The Olympics killed freestyle skiing. And have put a huge dent in snowboarding too. Now they’re gonna put a dent in skateboarding as well. I mean who wants to be associated with prepubescent gold medal skaters? That’s athleticism, not culture, that’s sport, not lifestyle, THERE’S NOTHING TO BELIEVE IN!

And belief is everything.

There was a mantra in the sixties that has long since disappeared. It said you didn’t want to be co-opted. That was a grievous sin. To sell out to the man, especially when you expected a win-win, for them to have your best interests at heart, wanting you to succeed…

On their terms.

A price is extracted for every sellout. They say they’ll let you do it your way, which is true, as long as it doesn’t contradict their way, their goals, which are markedly different from yours. The man wants to maintain his business at all cost. Rough edges are excised. The key is to keep gaining adherents and never lose one. Come on, you’ve seen the stock market, it’s all about GROWTH! Furthermore, companies are bought and sold all the time, different people run them with different precepts, and this is how you bury loss, bad decisions, you just sell to or merge with another. So if you’re throwing in with the man, you can’t offend anyone, you can’t do anything off brand, you’re already a second-class citizen.

So freestyle skiing was a renegade sport. Pursued by people who didn’t want to be constrained by racing gates. They didn’t want anybody to tell them how to do it. First and foremost they wanted to have fun. Which included not only skiing, but alcohol and drugs… You dressed in a certain way to stand out, akin to growing your hair long in the sixties.

But then came legitimacy. Inclusion in the Olympics.

Well, the sport had to be cleaned up. First came the outfits. With patches on the knees so you could see that the skiers had their knees together, something anathema in the rest of the ski world. Yes, ever since the late sixties it’s been about skiing with your legs apart, creating a platform, for more stability.

And in order to make it fair, the courses had to be equal, so the moguls were manufactured, all the same, everywhere. This is like trying to make the waves the same for everybody surfing. And yes, surfing was in the Olympics this year and you can include that sport in the paradigm I’m establishing. That a small coterie looking for “legitimacy” and bread undermines the whole enterprise.

And there used to be three freestyle skiing events: moguls, air and ballet. But ballet was too judgmental, so it was dropped. And that killed it. No one does ballet anymore. As for aerials? It is now populated by gymnasts, not skiers, the fact that they have skis on their feet is incidental. Believe me, the average skier does not think about doing multiple twisting flips.

And then the sport evolved. There was a technical breakthrough. Shaped skis. Skis got wider and shorter and…

Bump skis got narrower, stayed relatively long and were soft. As a matter of fact, no major ski manufacturer makes a specialized bump ski anymore. There’s one company that makes them in Japan, and you only see them on the feet of these mogul skiers in their inane outfits practicing precision in fake bumps. Something no one else in their right mind would do. But it’s an Olympic sport!

As for snowboarding, you can tell me all day long how big Shaun White is, but the truth is for most of the past decade snowboarding has been on the decline, growth has subsided. Not only does snowboarding have some inherent flaws, snowboards are poor/difficult in the aforementioned moguls and they’re useless on the flats, but snowboarding is no longer cool! It was Gen-X that adopted snowboarding and grew the culture. Talk about renegades. But now that it’s been formalized, youngsters would rather ski, test limits out in the wild. And there are big mountain ski competitions, but it’s certainly not an Olympic sport. They’re daredevil enterprises, which is anathema to the Olympic committee.

It wasn’t until the early eighties that people were made aware of how much money could be made in the music business. It was a combination of MTV and the CD. MTV had a singular playlist blasted throughout the country, whereas radio was Balkanized. And there were images! So if you were on MTV, you were on your way. MTV was around the world, so you could tour everywhere and sell your music on overpriced CDs and stars became bigger, and richer, than ever before.

But they had to be good-looking.

