The official Redemption thread v. I Am the Storm - March 17th 2023

[Ben_Jamin]

Just to make sure I'm on the right page with everything here, am I correct in saying this thread has blown up this much and we still have no actual direct quotes, screenshots, or links to what was said?

I saw Glenns post and had no idea what that was in reference to so I went to https://www.facebook.com/groups/1257920167711993 and found the post that had this discussion going on.  The group says it's public so maybe anyone can see this.  The screen shots are there, but it seems the full conversation is shared privately between some of those people so I can't really comment too much more.

[wolfking]

Can someone copy and post the text for us facebookless people.

[Ben_Jamin]

Can someone copy and post the text for us facebookless people.

I can, but it'll take a while.

Edit: If I do I'd rather it be a PM

[wolfking]

Can someone copy and post the text for us facebookless people.

I can, but it'll take a while.

Nah, don't bother.

[Ben_Jamin]

Can someone copy and post the text for us facebookless people.

I can, but it'll take a while.

Nah, don't bother.

 

[Lethean]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

[Ben_Jamin]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

That's it though. What was said to make Nick feel the need to reply, "I have a lot of Non-white friends." That's the information I want to know, and need to know to really understand why he said that. It escalated once that other person said "Oh here we go again..." that person did not have to post that either. Nick didn't have to post "Get Cancer" yet he did, and it's suddenly shocking he acted unwisely and said something I am sure he regrets now? Why is it shocking he did that?

I am concerned about this because It is something Rising Bands have to take into account now, and it's stressful. So, Nick did the right thing in getting off of Social Media, for his mentality and Health.

[romdrums]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

So he basically made it someone else’s problem then.

[wolfking]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

So he basically made it someone else’s problem then.

Brilliant.

[Lethean]

 

[The Walrus]

It doesn't help that several people in that facebook group are ultimate SJW types who chomp at the bit for any sort of toxic argument with someone they don't like or agree with. Things escalate like wildfire in that group sadly because it's a mighty echo chamber. So I can see how both sides would flare up pretty fast, but it's still uncalled for from both parties.

Especially when you're co president of Activision fucking Blizzard and you tell someone to get cancer. Jim Sterling would laugh himself into a heart attack if he got this news and a screenshot.

Here it is, btw.

[abydos]

SJWs are the worst. But didn't Nick have cancer? If I remember correctly, that should give him the "permission" to say this type of thing, according to the sjw victim stacking

[The Walrus]

 

[WilliamMunny]

I went to an Alter Bridge meet and greet on the Last Hero tour and while they weren't really rude or anything, they did give off the 'couldn't be assed' vibe.  Even when we went through and got stuff signed one by one, they were pretty dismissive I felt.  Scott especially was quite blunt and hardly looked up and didn't even ackowledge us when signing.  I was fine, because I couldn't imagine doing those night after night. 

There's no excuse for someone to be an asshole in a meet n greet. These are the most loyal fans paying extra money for this service. It makes the actual concert a sham, honestly, if you can't bring yourself to acknowledge your biggest fans. It's not like they're accosting you at the store.

As someone who ran a record store for nearly a decade (and witnessed some pretty appauling behavior by way of entitled artists via meet&greets), I could not agree with this more. No excuse, man. I'll be honest, being on that side of things a few dozen times with some pretty big bands, the way they treated me, the guy who was grabbing their water and talking to their manager, made a huge impact on what I thought of them.

To that end, one band that sticks out in particular is none other than Disturbed. I am NOT a fan, at all, but David Drainman was beyond gracious and professional. This was well into their career, they were a HUGE band, but that dude acted like it was the first meet & greet he'd ever done, and it made all the difference with the fans. To this day, I give their new record a spin whenever it drops...respect-driven curiosity.

