Stalk & Troll Hootchie Coo: The Harrowing Ordeals of Famous Rockers and Their Stalkers
Written by Jason Daniel Baker
Sunday, 09 February 2014 03:30
Bryan Adams, Chester Bennington, Chris Cornell, Sheryl Crow, John Frusciante, Michael Jackson, Avril Lavigne, Courtney Love, Ozzy Osbourne, Gene Simmons, Eddie Vedder and Zakk Wylde are among popular rock musicians who have been inconvenienced if not outright terrorized by star stalkers after finding a foothold in the music industry and in popular culture. Some would say the phenomenon of celebrity is an inseparable part of the price of fame.
Years of couch-surfing usually follows for a musician just beginning. Your typical band will play in front of an ant farm if that is the only audience they can get when they first start out. A dream of a stadium full of admirers is part of what keeps a lot of them going. Then positive encounters with those first few fans they get which align their dream with reality can also embolden the artist to keep doing what they do.
A fan can sometimes steal a few extra moments with their favorite band by manning a merch table or helping move gear. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones was known to let the occasional teen fan hanging around outside his flat come in and do a little housework for him. It made his life a little easier but also gave those fans an unforgettable experience being around their hero. A lot of musicians have stories of communing with fans like that.
But after years upon years of success, overexposure and privacy lost, a fatigue in dealing with people can set in as a thousand different things compete for a star’s attention. Some fans, collectively and individually comprise a pain in the posterior for an artist wanting privacy. Other fans present more serious concerns as the reach of the artist expands into popular culture where any wacko can focus and fixate upon them.
It goes beyond the first tier, i.e. nuisance of inconvenient people like paparazzi, journalists, process servers, salespeople and hangers on making demands on time the star used to have an abundance of but no longer does. As determined as some of them might be people like this can be dissuaded with slight difficulty or relative ease depending upon how patient the star is or how well they are managed.
The next tier are those that at some point had a personal/professional connection with the star and are looking to reconnect. This can range anywhere from a childhood friend, schoolmate, ex-bandmate, one night stand, fellow rehab group inmate right on down to a barkeep in Bumfuck, Middle-of-Nowhere who threw a stranded musician a $20 bill to help him/her get home. The celebrity tunesmith might not want to renew any of these types of forgotten acquaintances for the same reason any of the rest of us might not want to.
Yet the upper tier – the true stalkers, have something which sets them apart from the above two. The true stalker can’t take a hint even if it is the form of a restraining order. This specific group is rare but the nevertheless of gravest concern. They have profound mental illness leading to elaborate delusions. Such delusions can segue into violence.
Many of this tier think the musician they are fixating on is communicating with them telepathically or via secret messages hidden within song lyrics or album cover art, press releases, interview answers, etc. The illusion of intimacy can build derived from anything that appears to establish commonality when in fact it signifies nothing more than coincidence or misinterpretation.
Good, old-fashioned eccentricity though is not, in and of itself, a defining indicator of a true stalker. One false case speaks volumes.
David Bowie and a Big Pink Bunny Rabbit
During his 2004 North American tour rock legend David Bowie found himself trailed by someone in a pink bunny rabbit costume seemingly everywhere he looked. Perhaps seeing a rather ingenious absurdist take on ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Bowie – a Rock ‘N’ Roll showman who had played various colorful characters onstage began to go along with the gag as the five foot three inch rabbit appeared at multiple concerts of his. When it boarded a plane he was on he was evidently surprised.
Bowie talked about it numerous times including on Ellen Degeneres’s talk show and never seemed to feel at all threatened. Often he expressed more than mild amusement. It turned out to be Isabelle Guns of Vancouver, Canada – a superfan who late in the tour was invited on stage during a concert, given a tambourine and allowed to perform with Bowie’s backing choir.
Bowie’s appreciation was unexpected. He had been tight with John Lennon in the 1970s. Even before Lennon was murdered in December 1980, Bowie privately expressed fears of being attacked on stage. But the idea of his being stalked by a giant pink bunny was blown out of proportion by overzealous media without regard to the feelings of the artist and his superfan.
Guns – a harmlessly eccentric Vancouver Goth chick who supplemented her income via sales of homemade soap also circulated a syndicated indie music/sex advice zine entitled ‘Lollypop Shoved Up My Ass’. So how would this playful and adventurous woman qualify as a stalker? As ‘unique’ as she may have seemed she didn’t fit the stalker mold for numerous reasons.