And then in the twenty first century, when recorded music revenue sank, bands became brands, and whored themselves out to anybody who would pay. The dollar became paramount. And the core, the essence, the music itself, secondary. You win a gold medal, does the sport matter? Not really! And medals trump the regular competitions. Everybody knows in ski racing it’s about the World Cup, a season-long enterprise. The Olympics are just a set of races. But the Average Joe doesn’t realize this, so if you can just win a medal… And in some sports, like swimming and track, there are a plethora of medals. And in most sports, the only glory is in the medals, you’re forgotten for four years until the Olympics come ’round again. If you’re REALLY lucky you can cash in on your fame, but only a few do, the rest continue to labor in obscurity for the next four years, after the previous ten to twenty of training…WHO WANTS TO DO THAT?

Yes, it comes down to what people want to do.

Rihanna was just declared a billionaire. I ask you, what does that have to do with music? NOTHING!

God, most of the statistics are phony. If you can’t enter the chart at number one you need a new team, it’s a game that can be played and won by everyone. But no one buys a record because it’s number one, no one even listens to a track because it won a Grammy. You can tout your Grammy, but no one really cares but you. As a matter of fact, the more you get to core artists who are about the music foremost the less they care about the Grammys, because they know they’ve got nothing to do with music!

But the world wants to slice and dice, categorize, judge, when in so many endeavors this is impossible.

Like freestyle skiing.

Like skateboarding.

Like music.

Mogul skiing was never about precision, it was about hanging it all out, showing your mettle, as opposed to conforming. Watch the bump skiers today, BORING! It’s all the same!

Same deal with skateboarding. It was about the trick, the cool factor. It was about the stars, not the victors. Falling was part of the game. Quick, name who won the skateboarding medals? YOU CAN’T!

Just like most people can’t even name two Rihanna songs.

But they can mention multiple tracks from albums by old acts that younger people are unaware of.

But in order to play the long term, credibility game, you have to be willing to say no, in a world where everybody wants you to say yes, where selling out is a badge of honor, the the athletes/musicians/singers come and go, but the industry remains. You’re just grist for the mill. And if you do it your own way you’re derided.

Then again, we live in a world without credibility.

Which is why people are so hungry for it, for something to believe in. Which is the power of online stars/influencers, it’s direct to the consumer. Of course too many are whored out to the corporations themselves, but so many fans see it as a badge of honor, how nobodies extracted money from the man, “ripped them off” in the parlance of the sixties. It’s the influencer and the fan against the man.

Don’t play this out too far.

Then again, most influencers don’t last.

But for those who do, it’s much more about them then the products they’re selling. As for those getting clothes and other items just to feature them on their channel… The star is the items, not the people, and the old people burn out and new ones come in and no one maintains, because there’s no there there to begin with, there’s nothing to believe in!

You’ve got to learn how to say no. To do what you feel, not what others tell you to. The audience, people can tell. You can’t measure it, but you can feel it. They don’t print it in news stories, but people who hew to their values have longer careers, with more lifetime earnings.

But we live in a short term world.

Which is fine if you’re working for the man at the corporation. But if the product is you, guard your image very closely. One misstep can ruin your career.

And know when it comes down to art, organization is anathema. Which is one reason artists have never been able to organize, they don’t see eye to eye!

And that’s a good thing.

We signed up for Topic to watch “Follow the Money.”

They say the best TV is made by the Danes and the Israelis so we ponied up the five bucks to watch the Danish show about institutional corruption. The first two seasons were pretty good. The third, made years later, was great. But who is going to pay the extra money for Topic?

But since we had, I decided to comb the listings to see what else was available.

So we watched “When the Dust Settles.” Which I highly recommend, which you also won’t watch because it’s on Topic. It’s about a terrorist attack and how the people involved are affected and having finished that, we switched to “Autonomies,” one of two highly recommended Israeli shows on Topic, the other being “Commandments.” And “Commandments” got slightly better ratings, but they were remaking “Autonomies” in English and this usually indicates the more exhilarating show so we dove in. It’s EXCELLENT! In the future Israel is divided into two fiefdoms, one of the uber-religious, the other of the less ritualistic Jews. And there’s a custody battle and…  You know when you’re watching a great show, there’s just this added element, a visceral feeling. But I wasn’t going to tell you about “Autonomies” either, because it’s on  Topic.

