Discovered recently that Electric Wizard were kinda dicks back in the day. “At the time, we were pretty bad people. I got arrested for arson of a car, outside a police station. Tim [Bagshaw] went to nick a crucifix off a church roof so we could use it onstage…”

R. L. Burnside killed a man “possibly at a craps game.”

Varg of Mayhem Burzum burned a couple churches and killed a bandmate.

I could list other examples, but would like to hear from other people and other music genres.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    4·
    1 year ago

    Weird Al Yankovic is… really just an all around awesome person and probably won’t show up anywhere on this thread.

    • InputZero@lemmy.ml
      1·
      1 year ago

      I dunno, him and Coolio had some beef in the 90s. When Weird Al parodied Coolio’s Gangsters Paradise with his Amish Paradise Weird Al didn’t do so with the consent of Coolio. Gangsters paradise was a deeply personal song to Coolio so he was understandably upset. As a direct parody it was protected under fair use but Weird Al didn’t feel right about it. So he reached out to Coolio, apologized and ever since then Weird Al has gotten the artist approval to parody their work despite the fact he doesn’t need to. Coolio did eventually come around and agree it was a pretty funny parody. Plot twist, (not really) that’s how humble Weird Al is, he didn’t do anything legally wrong and yet he still recognized he could do better.

      • Nollij@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        That was all from a miscommunication- Al had his people reach out to Coolio’s people, and somehow wires got crossed. Al created it with the belief that he had Coolio’s blessing. Al has always asked permission, and a number of artists/songs have not been done because they would not grant permission. Examples include Paul McCartney (Live and Let Die/Chicken Pot Pie, because of his strict vegetarianism), Michael Jackson (Black or White, because he felt the message was too important), and everything by Prince.

        While it’s never been tested in court, most of these parodies probably count as derivative works (i.e. permission is required) rather than protected fair use. A notable exception might be Smells Like Nirvana, since it was used to mock the original creator.

        Edit: spelling