[WilliamMunny]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

That's it though. What was said to make Nick feel the need to reply, "I have a lot of Non-white friends." That's the information I want to know, and need to know to really understand why he said that. It escalated once that other person said "Oh here we go again..." that person did not have to post that either. Nick didn't have to post "Get Cancer" yet he did, and it's suddenly shocking he acted unwisely and said something I am sure he regrets now? Why is it shocking he did that?

I am concerned about this because It is something Rising Bands have to take into account now, and it's stressful. So, Nick did the right thing in getting off of Social Media, for his mentality and Health.

Man, I hear you, I do, but as far as I'm concerend, nothing makes that response ok. It's obviously not a crime, and the man is entitled to say whatever he wants (within reason), but as a public figure, this is a head-scratcher for me.

If someone is pissing you off, just ignore them. As far as I'm concerned, telling someone to 'get cancer' is repugnant, regardless of context. Kinda like hitting a woman...I don't care what your argument is, in my book, it's never ok. Ever.

[Zook]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

That's it though. What was said to make Nick feel the need to reply, "I have a lot of Non-white friends." That's the information I want to know, and need to know to really understand why he said that. It escalated once that other person said "Oh here we go again..." that person did not have to post that either. Nick didn't have to post "Get Cancer" yet he did, and it's suddenly shocking he acted unwisely and said something I am sure he regrets now? Why is it shocking he did that?

I am concerned about this because It is something Rising Bands have to take into account now, and it's stressful. So, Nick did the right thing in getting off of Social Media, for his mentality and Health.

Man, I hear you, I do, but as far as I'm concerend, nothing makes that response ok. It's obviously not a crime, and the man is entitled to say whatever he wants (within reason), but as a public figure, this is a head-scratcher for me.

If someone is pissing you off, just ignore them. As far as I'm concerned, telling someone to 'get cancer' is repugnant, regardless of context. Kinda like hitting a woman...I don't care what your argument is, in my book, it's never ok. Ever.

What if a woman was trying to kill you? I'm with you on not hitting women, but if a woman was coming at me with a knife or just trying to kill me, I'm using any force necessary.

I'm sure Nick didn't think his remark would be made public, but we live in an age of cancel culture, so any tiny fraction of a negative thing can get you in hot water or destroy your career. Not saying "get cancer" isn't serious, but what if he just called him a piece of shit? As someone who had cancer, he took his experience and anger and used it toward this guy. Again, we don't know what prompted him to say that, and I dont think the recipient wants anyone to know either because he'll look bad too.  There was a heated argument, harsh words were exchanged and Nick got exposed. Let's see what the other guy said. I bet we won't.

[cramx3]

So he basically made it someone else’s problem then.

 

It doesn't help that several people in that facebook group are ultimate SJW types who chomp at the bit for any sort of toxic argument with someone they don't like or agree with. Things escalate like wildfire in that group sadly because it's a mighty echo chamber. So I can see how both sides would flare up pretty fast, but it's still uncalled for from both parties.

Yea, that's a reason to bring the discussion here.  The PP community is such a small niche community and yet they seem to go at each others throats pretty often.

[WilliamMunny]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

That's it though. What was said to make Nick feel the need to reply, "I have a lot of Non-white friends." That's the information I want to know, and need to know to really understand why he said that. It escalated once that other person said "Oh here we go again..." that person did not have to post that either. Nick didn't have to post "Get Cancer" yet he did, and it's suddenly shocking he acted unwisely and said something I am sure he regrets now? Why is it shocking he did that?

I am concerned about this because It is something Rising Bands have to take into account now, and it's stressful. So, Nick did the right thing in getting off of Social Media, for his mentality and Health.

Man, I hear you, I do, but as far as I'm concerend, nothing makes that response ok. It's obviously not a crime, and the man is entitled to say whatever he wants (within reason), but as a public figure, this is a head-scratcher for me.

If someone is pissing you off, just ignore them. As far as I'm concerned, telling someone to 'get cancer' is repugnant, regardless of context. Kinda like hitting a woman...I don't care what your argument is, in my book, it's never ok. Ever.

