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"He's an ass"

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1"He's an ass" Empty "He's an ass" Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:06 pm

D. Slam

D. Slam

These are the exact words of a friend of mine who was a
drum tech/software technician for Prince on his latest tour.
He will remain anonymous for obvious reasons. He was
John Blackwell's tech of whom he said is among the nicest
guys ever. So I want to be clear about that. He says it's
Prince who's the Jerk and not John.

He was telling a little of what it's like on a daily basis working
with the Prince tour: 18-20 hour work days, Prince walks in
about 2pm giving orders and changing everything including
the entire sound board setup. He told me how Prince would
ream him and fine him publicaly in front of everyone even for
things that were out of his control or not his fault. Prince fined
him $200.00 because the bass player's pedals were in the wrong
spot. He's also been fined for equipment system and structual
failures. So If Johns playing and cracks a cymbal or breaks a
drumhead or if any of the electronic devices fail, then he gets
fined and publicly humiliated for it. He said that the money was
very good but the tech help and stage hands were all treated like
bottom feeders.

He just recently left the tour and said that John begged him to stay
but he just couldn't go on being treated sub human. They are still
scrambling to find someone else to fill his spot.

As of late, he's been working with Matt Sorum who he says is the
complete opposite of Prince. He actually totally erased a bank of
Matt's snare drum samples and was sweating bullets over it. He
said Matt called him over he and thought to himself "aww, man, here
we go." He said Matt told him not to worry that it's just some programs
and that they'd go over to the studio and reload them. Matt then said:
"Let's go have lunch." Night and day. Btw, he says Prince is an extra-
ordinary performer, but he just happens to bite as a person.

He's got a possible tour coming up with a really big name but he won't
tell me who it is just yet.... He's a super cool guy and a very knowledgeable
friend who is helping me with some digital sound concepts that I'm getting
into as of late. I wish him all the best!

Thanks my friend.



Last edited by D. Slam on Fri Jul 29, 2011 5:38 pm; edited 2 times in total

2"He's an ass" Empty Re: "He's an ass" Fri Jul 29, 2011 5:11 pm

spanky

spanky

Makes what I have heard about James Brown for many years and Harold Melvin of the Blue Notes sound like nothing. And then Prince comes out there and portrays himself as the complete humanitarian.

3"He's an ass" Empty Re: "He's an ass" Fri Jul 29, 2011 5:25 pm

D. Slam

D. Slam

More than a few entertainers are like that, Spanky.
E.C. Scott had a bit of that in her. When she didn't
get what she wanted, bad things would happen.

You'd get flipped off on stage, yelled at, teeth beared
at you, cussed out, towels thrown at you.... It's crazy
man!

I had to sit her down and tell her what time it was,
that utimately this is supposed to be fun and I didn't
need to go through this crap to play music. Things got
better after that but slowly started creeping back in that
direction... I got out of Dodge finally....

Another note on Prince... My friend told me that all the band
does is play, when not traveling from one point to the next,
all day and all night.... They practice all afternoon,do the
concert that night, then Prince has everyone pack up the
gear and they go to some club and do a private VIP show.
He says it's like that at nearly all of his concert performances.

4"He's an ass" Empty Re: "He's an ass" Sat Jul 30, 2011 1:18 am

spanky

spanky

Yeah I know there are many out there like that Don. I remember when you came to Philly with E.C. Scott. Wow she acted like that on stage, how do these people expect to keep people. And I don't even have to mention Buddy.

5"He's an ass" Empty Re: "He's an ass" Sat Jul 30, 2011 4:07 am

D. Slam

D. Slam

spanky wrote:Yeah I know there are many out there like that Don. I remember when you came to Philly with E.C. Scott. Wow she acted like that on stage, how do these people expect to keep people. And I don't even have to mention Buddy.

And it is exactly how you say, Spanky. She has a reputation that
preceeds her and she's constantly scrounging for musicians to play
with her. She's had to cancel gigs because she couldn't find players
to fill the needed band positions. Virtually no player resource at all.

6"He's an ass" Empty Re: "He's an ass" Sat Jul 30, 2011 4:18 am

Racman

Racman

Is there any law that says a musician has the right to charge an abusive band leader for punitive damage? Just thought I ask here.

rac

http://www.glennracoma.com

7"He's an ass" Empty Re: "He's an ass" Sat Jul 30, 2011 5:04 am

D. Slam

D. Slam

I don't think there's a law that prevents you from trying, Rac.

8"He's an ass" Empty Re: "He's an Ass" Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:12 am

drumman



One time when I was in NYC in the mid 90's, I was in Times Square and Prince was at the
MTV Studios...you know where they have the big open glass window?
I remember seeing him strut around up there like he was the King of England.
He kept coming up to the glass to try to get the crowd below to yell and cheer.
I remember thinking to myself...."What an Ass" !!!!

9"He's an ass" Empty Re: "He's an ass" Sun Aug 28, 2011 12:32 am

rarebit



It's just insecurity causing people to behave this way. Sometimes it's a power thing, or it could be a star thing where they want you to know who's in charge. Just remember without techs, there is no show. You can play in a band, but no one will see or hear you without the techs!

I hate it when people make you feel like you don't know what you're doing, and you start questioning yourself, they are making their problems to be someone else's problems. It's like the tempo thing. People like to harp on the drummer about tempos. What I do is bring in the click and play to that through phones. Shuts people up real quick. One guy told me the click doesn't have any feel. I told him neither does he.

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