Rock Stars Who Grew To Loathe Fame
Turns out fame isn't all it's cracked up to be — and some of rock music's biggest icons have suffered under the weight of their own popularity.
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00:00Turns out, fame isn't all it's cracked up to be, and some of rock music's biggest icons
00:05have suffered under the weight of their own popularity.
00:08Kurt Cobain was famous for his dislike of fame.
00:11Initially, however, Cobain didn't shun the limelight.
00:15At one point early in his career, he wrote to every major record label he could in the
00:19hopes of becoming a rock god.
00:21Sadly, the Nirvana frontman soon found himself trapped by the consequences of his dreams.
00:26Nirvana's final album, In Utero, is filled with references to the dark side of fame,
00:31often decrying the judgmental attitude of the media.
00:35Despite his band's counterculture sound and aesthetic, Cobain quickly became a major celebrity
00:39icon and the subject of considerable hero worship.
00:43Shortly after the release of Nevermind, Cobain had his first taste of attention at a record
00:47release party.
00:48The shy Cobain was mobbed by fans, including kids from his old high school who demanded
00:53autographs.
00:54The attention was just too much, and he soon became known for his hatred of the press.
00:59Unfortunately, Cobain found that his dislike of celebrity life only seemed to make matters
01:03worse.
01:04In one famous interview, he complained about being hassled in public, saying,
01:08"'Well, I've been confronted by people wanting to beat me up, by people heckling me and being
01:13so drunk and obnoxious because they think I'm this pissy rock star bastard who can't
01:17come to grips with his fame.'"
01:19Amy Winehouse's catastrophic slide into self-destruction was chronicled by the media in painful detail.
01:25Press scrutiny caused her to loathe fame and may have worsened her fragile condition.
01:30The extent of Winehouse's difficult relationship with the spotlight was revealed after her
01:34untimely death.
01:36Shortly after she passed, friends of Winehouse admitted on a BBC Radio 5 special that the
01:41singer never really wanted fame and fortune in the first place.
01:44She had been more interested in starting a family and having kids.
01:48Winehouse was often trapped in her home in an attempt to avoid the press, who were intent
01:52on gleefully displaying her darkest moments.
01:55In an interview with This Morning, Winehouse's one-time best friend, Tyler James, alleged
02:00that Winehouse had once lamented the dark side of fame.
02:03"'She said, you know, fame is like terminal cancer, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.'"
02:08Some speculate that Winehouse's alcohol addiction was probably worsened by the way she was picked
02:12apart in the papers.
02:14Even before her success, she had faced numerous personal challenges, including bulimia and
02:19a long history of substance abuse.
02:21Ultimately, like many people, she was simply unable to deal with the pressure of fame and
02:25the cruelty of the British media.
02:28Winehouse died of alcohol poisoning in 2011, aged just 27.
02:33Lorde reached superstardom at the tender age of just 16 years old.
02:37Although many people at the time remarked she was wise beyond her years, she was, ultimately,
02:42still just a kid.
02:44And that meant she was facing all the growing pains that teenagers go through.
02:48At the same time, she had to deal with the enormous weight of public scrutiny.
02:52When she first became famous, Lorde would often go online and see cruel and unwarranted
02:56comments about her face and body.
02:58She later told NME,
02:59"'I remember being made aware of my looks and my body in a way that I had never been.'"
03:05Being famous started to feel like a burden.
03:07As the peak of Lorde-mania began to wane, she said she only felt relief.
03:12Body-shaming trolls aside, Lorde just doesn't enjoy the fakery of celeb life.
03:17She told CBS she was never comfortable with the PR that comes with being famous and compared
03:22it to running for political office.
03:24She much prefers to be tucked away in a studio or a library.
03:28She said,
03:29"'You don't win by being really famous.
03:31I don't think that really helps make good work.'"
03:34Like fellow grunge legend Kurt Cobain, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder is well-known for being
03:39deeply uncomfortable in the spotlight.
03:41Way back in 1993, when the band had just released their second album, Vedder was already apprehensive
03:47about their dizzying rise to fame.