But so is the Suzi Quatro documentary, “Suzi Q.” And having just finished reading Jonathan Lee’s new book “The Great Mistake,” which is good but not as good as the reviews, I decided to watch “Suzi Q” on my new M1 iPad Pro, the speed is astounding.

Suzi Quatro. She was big in England.

What troubles me about these rock docs is they’re oftentimes made with an inaccurate spin. Like that BeeGees one. Watching it you’d think the BeeGees were as big as the Beatles in the sixties when the truth is they were seen as a singles group with a number of hits and no gravitas.

As for Suzi Quatro… Most Americans of my vintage are aware of her because she played Leather Tuscadero on “Happy Days.” But this was after the show peaked and even though there were only three networks, most dyed-in-the-wool rockers never watched prime time television.

The U.S. was quite different from the U.K. In many ways still is. In the U.K. the charts were dominated by what was played on the BBC, which dominated radio. So there was a unified culture. Whereas in the U.S. there was a bifurcation, there were AM and FM. FM was everywhere in the seventies and you only listened to AM if you didn’t have FM in the car (or a tape deck!) or you were out of the loop. Therefore, in the U.S. it was all about album artists, hit singles on AM were a backwater. And that’s why Suzi Quatro never broke in the U.S. “Can the Can”? If an FM station played it the phones would have blown up with complaints!

But stunningly, “Suzi Q” admits Quatro never broke in America, which lent credibility. That was my litmus test.

And the truth is there a documentary on everybody these days, and it’s all hagiography and done on a budget and unless you’re a diehard fan you don’t need to watch.

But I recommend watching “Suzi Q.” If for no other reason than the inclusion of Mickie Most and Mike Chapman, who both deserve documentaries more than most acts being featured.

Also, you can tell “Suzi Q” was not made on a shoestring. Some money was involved. And the truth is it ultimately devolves into a high budget “Behind the Music,” with the uplifting ending about continued inroads into the music sphere, but before that…

Suzi Quatro needed to make it. HAD TO MAKE IT! Most people don’t, but most people are not that dedicated, are unwilling to drop out of high school and go on the road with their teen band. I’d never heard of the Pleasure Seekers, nor Cradle, but this was when bands could still be regional, when if you never got on the radio and never got press you could be completely unknown.

But I knew about Suzi Quatro.

This was the heyday of the rock magazines. “Rolling Stone” was now mainstream, coveted for its political coverage as well as its music news and reviews. But “Creem” was all music, and before it turned into a Kiss devotee rag, when it still had credibility, it featured acts that rocked from both sides of the pond. You read about Suzi Quatro even though she meant nothing here.

But this was a very small pool of people. The talking heads in this picture were not typical. You had to follow the scene, be devoted in order to be aware of Suzi Quatro and her hits. Kind of like Marc Bolan and T. Rex. Over here, he had just one infectious big hit “Bang a Gong (Get it On),” but over there he was a monster, with multiple top ten successes, his career was a juggernaut.

Detailed in the weekly music press, “Melody Maker” and the “NME,” which were part information and part gossip but ready by everybody and much more powerful than anything in the U.S. They were all about the new, they loved to boost the new, but once you made it the fangs came out, on some level it was like sports coverage. With the attendant winners and losers.

And then came Bowie…

By 1972 there was the glam rock movement in the U.K.

Over here…we got Alice Cooper. Who might have had glam makeup and clothing, but whose music was definitely more traditional rock.

And then by ’73 Bowie had broken in the U.S. and eventually people knew who Roxy Music were, but it was really two different scenes. And this maintained until the advent of MTV, which was built on the back of new English acts.

So there was a quite tiny coterie of acolytes who were aware of Suzi Quatro, and knew she was American, but most never ever heard the records. You had to buy them to hear them. But the image…

Suzi was cute and sexy all at the same time. She was irresistible!

And she wasn’t fake. She played the bass and sang.

But meant nothing.

So…

Suzi comes from a musical family. She slogs it out in the trenches and when her brother Mike brings Mickie Most to a rehearsal, the English producer signs her to a deal with his RAK Records and flies her over to London to make a record, which she does not.

