyDelete@ViraxoLeader
DeleteTemple leader - Dwight York
Cult name - United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors
People magazine has a story on them on pages 70-71 of the July 16, 2018 issue.
This blind was originally called Harikari.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone post the youtube video? I have no idea what to look for
ReplyDeleteIs this it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-bHkMLgk-M
ReplyDeleteNvm, no shaved head.
ReplyDeleteWas Epstein the pseudo Egyptian temple guy?
ReplyDelete@AbbyRock
DeleteNo. It's Dwight York.
Check out pages 70-71 of knee pads, People magazine.
How can I get those last few minutes of my life back? Bob Forrest? Who the fuck cares?
ReplyDeleteClick the date for the original post. Quite a few videos posted in comments.
ReplyDelete@doug just read the reveal first. Makes the blinds easier to read
ReplyDeleteGood advice, @Thonker. Thanks.
DeleteInteresting timing on Dr Drew's part.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how at the end it says, roughly, this is how Dr. Drew and the singer got to know each other, as host and caller. But then how was Dr. Drew able to get up on the singer's stage after he was carted off? If I'm following the timeline this episode must have taken place before the phone calls to the show, which I assume was Love Lines? They must have known each other then, right?
ReplyDeletereply to J P Blow
ReplyDeleteThe fact Drew had orderlies there means Bob must of called him to let him know, so Drew 51/50'd him. Drew used to do Loveline for free when it was just a Sunday night show as a form of public service, to try and reach young people about sex & health. He only got paid when it went 5 days a week.
Yes, by this point Bob and Drew had become friends though his calls to Loveline. Drew is very compassionate and fell into addiction medicine because he fell into a job running a rehab because nobody else wanted the job(he was technically unqualified for it), but he got into it, got his certification and has been doing it ever since & Bob eventually became a drug Councillor working for Drew.
Thanks, Flixxx.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Forrest
ReplyDelete