What if a woman was trying to kill you? I'm with you on not hitting women, but if a woman was coming at me with a knife or just trying to kill me, I'm using any force necessary.

I'm sure Nick didn't think his remark would be made public, but we live in an age of cancel culture, so any tiny fraction of a negative thing can get you in hot water or destroy your career. Not saying "get cancer" isn't serious, but what if he just called him a piece of shit? As someone who had cancer, he took his experience and anger and used it toward this guy. Again, we don't know what prompted him to say that, and I dont think the recipient wants anyone to know either because he'll look bad too.  There was a heated argument, harsh words were exchanged and Nick got exposed. Let's see what the other guy said. I bet we won't.

Lol...I knew someone was going to say that. I said 'I don't care what your argument is', as in 'I don't care what a woman says to you, there's no reason to hit her.'

Just my opinion, but I don't care what was said, Nick's response (assuming the screen shot wasn't doctored) is out of line.

[Ben_Jamin]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

That's it though. What was said to make Nick feel the need to reply, "I have a lot of Non-white friends." That's the information I want to know, and need to know to really understand why he said that. It escalated once that other person said "Oh here we go again..." that person did not have to post that either. Nick didn't have to post "Get Cancer" yet he did, and it's suddenly shocking he acted unwisely and said something I am sure he regrets now? Why is it shocking he did that?

I am concerned about this because It is something Rising Bands have to take into account now, and it's stressful. So, Nick did the right thing in getting off of Social Media, for his mentality and Health.

Man, I hear you, I do, but as far as I'm concerend, nothing makes that response ok. It's obviously not a crime, and the man is entitled to say whatever he wants (within reason), but as a public figure, this is a head-scratcher for me.

If someone is pissing you off, just ignore them. As far as I'm concerned, telling someone to 'get cancer' is repugnant, regardless of context. Kinda like hitting a woman...I don't care what your argument is, in my book, it's never ok. Ever.

But that's my point with "Public Figures" being required to act unlike Human Beings and like Saints. They are not Saints. They are human and are capable of bad things as we "common folk" are.

All this is because people hold "Public Figures" A.K.A Celebrities/Idols to a higher regard than a person on the street. That is the very definition of Idolizing a human to the point of Sainthood, and people do that a lot. Even to local "heroes"

[The Walrus]

Ben why do you capitalize everything?

[Ben_Jamin]

Ben why do you capitalize everything?

Emphasis...

[WilliamMunny]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

That's it though. What was said to make Nick feel the need to reply, "I have a lot of Non-white friends." That's the information I want to know, and need to know to really understand why he said that. It escalated once that other person said "Oh here we go again..." that person did not have to post that either. Nick didn't have to post "Get Cancer" yet he did, and it's suddenly shocking he acted unwisely and said something I am sure he regrets now? Why is it shocking he did that?

I am concerned about this because It is something Rising Bands have to take into account now, and it's stressful. So, Nick did the right thing in getting off of Social Media, for his mentality and Health.

Man, I hear you, I do, but as far as I'm concerend, nothing makes that response ok. It's obviously not a crime, and the man is entitled to say whatever he wants (within reason), but as a public figure, this is a head-scratcher for me.

If someone is pissing you off, just ignore them. As far as I'm concerned, telling someone to 'get cancer' is repugnant, regardless of context. Kinda like hitting a woman...I don't care what your argument is, in my book, it's never ok. Ever.

But that's my point with "Public Figures" being required to act unlike Human Beings and like Saints. They are not Saints. They are human and are capable of bad things as we "common folk" are.

All this is because people hold "Public Figures" A.K.A Celebrities/Idols to a higher regard than a person on the street. That is the very definition of Idolizing a human to the point of Sainthood, and people do that a lot. Even to local "heroes"

Fair enough...and I agree with the sentiment of your post. I never said he was required to act like anything. If you, my sister, or anyone else for that matter, told someone to 'get cancer,' I'd have the same thoughts.