She’s a lonely young girl living in a tiny apartment on the fringe of depression. She believes in herself, but she’s been cut off from the troops at home, since she sacrificed the band, her sisters, in pursuit of solo fame and…Mickie’s got no idea what to do with her.

Mickie Most. Let’s see, he had hits with the Animals, Herman’s Hermits, Lulu, Hot Chocolate, he even produced the Arrows’ original version of “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” ultimately brought to the top of the chart by Joan Jett six years later in 1981.

Joan Jett. She’s featured heavily in this documentary. She talks about being confused for Suzi. But… Joan can’t hold a candle to Suzi, who paved the way and had more hits. Suzi started before the Beatles, she was a lifer. She was not part of Kim Fowley’s two-dimensional Runaways which got tons more ink than airplay. The Runaways were totally artificial, Suzi Quatro was much more authentic, more real.

But Mickie couldn’t make hits with her. But Mike Chapman came along and said he’d write a song for her, he was new and hungry, and then in the studio he focused on Suzi’s assets, the range of her voice with edge, and voila, hits!

No one under the age of fifty, certainly forty, ever talks about Mike Chapman anymore. As a matter of fact, I don’t think most people have any idea who he was (or is, he’s still alive!) But for a while there, starting over there and then coming to Los Angeles, Chapman owned the airwaves. More lightweight stuff in the U.K., but over here he took the overhyped and musically overlooked Blondie from nowhere to everywhere with “Parallel Lines,” a record that jumped out of the speakers from the very first note and kept us hanging on throughout, on a twisting, turning adventure that was far from monochromatic. And Mike had hits as both a writer and producer, sometimes both, like with Suzi Quatro, other times acts just picked up his songs. He was Mutt Lange before Mutt Lange.

And then Mike faded away. His Dreamland Records stiffed and his time was over.

Sustaining is nearly impossible. You’ve got to change to sustain, and almost no one is willing to do this. Because you risk losing your old fans and you’re essentially starting all over. Even Garth Brooks tried to reinvent himself as rocker Chris Gaines but was rejected by the public, it’s very hard.

But David Bowie did it. Madonna did it.

And so has Max Martin. Who is more than a knob twirler. A hell of a lot of his records could be issued under his name, they’re essentially his, like with Chapman and so many of his acts. But Martin continues to be on top of the game over two decades later. He doesn’t desire widespread acclaim, but if you pay attention you know, and are just wowed.

So you see the starmaking machinery in action. The leather jumpsuit. The press. It was a different era. There were winners and losers. If you had no deal you were already a loser. And very few acts could get deals. It was very different from today.

And very different because in order to play you had to pay your dues, learn and rehearse, and you couldn’t self-promote online, your best advertisement was your live gigs, so you trudged across the country trying to convert people one by one, and it was far from easy.

So, Suzi Quatro makes it and then her hits dry up and she goes into legitimate theatre and then hosts a chat show and writes a book and…this is when the documentary falls apart.

Unfortunately, either the real Suzi is relatively two-dimensional and vapid or the filmmakers didn’t capture her essence. Was the magic all an illusion, or under it all was she really a rock chick?

We see Lita Ford, a true rock chick, who looks like it, but Suzi who is much older looks younger, but they never illuminate the dark spots, other than Suzi complaining that she missed growing up and her father and sister wouldn’t acknowledge her success.

The truth is most famous people do it for the acknowledgement. They’re trying to fill a hole from childhood that just can’t be filled. And usually after they realize this, they can no longer create, at least at the previous high level. There’s a dream that things will change, but they don’t.

So, Suzi…

Sex?

Drugs?

You might have been faithful to your bandmate/boyfriend/husband, but certainly in the seventies you were hit upon, what was the experience like?

The grind is so heavy that everyone self-medicates. How did Suzi cope?

And Suzi does delineate the grind, the radio station visits, the press conferences, which is why you should watch this if you wanna make it, but the toll, the real effects, the person inside? To a great degree all we get is facts.

How did she decide to go into legitimate theatre? Which her husband disapproved of. Was she just that hungry, or scared she would drop off the radar screen or did she just need the money?

