strataxe wrote
Wont' say rockstar, won;'t like the bodyguard thing, can't go out to go gfor a walk. Hiding from everyone. But I would like to make money, enough from music, so that I don't have to sit in a office making money for someone else. :'(
I'm never sure about this, though there are plenty of stories about how the stars can't live a normal life. Mick Jagger, reportedly, would like nothing better than to go down to the local of an evening and have a couple of pints and a game of darts. Paul McCartney likes to travel on trains but can't do so unless he charters a whole train.
I don't feel that sorry for them. I'm sure they're laughing all the way to the bank (which is on their private island, of course).
The counter to this is the story about the time Ian Botham (English cricketer) took a bet with Eric Clapton. Can't remember what the bet was about, but if Clapton lost he had to go down to a pub of Botham's nomination and play music for the night. He did lose, and he scrounged an amp from somewhere and went down to the pub, set up in a corner and played for whoever was there. Several people said things like "he looks a bit like Clapton, but Clapton would play better than that." He didn't get mobbed or anything.
Famous people have to be that famous person all the time. They can't relax. I remember years ago going to a league (club) cricket match in Sandton. The visiting team had Sylvester Clarke as their "pro" and the home batsmen were not happy at having to spend a Sunday facing the fire breathing demon in person. I'd imagined that Sly would go easy on them, but not a bit of it. It wasn't pretty, but he said "every time I play a match I'm Sylvester Clarke and I have to play like Sylvester Clarke to maintain my reputation" (or words to that effect).
There is a tale about a particular young lady who would bed whichever rock star came to town but had her eyes on the ultimate prize - Mick Jagger himself. Every next morning her friends would ask "how was he?" and she'd say "well he was great, but he wasn't Mick Jagger."
One night she gets THE CALL and is summonsed to the bedroom of the great man himself and spends the night there. The next morning her friends asked how it went and she said "he was great, but he wasn't Mick Jagger."
It can be hard living up a legend.
I'm not sure I'd want to be one of these rock legends (though there are up sides to that situation). There's a sort of lower echelon where, it seems to me, you can have a much better time of it. Guys who make good money, play with great players, get to go to the parties at Don Henley's house but aren't household names and can walk down the road, catch trains, play snooker at the bar or whatever.
