When I was a teenager I had crushes on several rock
musicians. Who didn’t have a crush on a musician, actor, or other celebrity
when they were young? You imagined how great life would be. He was everything
you were looking for in a man – romantic, attentive, caring.
I had a big reality check several years ago about my
teenage celebrity crushes – they definitely weren’t as great as I once thought.
I was reading Slash’s biography (guitarist for Guns N’ Roses
for those of you who didn’t already know) and in a passage he was talking
about the early days of the band when a few of them were living in a freight
container. They were having a party and there was a girl they were taking turns
with. GROSS!!!!!!
Though Slash was not one of my crushes, I did have a crush
on another GN’R member. Upon reading that, not only did my stomach turn, but it
dawned on me how dirty many of these rock stars are. They have had women upon
women throwing themselves at them for years. I wonder if they can even guess
the number of women they have been with. Nope, a history like that is definitely
not for me.
Then I started watching the Bret Michaels (lead singer of
Poison) reality show, Life As I Know It. I will admit having a huge crush on
Bret Michaels as a teenager. I’m watching that show thinking that his partner
has all the same problems as I do with my husband, plus some. Reality check #2:
they are still men and do all those men things – probably with additional ones
thrown in because they have the money to do crazy things.
My final reality check was thanks to Facebook.
Nuno Bettencourt (guitarist extraordinaire from Extreme). I’m
going to admit to still crushing on him...don’t tell my husband. I follow him
via Facebook, which would have blown me away when I was a teenager. He’s a fan
of the selfie, which is okay, who doesn’t want to look at pictures of him.
Sorry, getting off topic...
Musicians are a little self-appreciating. Okay, let’s call
it like it is, many are divas to some degree. I’m sorry, there’s only room for
one diva in my world, which was me until my daughters were born.
Sorry Nuno, I
will still follow you though.
The moral of my story, they may be nice to look at, but
guess what – they aren’t as great as we imagine them to be.
It reminds me of a quote from High Fidelity (great book and
movie):
“The other girl, or other women, whatever. I mean, I was thinking
that, they are just fantasies, you know? And they always seem really great,
because there are never any problems. And if there are, they are the cute
problems, like we bought each other the same Christmas present, or she wants to
see a movie I’ve already seen, you know. Then I come home...and you and I have
real problems, you don’t want to see a movie I want to see, period.”
That said, I would take my husband over my teenage celebrity
crushes any day.