And ultimately she becomes an entertainer. And the truth is the greats are singular, their careers are not this malleable. They can do one thing and one thing only. Be a rock star. Write and record these songs and play them live. So when you’re taking every paycheck that comes along, you look more like John Davidson than John Lennon. Then again, even Steven Tyler became a judge on “American Idol…BECAUSE OF THE MONEY!

We never hear about the money. Did she make any? Did she spend it or does she still have it? Does she need to work to survive?

Suzi keeps saying she’s just a regular American mom when the truth is her upbringing and road work were anything but typical. Come on, what was it like as a woman trying to sustain your career as you raised kids, and what price did they pay?

And it all happened so long ago. It appears Suzi has had a facelift (and men get them too!), but the truth is she’s 71 and it’s all in the rearview mirror. As are we. Those of us who are aware of her. Her fans. It’s over. Done. All she wrote.

But it’s bigger than Suzi…

Forget the sixties, the seventies are done, the era when rock became ubiquitous and rained down so many dollars.

And the MTV era? Poof! History!

As is grunge.

Rap survives, but it’s no longer the fresh, breakthrough sound it once was.

But my point here is you watch this movie and if you followed the dots back then, you suddenly realize there are not many dots in the future. And this history will not survive, other than the Beatles it’s a blip on the radar screen, never mind being addicted to the rock press, yearning to see your favorites on TV and going to the show because that’s the only place where you could get that hit.

So, as you can tell, I’ve got mixed feelings. Ultimately I’m thumbs-up on “Suzi Q,” I just wanted the filmmakers to push the envelope just a bit more. And to tamp down the adulation and constant testimony as to how great Suzi was. No, she was a moment in time. She had a career and hits and meant something in the U.K. As for everybody wanting to be her…the truth is the next big female star after Debbie Harry was Pat Benatar, who didn’t play an instrument but had outrageous pipes and was birthed by…

Mike Chapman. And his number two, Peter Coleman.

Listen to Pat’s very first album, 1979’s “In the Heat of the Night.”

She made John Mellencamp a star. Without her cover and the money it rained down he and his team would have been far more discouraged. I could go track by track, “Heartbreaker,” I Need a Lover,” “If You Think You Know How to Love Me,” “We Live for Love”… The energy alone!

But Pat Benatar is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, yet Joan Jett is. And if you lived through the era, Jett had merely a sliver of Benatar’s mindshare and success. Hell, remember the joke in “Fast Times”?

But Benatar doesn’t fit the narrative. She’s not a grungy rock chick who came from nowhere and beat the odds to…exactly what? Image and little success?

And once again, the thread is the Commander, Mike Chapman.

But Benatar did not need Chapman and Coleman to continue to succeed, unlike Suzi Quatro, she moved on to Keith Olsen and had even greater success!

Not that I need to put down anyone who had any success. I’m just trying to add some context, some flavor, some reality.

We’re constantly bombarded by these documentaries telling us someone from the past was the giant they were not. And youngsters’ perception is skewed. Kind of like the new “All Things Must Pass” remix… Just give a listen to “My Sweet Lord,” it’s been remixed to the point where the magic is gone, it’s no longer a hit, it sounds like something coming from a transistor radio in the next room. Why can’t they leave the past alone? Let us remember the way it was? Have youngsters exposed to the original article, which thrilled us so much to begin with. We age, we show the lines and experience, but too many classic rockers get plastic surgery to look like they did way back when, when the joke is their dash for relevance is laughable. No one looks identical after a facelift, no one!

Not that my words are gonna stop anybody.

And I haven’t read a single negative word about this George Harrison remix, and there are all these hosannas about the Beatles remixes when they’re tripe, which Geoff Emerick told me and so many others but he’s now gone and nobody who was there then is in control now. Let’s repaint the Sistine Chapel! How about redoing the Mona Lisa, it’s not clear whether she is smiling or not, rumor has it Leonardo was rushed at the end, let’s subtly change it so she’s smiling. Huh? THAT’S SACRILEGIOUS!

But since “Suzi Q” is not on Netflix, nobody will see it.

Are you in it for the money or the reach?