Nick's stature as an artist holds little weight with me.

[Ben_Jamin]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

That's it though. What was said to make Nick feel the need to reply, "I have a lot of Non-white friends." That's the information I want to know, and need to know to really understand why he said that. It escalated once that other person said "Oh here we go again..." that person did not have to post that either. Nick didn't have to post "Get Cancer" yet he did, and it's suddenly shocking he acted unwisely and said something I am sure he regrets now? Why is it shocking he did that?

I am concerned about this because It is something Rising Bands have to take into account now, and it's stressful. So, Nick did the right thing in getting off of Social Media, for his mentality and Health.

Man, I hear you, I do, but as far as I'm concerend, nothing makes that response ok. It's obviously not a crime, and the man is entitled to say whatever he wants (within reason), but as a public figure, this is a head-scratcher for me.

If someone is pissing you off, just ignore them. As far as I'm concerned, telling someone to 'get cancer' is repugnant, regardless of context. Kinda like hitting a woman...I don't care what your argument is, in my book, it's never ok. Ever.

But that's my point with "Public Figures" being required to act unlike Human Beings and like Saints. They are not Saints. They are human and are capable of bad things as we "common folk" are.

All this is because people hold "Public Figures" A.K.A Celebrities/Idols to a higher regard than a person on the street. That is the very definition of Idolizing a human to the point of Sainthood, and people do that a lot. Even to local "heroes"

Fair enough...and I agree with the sentiment of your post. I never said he was required to act like anything. If you, my sister, or anyone else for that matter, told someone to 'get cancer,' I'd have the same thoughts.

Nick's stature as an artist holds little weight with me.

Yup. Same here. The way Nick was attacked, like it was a shock he would do that, is what was upsetting to me. Due to it sounding Counter Culturish with no context and just "Look what he said to me, he's bad". Ok, well, what did you say to him to make him reply that in a DM to you..."I don't want to say" 

I also, saw who it was that did that and he has done some questionable actions like this in the past when I joined that page to know more about ProgPower. I left that group due to that, and also because the Official ProgPower finally accepted my invite.

[wolfking]

I went to an Alter Bridge meet and greet on the Last Hero tour and while they weren't really rude or anything, they did give off the 'couldn't be assed' vibe.  Even when we went through and got stuff signed one by one, they were pretty dismissive I felt.  Scott especially was quite blunt and hardly looked up and didn't even ackowledge us when signing.  I was fine, because I couldn't imagine doing those night after night. 

There's no excuse for someone to be an asshole in a meet n greet. These are the most loyal fans paying extra money for this service. It makes the actual concert a sham, honestly, if you can't bring yourself to acknowledge your biggest fans. It's not like they're accosting you at the store.

As someone who ran a record store for nearly a decade (and witnessed some pretty appauling behavior by way of entitled artists via meet&greets), I could not agree with this more. No excuse, man. I'll be honest, being on that side of things a few dozen times with some pretty big bands, the way they treated me, the guy who was grabbing their water and talking to their manager, made a huge impact on what I thought of them.

To that end, one band that sticks out in particular is none other than Disturbed. I am NOT a fan, at all, but David Drainman was beyond gracious and professional. This was well into their career, they were a HUGE band, but that dude acted like it was the first meet & greet he'd ever done, and it made all the difference with the fans. To this day, I give their new record a spin whenever it drops...respect-driven curiosity.

Yeah, again I never really thought of it in that light mate, and you are both right.  I'll never do a meet and greet again because it was so disappointing.

I've seen a few interviews with Draiman.  He does seem like a great guy.

[cramx3]

I went to an Alter Bridge meet and greet on the Last Hero tour and while they weren't really rude or anything, they did give off the 'couldn't be assed' vibe.  Even when we went through and got stuff signed one by one, they were pretty dismissive I felt.  Scott especially was quite blunt and hardly looked up and didn't even ackowledge us when signing.  I was fine, because I couldn't imagine doing those night after night. 

