Biggest Jerk in music history?

Knox in Box

Knox in Box

Rustbelt refugee.
So we were visiting Linderhof castle yesterday and saw how much King Ludwig kissed Wagner's ass and it reminded me of how much I've heard that Wagner was a jerk.

Now it is a bit debateable that he was as much of a jerk as history has made him out to be (personally). Hitler loved him and he was an anti-semite though he had jewish friends that he just wanted to blend in and quit being jewish (not that this is a good thing, but it could have been a lot worse), he was dead 60 years before all that nazi mess though.

The question is: Who here with a really good musical education can tell us in their opininion who the biggest jerk in music history was.

Hell, it could be Sting or Axel Rose for all I know. Or that pedophile metal singer recently. (I guess he would be hard to beat)

Nominations with a bit of background are always welcome.
 
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I've read that Wagner was more extreme than that regarding his antisemitism. Some writings suggest that he would have been on board with the final solution. Open despision (hey look, a new word) of an entire group of people is pretty freaking jerky. It makes the more common arrogance of folks like Sting, Henley & Frye, and many others seem completely harmless.

That said, a friend from work was going on about how Sean Combs is old-school pimping young artists that he signs to his production company. He gets exclusive rights to new young artists and appropriates their work (to the point of claiming writing credit and publishing rights) for his albums before letting them do their own work. Sometimes he doesn't really lets them do their own stuff and even when he does he is getting a huge (majority) piece of whatever profits are there. It's nothing new, but it's pretty dicky for him to be perpetrating these old school tactics within his own community. Maybe it's what happened to him, but that's hazing and that's bullshit.

Historically though, creative types are often jerks. They think and work differently in general. Once you add fame (and possibly fortune) things can get really jerky really quickly.
 
shoeless said:
Seems like we just had this discussion recently and it turned into a pretty long list.
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Are you saying that forums such as these revisit topics that have recently discussed? That's just crazy! :thu:

The potentially more interesting discussion is the catalyst for the jerkiness. Fame and fortune can turn the menschiest among us into a total douche nozzle. Then there are the quirks that make one good at something like music that may not translate into good social graces. There's a long list of artistic and creative people literally being crazy, let alone eccentric. Eccentricity can be wildly misread by most folks.

That said, I'll go with Tig's answer right now.
 
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tiger roach said:
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I know this is from Amadeus but I've never seen it. What's the background?

And yes, the other tghreads are usually about current assholes that still breath I want to see if anyone knows of a bigger jerkfrom back when.

That stuff about Beethoven is entertaining, a deaf composer still able to pick out people talking during his performances and throwing chairs at them. That has to be better than that Ben Affleck Daredevil film. I'd pay to see this.
 
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Knox in Box said:
I know this is from Amadeus but I've never seen it. What's the background?
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Out of pure jealousy, he thwarted Mozart's career at every turn. And eventually made him so sick with fear that he died. :mad:

(Based on the 99% fictional account in the movie, not real events)
 
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