It’s all about the reach in art. You make these documentaries, you play them at film festivals, then you put them behind paywalls that disincentivize people to ever see them. Maybe we need a rock doc streaming outlet, this stuff 24/7! The new MTV/VH1 model. But even though story is the hook, all we’ve got is live performance, which doesn’t translate to the flat screen.

But l recommend “Suzi Q,” not so you’ll be convinced she’s a forgotten superstar, but to demonstrate how hard it is to make it, how you have to dedicate yourself and still pay dues once you’ve had a hit, how you end up in the maelstrom and only those in it with you can understand your plight. That’s why the audience reveres you, YOU’RE DIFFERENT!

But Suzi keeps telling us she’s just the same.

I don’t buy it.

Rod Argent started out in the Zombies, for which he wrote the classics “She’s Not There,” “Tell Her No” and “Time of the Season.” After the band broke up Argent formed a group under his own name and with Chris White composed their Top Five hit “Hold Your Head Up.” Then with partner Peter Van Hooke he produced Tanita Tikaram’s multi-platinum album “Ancient Heart” with its MTV staple “Twist in My Sobriety.” And now he’s in the Zombies once again! Not only does Rod tell the stories of the acts and the hits, he details what it was like growing up in the U.K. in the days of shortages, when the world was still in black and white. Argent is an amazing raconteur, you’ll love hearing his stories!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rod-argent/id1316200737?i=1000531070715

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast?

I’ve been on tour for a couple of weeks now. We have no CCO, the TM asked nothing about vaccinations when hiring crew (“it’s everyone’s own decision”), and the venues, while largely outdoors, have not required local hands to mask. Many of the venue staff working indoors are wearing masks but not all. These venues are all in the South, where Delta is spiking in large numbers.

I’ve heard from friends on other tours, several report tour members with positive tests. They were only tested after showing symptoms. No one else was tested and only the symptomatic were isolated.  It seems the norm with tours is not to test; the tours can say no staff has tested positive but do not say that they are not tested.

I feel fairly safe about my own health, being fully vaccinated. I worry about being asymptomatic and infecting those whom we contact, including our artists, who are quite coy about their own vaccinations. One claims to be unvaccinated. Band management says they have seen his vaccination card. Why the obfuscation? How do I interact with this person?

We all need the income, but I do wonder how long we will maintain the tour.
Every time I sneeze from pollen allergies I wonder what’s really up. When I see local hands coughing up lungers and spitting off the side of dock, and then see 5000 unmasked folks in the audience pressing against the barricades, I have to wonder if we are producing super spreader events.

If you should decide to print this, please do not use my name. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why.

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After over 40 years of touring, I’m sitting this summer out

I have better things to do than wonder which stagehand contact will kill me

I told my boss that by the time I hand him his first guitar I’ve been in contact with at least 16 locals; unloading the truck, pushing the ramp, uncasing the gear

Then I get on a bus with 10 other crew who themselves have been in contact with their 16 stagehands…

I just read a great Farley Mowat book ( the Boat Who Wouldn’t Float) and am enjoying my time where I can choose who I am in contact with

Vaxed and masked !

Mk Bitterman

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What you say is so true. Here in France 1 million people made appointments to get vaccinated since the Macron government mandated vaccine certificates to enter restaurants, cafes, museums, concerts etc. It works. And the 200,000 (.002 % of the total population of 67 million) who took to the streets are whining about the infringement on their personal liberty and proclaiming that they would rather not go to restaurants or cinemas because their rights are being infringed and that’s what’s most important; I hope they enjoy staying home during their August vacation traveling time which as you may know is sacred here in France and other parts of Europe.

Glenn in Paris

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yikes. this is really serious.  we’re still sorting out our COVID protocols; we have required all our tour personnel to be fully vaccinated and email us their vax cards – two people chose not to return to work instead and have been replaced.  but all sorts of decisions about paid VIP meetngreet guests, personal guests, local crew interactions, catering areas, etc, still need to be finalized.