There's no excuse for someone to be an asshole in a meet n greet. These are the most loyal fans paying extra money for this service. It makes the actual concert a sham, honestly, if you can't bring yourself to acknowledge your biggest fans. It's not like they're accosting you at the store.

As someone who ran a record store for nearly a decade (and witnessed some pretty appauling behavior by way of entitled artists via meet&greets), I could not agree with this more. No excuse, man. I'll be honest, being on that side of things a few dozen times with some pretty big bands, the way they treated me, the guy who was grabbing their water and talking to their manager, made a huge impact on what I thought of them.

To that end, one band that sticks out in particular is none other than Disturbed. I am NOT a fan, at all, but David Drainman was beyond gracious and professional. This was well into their career, they were a HUGE band, but that dude acted like it was the first meet & greet he'd ever done, and it made all the difference with the fans. To this day, I give their new record a spin whenever it drops...respect-driven curiosity.

Yeah, again I never really thought of it in that light mate, and you are both right.  I'll never do a meet and greet again because it was so disappointing.

I've seen a few interviews with Draiman.  He does seem like a great guy.

I used to think Draiman was a dick, but he's really turned the corner and comes off as a very good dude.  I actually like some of their music too.  He says a lot of positive things at their shows, which is so drastically different than their lyrics from the first few albums. 

But my personal experience meeting Derek Sherinian rubbed me the wrong way, so I can totally see how the direct personal interaction can turn people off. 

Go talk to someone like Devin Townsend and it's light and day between the artist that truly appreciates the fan vs. the one who DGAF.

[The Walrus]

I had both experiences... in the same gig!

I met Luca Turilli's Rhapsody and Primal Fear, 2-in-1 meet and greet. Luca Turilli was beaming from ear to ear the entire time and could not be happier to talk at length with fans. Ralf Scheepers on the other hand was grouchy as hell and grumpy when I got to him because I was more interested in talking to Luca, and he tried to justify it by saying, "we have to get ready for the show and stuff" - which wouldn't start for another 90 minutes. There were only about 15, 20 people at the meet and greet.

So I got my photo with LTR and left without a second thought about Primal Fear, and Ralf probably beat up the drywall in the back room with his buffalo neck sized arms. 

[Lethean]

Here's my understanding of what happened from reading the FB thread and talking to someone I trust.

There was an exchange on someone's FB page.  (Not sure if Nick's or someone else).  I don't know how it started, but in the screen print you can see Nick saying that he has a lot of non-white friends. Someone makes a pretty harmless comment to the effect of "are we still using the 'but I have x group friends!' argument?" Nick then messages that person telling him to get cancer. 

I don't consider sharing that screen print to be sharing a private conversation. It wasn't a private conversation; it was public or at least semi public. Him then privately telling someone to get cancer isn't what I would consider some kind of protected private conversation. Usually I am completely against sharing private messages. But this was less of a private message and more of like a harassing message. 

Now it's true that we don't have Nick's side of the story.  Someone on Facebook made the point that maybe Nick was responding to a private message that said something like "I hope your kids die."  And if he was responding to that, yeah, it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, but I could totally see something like that getting the better of someone and I could see that as "justification."  But if that's what happened... I dunno.  He apparently deactivated his Facebook right after this and then told someone else to smooth things over for him.  Which just doesn't look great.  It would be a lot simpler if he just admitted he let his anger get away from him and apologize.

That's it though. What was said to make Nick feel the need to reply, "I have a lot of Non-white friends." That's the information I want to know, and need to know to really understand why he said that. It escalated once that other person said "Oh here we go again..." that person did not have to post that either. Nick didn't have to post "Get Cancer" yet he did, and it's suddenly shocking he acted unwisely and said something I am sure he regrets now? Why is it shocking he did that?

