Famous Guitar player myth's / Facts

Eric Clapton - Slowhand - Came from a slow hand clap while he changed his strings on stage..

I read that it was because he was so fast on the fretboard. It was like calling a huge guy "Tiny" or a bald guy "Curly". Meh, who knows!? :?

Eric Clapton - Slowhand - Came from a slow hand clap while he changed his strings on stage..

I read that it was because he was so fast on the fretboard. It was like calling a huge guy "Tiny" or a bald guy "Curly". Meh, who knows!? :?

It was during this time period that Clapton's nickname of "slowhand" developed. Yardbirds rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja recalled that whenever Clapton broke a guitar string during a concert, he would stay on stage and replace it. The English audiences would wait out the delay by doing what is called a “slow handclap” Clapton told his official biographer.
From Wikipedia,
But does mention that Clapton told his official biographer, Ray Coleman, that “My nickname of Slowhand came from Giorgio Gomelsky. He coined it as a good pun. He kept saying I was a fast player, so he put together the slow handclap phrase into Slowhand as a play on words.”
Minotaur, i think your take on it is more solid than mine, yours makes more sense. :D

There are always a couple of "etymologies" for any term. :lol:

Hendrix was really murdered and he didn't die from a combo of drugs, etcetera.

For the life of me I cannot remember the documentary I saw only a few months ago on the case...

Evidently, his bizz partner and Nixon's cronies did it.

Hey...anyone remember the title of that show??? It was quite plausible...

Cat

Paul McCartney died during the early days of The Beatles, but rather than tell the world about it, they found someone who looked and sounded exactly like him, could play all the same instruments (left handed) and could write great songs. :lol:

Jim Morrison really didn't die . . . he assumed another identity . . . . Larry Flynt.

Singer John Lennon once claimed the Fab Four shared a joint in the washroom of Buckingham Palace back in October 1965, the day they were set to receive their honorary Members of the British Empire awards from the Queen herself. George and Paul later denied the story, while Ringo (perhaps only fueling the tall tale) claimed he could not remember.

The colors may not have matched, but many fans still believe the secret behind Purple Haze could be found behind Jimi's red bandanas.

Rumors abound to this very day that Hendrix brought his stage performances to dizzying psychedelic heights by placing LSD litmus papers (blotter acids) underneath his trademark bandana, which would ultimately be absorbed into cuts he had made in his skin and roll down as sweat into his eyes.

Status: Mystery

Quote: "Purple Haze all in my brain, lately things don't seem the same. Actin' funny but I don't know why. 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky."
- Jimi Hendrix, "Purple Haze."

When you earn your living pelting audiences with calf livers and pig intestines, you are quite literally feeding the rumor mills.

On one fateful January night in Des Moines, Iowa, Ozzy Osbourne's own eating habits became table talk after a fan threw a live bat onstage to return the frontman's hospitality. Taking the stunned creature for a rubber toy, Black Sabbath's frontman bit into its neck and -- realizing he had bitten off more than he could chew -- found himself in dire need of a rabies shot.

Status: True

Quote: "I bit the head off a live bat the other night. It was like eating a Crunchie wrapped in chamois leather."
-Ozzy Osbourne

The conspiracy theorists who insist Doors frontman Jim Morrison is still alive and kickin' it up somewhere in Mexico have plenty to fuel their suspicions.

For starters, only Morrison's wife Pamela and French physician Dr. Vasille saw the corpse after the rock star was found dead in his bathtub on July 3, 1971. And if the ensuing media blackout, the lack of an autopsy (customary for all suspect deaths in France) and Morrison's many occult connections weren't enough, the singer apparently visited his grave sight only three days before his untimely death.

Status: Mystery

Quote: "I was very tempted to believe the rumors that Jim had faked his own death."
-Jim's best friend, Tom Baker

Cheat death often enough and fans will start drawing their own conclusions.

Notorious heroin addict Keith Richards learned this lesson back in 1973 when he checked into a Swiss hospital for a blood-filtering treatment known as a hemodialysis. Rumors quickly spread that the Rolling Stone had actually undergone an experimental treatment that amounted to a complete blood transfusion in order to detoxify himself for an upcoming European tour.

Status: False

Quote: "I was just fooling around. I opened my jacket and said, 'How do you like my blood change?' I was f***ing sick of answering that question. So I gave them a story."
-Keith Richards

Having your wife catch you in bed with another woman is simply one of the occupational hazards of being a rock star.

But David Bowie was really put on the spot after his ex-wife told national television audiences that she once found her admittedly bisexual "Thin White Duke" spooning naked in bed with the Rolling Stones' frontman Mick Jagger. Both men and their lawyers denied any gay implications.

Status: True, as far as the discovery goes.

Quote: "I certainly didn't catch anyone in the act. All I found were two people sleeping in my bed. They happened to be naked and they happened to be Mick Jagger and David Bowie and it's not a big deal. It doesn't mean necessarily that it's some sort of affair."
-David Bowie's ex-wife, Angela

The legend:
KISS, in one of the more ridiculous marketing gimmicks of the last 50 years, mixed vials of their own blood into the red ink used to color the blood for the first issue of Marvel's KISS comic series.

Why it grosses us out:
KISS isn't exactly the model of sexual restraint. Their blood would probably be more valuable at a clinic documenting the evolution of various strands of STDs since the '70s, and less valuable staining our finger tips. We'll stick with our Whitesnake coloring book, thank you very much.

Why we still hope it's true:
No one does zany, goofy, ultimately innocuous horror like KISS, and what better manifestation of that than mixing their blood with comic book ink? Yes, they're bleeding, but at some point that blood is going to be mixed with the palm-sweat of a thousand chubby sixteen-year-olds as they read about Ace and Gene battling space-pirates with their righteous riffs.

Really, the only way this can be considered hardcore is if you assume-as we do-that the blood was not extracted by a needle, but rather sopped up from the floor after the guys rolled in bacon fat and waded through a trough of alligators.

Yeah, but is it:
Absolutely. KISS flew to Marvel's inking facility in between tour stops and dumped vials of blood into the red-ink vat. Not only is there a picture of it happening, but it was witnessed by a notary public and subject to a signed contract. Comic fans are apparently very particular about the validity of their blood-infused inks. You can now rest assured that if you see someone licking a KISS comic, they are either a vampire or a huge freak.

1. Paul McCartney, Lou Reed and Ginger Baker are dead
Myths:
McCartney died in an auto accident in 1966 and was replaced by an impersonator. Reed and Baker died of drug overdoses.
Facts:
The McCartney and Reed myths started with what looked like legitimate wire service reports being fed to radio stations. The fact that it took McCartney a while to deny the rumour added fuel to it. The Reed hoax came shortly after the death of fellow punk rocker Joey Ramone, which gave it an additional touch of plausibility.

Baker was addicted to heroin throughout most of the '60s and '70s. After Cream disbanded in 1968, he dropped out of public view, leading some to believe that he had died a drug-related death. He kicked the habit in the early '80s and is quite alive, as are McCartney and Reed.