03:49Feeling ill at ease with the pressure, Vedder and his bandmates withdrew as much as they
03:53could, despite the urgings of the group's handlers, who encouraged them to keep milking
03:57the situation for all it was worth.
04:00Vedder later told The New York Times,
04:02"'As far as fame, when we were getting successful, it was like being on a freight train.
04:07You're in the engine room.
04:08There are no windows.
04:09You feel the velocity, but don't know where the train is going.
04:12We thought, we've got to slow down or change direction because there might be a bridge
04:16that's blown out and it'll all go away."
04:19Many years later, in 2021, Vedder told Kerrang! magazine that he is still reluctant to speak
04:24to the press, and they one day refused to give interviews entirely.
04:28He said,
04:29"'I don't want to be a star.
04:31It's not worth it.
04:32To have my picture taken and have my face everywhere.'"
04:34"'Suddenly you can communicate with other famous people on a higher level.
04:40And like, waft around going, hi.'"
04:43Like many musicians, Radiohead's Tom Yorke wanted to be famous from a young age, only
04:48to find fame was ultimately not fulfilling.
04:51He once told Dazed!
04:52magazine,
04:53"'I always assumed that fame was going to answer something, fill a gap.
04:56And it does the absolute opposite.'"
04:58Suddenly, Yorke realized that he had lost his sense of privacy and found that people
05:03were beginning to follow him around asking him questions.
05:06He didn't like their familiarity at all, and soon longed to escape.
05:10Finding the attention and fame overwhelming, Yorke moved to the rural Cornish coast to
05:14avoid the crowds and reconnect with his art.
05:17Aside from all the unwanted publicity, Yorke struggled with the fact that he found his
05:21own biggest hit, Radiohead's 1992 song, Creep, extremely irritating to perform.
05:27Today, the band rarely plays it at all, and Yorke has been criticized for repeatedly calling
05:31out fans who request it.
05:34Guitarist John Frusciante first left the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992 after cracking under
05:39the pressures of fame.
05:41Finding that the life of mindless hedonism he'd sunk into was no longer fulfilling, Frusciante
05:45stepped away from the band that made his name.
05:48The rock and roll lifestyle had deeply damaged Frusciante, and at one point he was almost
05:53destroyed by his addiction and mental health issues.
05:56Lead singer Anthony Kiedis described Frusciante's retreat in unsympathetic terms.
06:01He claimed that the guitarist felt their stardom had compromised the group's artistry, and
06:05that playing for arenas full of kids was deeply uncool.
06:09In his memoir, Kiedis wrote,
06:19Although Frusciante would rejoin the band several times, he redirected a lot of his
06:23energy into his more low-key solo career, sequestered away from the media circus that
06:28revolved around the Chilis.
06:30In an interview with FactMag, he explained,
06:35Even when I was in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I wanted to be inside the music, not standing
06:40outside of it to grab your attention.
06:43Known as the quiet Beatle for shying away from interviews, George Harrison was ill at
06:47ease with the hysteria of Beatlemania.
06:50Although his quietness was something of a myth when it came to his private personality,
06:54he really did not enjoy hobnobbing with the public or courting the press.
06:58You don't like to talk, then?
07:01Well, not really.
07:03Sometimes, if there's something to say, but there's really nothing to say these days.
07:08For Harrison, the Beatles' hippie era of self-discovery was more than just a phase.
07:12He was a true soul-searcher, a lover of green things, and a serious meditator.
07:17Equally, the glamour of show business didn't suit him at all, especially when the attention
07:22became too much to bear.
07:23On his 21st birthday alone, Harrison received 15,000 birthday cards from adoring fans.
07:30Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, claimed that after taking LSD, the hippie Beatle lost
07:35interest in fame and became committed to spiritual exploration instead.
07:39He also became paranoid about large crowds around the same time, fearful of assassination,
07:44a fear that seems prophetic given John Lennon's eventual demise at the hands of a fan.
07:50Harrison himself was nearly killed by a fan with schizophrenia during a home invasion
07:54in 1999.