Toby Mamis
ALIVE ENTERPRISES

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I used to be an agent in touring, and left during the pandemic to manage an artist I discovered who ended up signing with one of the majors a few months later. We’re planning his first debut headline dates for January ’22 and I’m just so hesitant to fully pull the trigger, especially when I see stories like this. Luckily the artist really cares about his fans and wants to make sure people are protected if (and when) we do shows, but I’m afraid that even January will be too soon. This pandemic isn’t over yet… and maybe it never will be. Yet, it feels like the collective attitude from the masses is that they just don’t care. I mean, look at the crowds at Lolla and Rolling Loud. I heard that recently there was a show at one of the 500 caps in LA and upwards of 100 people went home with Covid. And yet, stories like this that you shared are far too common, and far too unreported. Thank you for sharing.

I hope the country (and the world) comes to their senses and gets vaccinated. It’s absurd how much misinformation is spread, and how many people are uneducated on how the vaccine works and becomes effective for the general population. We’re letting this virus run rampant and develop faster than our medicine, and it feels like we’re going to be battling this virus for another decade+ at this rate… I hate to think about what it will mean for touring.

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Spot on Bob,

I will not re-open my show after 8 years in Las Vegas, until it is safe for my cast,  crew and obviously punters.

No one is going to be ill or die on my watch, but I am getting grief from local press as I seem to be the only Show Producer in Vegas doing so.

Never been a follower, or worked for a corporate.

Stay safe.

Sir Harry Cowell

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Spot on (no surprise).  A mess.

I’m in a full time cover band that plays weddings, events, and busy tourist spots in the northeast.  Starting 3/7/2019 we were suddenly unemployed.  Good news;  we made it though.  Mid-May 2021 bookings went from zero to 100 and I  have been playing to hundreds of people a night (in very close quarters), 3 or 4 nights a week, within about a 300 mile radius.  And we, and everyone at the gig…staff, audience…all go home, wherever that is.

I still mask indoors, but at venues we play there’s no chance of staying safe.  You’re constantly near someone.
And I come home to my (vaxxed)  immunocompromised (cancer, stage 4) wife every Monday with around four states worth of dirt on me and everything I carry, worrying that this might be the time I got accidentally spit on by the wrong person at the bar.  Ultimately to fire up Facebook and see another braying moron standing up for “their freedom”, still somehow completely ignorant to the irrefutable fact that This. Fucking  Isn’t. Only. About. You.

jeff.g

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I can’t thank you enough for for shedding light on long covid. I did an interview  with billboard about my battle with it which really only touched the surface of how insane it’s been for me. It’s a real struggle for so many that is still flying under the radar. It’s infuriating when people won’t get vaccinated citing high survival rates when the truth is you may survive but not with your quality of life intact. Though I am improved 16 months later I still battle with various symptoms and liver damage that I am hoping will resolve. This happened to me at 37 if I was 20 years older I probably would have been dead. So many people think they are untouchable and it can’t effect them (particularly young people) and those are the ones delta is going to take down. Pre vaccine I would have had sympathy for anyone who got covid but if covid cuts you down and you didn’t get vaccinated at this point that’s just karma. The fact that it’s not govt mandated is a joke.  Society is in for a rude awakening at some point with hundreds of thousands of long haulers many quite young on disability and in need of constant medical care. It’s a fucking mess.

Thanks again,

Jarred Arfa

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You mention Russian Roulette and catching that one bullet, but even the empty chambers can drastically impact your life. We have an antivaxer friend who’s family caught it from her husband, a police officer who’s partner came to work coughing sick for several days. After a week of being sick at home she ended up in the hospital for ten days. She was never intubated, but can you imaging the cost of ten days of in-patient hospital care?  Even if you get a moderate case, you can still end up with a pile of bills that have a substantial impact on your family – and that’s if you are the lucky one in the hospital.

David Anderson

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I have a friend in the hospital right now who’s fully vaccinated, caught a variant and deadly ill…

It’s bonkers out there!