I am concerned about this because It is something Rising Bands have to take into account now, and it's stressful. So, Nick did the right thing in getting off of Social Media, for his mentality and Health.

Man, I hear you, I do, but as far as I'm concerend, nothing makes that response ok. It's obviously not a crime, and the man is entitled to say whatever he wants (within reason), but as a public figure, this is a head-scratcher for me.

If someone is pissing you off, just ignore them. As far as I'm concerned, telling someone to 'get cancer' is repugnant, regardless of context. Kinda like hitting a woman...I don't care what your argument is, in my book, it's never ok. Ever.

But that's my point with "Public Figures" being required to act unlike Human Beings and like Saints. They are not Saints. They are human and are capable of bad things as we "common folk" are.

All this is because people hold "Public Figures" A.K.A Celebrities/Idols to a higher regard than a person on the street. That is the very definition of Idolizing a human to the point of Sainthood, and people do that a lot. Even to local "heroes"

Fair enough...and I agree with the sentiment of your post. I never said he was required to act like anything. If you, my sister, or anyone else for that matter, told someone to 'get cancer,' I'd have the same thoughts.

Nick's stature as an artist holds little weight with me.

Yup. Same here. The way Nick was attacked, like it was a shock he would do that, is what was upsetting to me. Due to it sounding Counter Culturish with no context and just "Look what he said to me, he's bad". Ok, well, what did you say to him to make him reply that in a DM to you..."I don't want to say" 

No no no, it's not "I don't want to say."  He did say.  He posted the screen print of the Facebook thread, in which he said "People still use the "I'm not racist I have -ethnic group here- friends" argument?"  That's all he said and then Nick PMed him with "get cancer."

Like I said, we don't know Nick's side, because he hasn't provided it.  So is it possible that the guy actually PMed Nick something worse like "I hope you die" and that's why Nick sent him that PM?  Sure it is but... why would he post a screen print of it when Nick could very easily prove him to be a liar?

[Ben_Jamin]

Disregarding the previous fiasco...


I finally found a Blu-Ray app on my laptop, that can play Alive In Color. So I am watching it, and I believe I found myself. Since I am short, you can only see me in the full stage shots.  I kept watching and looked at my picture again, and noticed, that is me.  I remember I took my hat off and clipped it to my belt loop, so I could headbang better. 

I did see face shots of Cram, and Mike, as well.

[cramx3]

Nice, what app do you use? I haven't tried in awhile but I feel like I was never able to get my blu ray drive to work in my pc

[Ben_Jamin]

Nice, what app do you use? I haven't tried in awhile but I feel like I was never able to get my blu ray drive to work in my pc

Cyberlink PowerDVD 20

After trying a few Microsoft Store Free apps, nothing worked. So I ended up looking up why it's not reading my blu-ray and giving me an error, and found out, I needed to do some stuff, so I did that, and it didn't work. And found another site saying to use this one, so I gave this a try and By Golly it worked, extremely well. Took long enough for me to find one, but then I wouldn't try until I would want to watch it.

[cramx3]

Thanks, ill check that out.

[Ben_Jamin]

Thanks, ill check that out.

Yeah. It's damn insane how it's required of you to do this now.

[cramx3]

Evergrey tweeted this:

https://twitter.com/EVERGREYSWEDEN/status/1395354916668035078

What do you know?
The old hair grew back!
Right in time for the switch to a more Metal mode! #redemption #evergrey #newalbums #writing #singing #recording @evergreyofficial
@redemptionmetal
 #boom!

[wolfking]

Evergrey tweeted this:

https://twitter.com/EVERGREYSWEDEN/status/1395354916668035078

What do you know?
The old hair grew back!
Right in time for the switch to a more Metal mode! #redemption #evergrey #newalbums #writing #singing #recording @evergreyofficial
@redemptionmetal
 #boom!

Nice!   

[kirksnosehair]

New Redemption?  Yeah baby 




Maybe the new album will be titled, "Get Cancer"