07:56The screaming of thousands of fans also made Harrison intolerant of loud noises, and he
08:00longed to get away from it all.
08:02Ultimately, he found solace in his garden.
08:05Speaking to The Week, his son Donnie recalled,
08:08"...I was pretty sure he was just a gardener.
08:11Being a gardener and not hanging out with anyone and just being home, that was pretty
08:14rock and roll, you know?"
08:17Peddler of feel-good tunes Greg Alexander saw huge success with the New Radicals hit
08:22You Get What You Give in the 1990s.
08:24But Alexander had no desire for fame, and he certainly didn't relish it when it arrived.
08:30He quit the band in fairly short order, and since then he has gone on to pen many other
08:34successful songs for other musicians.
08:37Alexander became a largely anonymous figure after leaving the New Radicals, and spent
08:41a few years doing charity work instead.
08:44In fact, when he agreed to speak to The Hollywood Reporter in 2014, it was the first interview
08:48he had given in 15 years.
08:51He explained that his hippie-ish persona was not just for show, and he deeply disliked
08:55the cottage industry that sprung up around the band when they hit the big time, saying,
08:59"...You're this scrawny little f----- musician, some 28-year-old, but all of a sudden, you
09:03become the conduit to people's bonuses, their greater agendas.
09:07There was a part of me that felt like it was going to f----- destroy me."
09:10I Saw One Chance to Run Out of the Hotel California
09:13Ultimately, Alexander has left the industry three times, and has railed against what he
09:18calls the corporatization of music, referring to modern pop stars as mere props for selfies.
09:25Only the love of songwriting has kept him coming back.
09:28Among fame-loathing rock stars, Sid Barrett is an unusual case.
09:33Barrett shrank from fame due to a serious mental illness, and may not have hated celebrity
09:37so much had he been well.
09:39Although Barrett was a founding member of Pink Floyd in 1965, he had already quit the
09:44group by 1968, partly due to schizophrenia that may have been worsened by heavy drug
09:49use.
09:50"...I think if you were in the position of being an incipient schizophrenic like he was,
09:55any hallucinogenics were a very bad thing."
09:59Little is known about Barrett's later life.
10:01He gave a final interview in 1971 before vanishing for good.
10:06Barrett became notoriously reclusive, never speaking to his neighbors and taking few visitors.
10:12During the period when Barrett became unwell, he struggled to deal with a sudden rush of
10:16unwanted attention, a situation that exacerbated his creeping paranoia.
10:21Sid was attractive and extremely popular with women, so much so that groupies would show
10:25up at his house to see him.
10:27Before long, however, he refused to let anyone in when they came knocking.
10:31Even before the group was particularly famous, Barrett did not enjoy attention.
10:36He was shy around many people, and would hide from those he didn't wish to speak to at parties.
10:41Barrett very successfully disappeared from public life, and is rumored to have taken
10:45up painting in private.
10:47Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler broke up his incredibly successful band when he felt the group had
10:51become too big.
10:53Knopfler feared fame would go to his head, but he was also known to be shy by nature.
10:58It has long been rumored that Knopfler wore his famous headband at his concerts so that
11:02he would not be recognized when he took it off.
11:05Knopfler once told Rolling Stone that, although he loved success, he hated fame, a state of
11:09being that he claimed has no redeeming features at all.
11:13Dire Straits were the biggest-selling British rock artists of the 1980s, but despite their
11:17runaway success, Knopfler decided to break up the group in 1995.
11:22Knopfler's time in the band wreaked havoc on his personal relationships and caused a
11:26rift with his bandmate and brother, David Knopfler, who left the group early and never
11:30spoke to Mark again.
11:32The group's last tour also proved to be too much.
11:36While on the road, they played an astonishing 300 shows and cracked under the pressure.
11:41Knopfler later told The Independent,
11:43"...Once we got to the point of carrying our own stage, I felt the whole thing was just
11:47too big.
11:48It's a trap that I just wanted to get out of.
11:50I needed to do something else, to try to improve as a writer and as a player, and I don't think
11:55being stuck in that kind of circus is where that's going to happen."