Fiona Bloom

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When I saw Sir Lewis skip the tire change and start alone, then ask the pit where he was on track related to other drivers, then nearly pass out on the podium just before the Champagne Fail, it all said Long COVID to me. By the reports of victims, it’s usually the milder first cases that may get the Long COVID symptoms (there are as many as 100 symptoms) and up to 30% of first COVID infections will go Long. It’s a horror movie nightmare experience, and you think you might die, or might want to. The best place to see the firsthand reports is on FB at Survivor Corps group. My Long symptoms persisted for over 3 months and all the while my labs and BP, were normal. Docs are just now accepting that it is a “real thing “. They have little to no idea how to treat it. How Lewis was able to make that drive, I will never know.
Thanks for raising awareness, Bob.

Jim Long

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I, too, have some lingering long haul symptoms. Mostly occasional dizziness, just like Hamilton. But I’m not an F1 driver and it in no way hampers me from leading a normal life. I fought the virus and I won. But two people I know have been hospitalized with thromboses following their second jab. I’m a lot more comfortable risking another bout with the virus than deliberately injecting myself with an experimental drug that mimics it. Sorry, but I’m sticking with the devil I know.

Lawrence Shore

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It’s so scary – Long Covid is all I’m thinking about. My cousin in NYC got covid last November. She still doesn’t have her taste back. Her doctor has her “training” her brain with distinct smells and tastes like lemon etc. She is so depressed.

I was never worried about dying from the original covid – but we were very very very careful – cause I didn’t want to be a burden – didn’t want to infect my wife – have to quarantine – go to the hospital – take a ventilator from someone who was sick and compromised. And wanted to squash this thing like the countries who united and handled it.

But – losing my taste? Fatigue? Dizziness? For how long? That’s so scary.

We are back to being very careful – no office – no parties – no inside anything.

We are in Act 2 – and we are in the unknown again.

Stay safe Bob. Thx.

Peter van Roden

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One of the main differences between LC and ME/CFS is that LC patients are much more likely to experience shortness of breath. But both are umbrella terms

with a host of symptoms, many of which overlap, with some persisting others variable – and, what helps one person might not help another.

I was in a Rugby team – that was a breeze compared to ME/CFS fatigue..

I was in a long distance cross country  team – the fatigue of that was nothing compared to ME/CFS

I was in a physcal day job and attending/taking meetings until midnight 6 nights a week, that was a doddle compared to ME/CFS

I contracted infective hepatitis from a plumber and was so weak I could barely crawl to the toilet – that tiredness felt benevolent compared to ME/CFS.

So when Lewis Hamilton says “The level of fatigue you get is different and it’s a real challenge.”.

He’s only hinting at how devastating  the fatigue of Long covid can be.

Then there’s “brain fog”, a ridiculously benign term for a seriously debilitating condition or episodes.

I lost a job because it – so then a severe economic and life upheaval ensues for person, family and friends.

Linden Coll

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You want to have your mind blown about long covid? Join this Facebook group of more than 13,000 and read some of the heart rending posts about the life altering after effects experienced by covid survivors, many of whom weren’t even dangerously ill with the virus. One of the group’s founders, Amanda Finley, has been very instrumental in bringing long covid into the public eye. https://www.facebook.com/groups/COVIDLongHaulers

Laurie LaCross-Wright

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I read that thread you shared on touring during COVID and saw this a few times:

“Live Nation has a clause that states an artist can’t mention Covid or the pandemic as the reason for cancelling a show.”

Is this true from what you have heard?

I have seen some recent shows cancelled with that excuse and in the past I chalked that up to poor ticket sales. That may still be the case but now I am wondering if there is another aspect to this.

Sam Hunt & Zac Brown Band Stadium Concert Cancelled “Due To Unforeseen Circumstances”

Jason Isbell’s Kansas City area concert is canceled due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’

Willie Nelson show at Ozarks Amphitheater postponed ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’

Tanya Bartevyan *Unfortunately, this concert has been canceled due to unforeseen circumstances

Due to unforeseen circumstances, The Commodores concert scheduled for this weekend

More:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%E2%80%9Cunforeseen+circumstances.%E2%80%9D+concert&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS961US961&oq=%E2%80%9Cunforeseen+circumstances.%E2%80%9D+concert&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160l2.9328j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

– Paul Kersh