Following a tour is not stalking. She was not known to have imposed herself on Bowie or done anything inconsistent with any other true Bowie fan…Other than…Y’know…Wearing a pink rabbit costume everywhere. Guns also attended gigs of many other artists, acquitted herself commendably and is one of those fans who can make a musician feel special by her enthusiasm.
So what is a stalker? Let us examine some known examples beginning with the most obvious and dangerous.
Stalking the Beatles: Mark David Chapman et al
Beatles legend John Lennon was murdered on December 8th, 1980 outside his New York City apartment building, shot four times in the back by a lone gunman – a soft-spoken, overweight, bespectacled, religious fundamentalist named Mark David Chapman. A gun in the hand of someone who felt angry and powerless proved to be a very dangerous combination but in the United States it is a right.
The 25 year old American misfit Chapman fit the definition of ‘weirdo’ for a lot of people but not the profile of a potential killer – at least not back then. Raised in an abusive home, bullied as a teen, tormented by suicidal thoughts and with a brain further damaged by drug use and heavy drinking he took, then lost, a job as a security guard in the years leading up to the murder.
In New York City, in the days leading up to the murder Chapman was far from alone in staking out Lennon’s place of residence – the Dakota on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. There were multiple fans who were not a threat to themselves or anyone else hanging around hoping for a glimpse of their idol. They were a part of the scenery. Earlier in the day Chapman was photographed (see above) as Lennon personally signed his copy of ‘Double Fantasy’. The eventual killer was seemingly like any other fan up until he wasn’t.
It is evident that Chapman saw two reflections of Lennon – leader of his favorite band and composer of his favorite music but also as possessor of an ego that caused the Beatles to split up, that denigrated his own legacy and that of the band, refused to reunite with former bandmates and disregarded the manner in which lyrics to his music appeared to contradict how he lived his life.
To Chapman, Lennon was hero turned villain and nothing he saw of Lennon in New York City in the days leading up to the shooting contradicted his perceptions. Lennon was known to be quite gracious with fans and witness accounts suggest he was that way with Chapman. Herein illustrates the line between fan and stalker.
An autograph and a few moments of face-time will usually satisfy a true fan. A true stalker demands considerably more. In Chapman’s case the ultimate price was involuntarily extracted. From that shocking moment forward Rock ‘N’ Roll and by extension the complexion of modern celebrity changed. The only famous people who tended to get publicly murdered up to then were criminals and politicians.
A fan turned assassin? That didn’t add up. For Lennon in particular it was unforeseen. He had lived in New York as a solo artist from summer 1971 until his death. His hassles were mostly with the American government & President Nixon who was trying to deport him. In his final TV interview he stated that fans didn’t approach him very often and that he and Yoko went pretty much wherever they wanted to.
One of the most memorable moments in the Lennon documentary ‘Imagine’ shows him talking to a young and probably high fan who had come to his estate in England and lurked around the property. Lennon met with the kid and very patiently explained to him that there weren’t hidden messages in his songs and that his music was just personal expression with a bit of occasional wordplay. At the end of the conversation he invited the interloper into his house and fed him. A noble gesture which indicated naivete. Accessibility and lack of security have to be considered as factors in his death.
Lennon’s bandmate George Harrison was nearly murdered in December 1999 by a stalker who broke into Friar Park – his Henley-On-Thames mansion which was surrounded with high security walls. Harrison was hospitalised by multiple stab wounds as was his wife Olivia who purportedly tried to subdue the attacker – 33 year old scouser Michael Abrams, with a fireplace poker and a heavy table lamp.
The would-be murderer, a schizophrenic former heroin addict claimed to be on a mission from God and believed that the Beatles were witches. Unlike Chapman he didn’t have a gun. Whether choice of weapon would have made a difference is open to conjecture. Lax security in his illegal entry into Friar Park has been looked at as a contributing cause to the nearly lethal result.
Harrison was already dealing with the inconvenience of another stalker late that year. A women named Cristin Keleher had broken into his Hawaiian estate in Maui. Stalkers are often known to break in to a star’s house when the star is not there. The same stalkers are known to make themselves quite comfortable while there. Since some popular music stars own multiple residences and most tour those residences can provide convenient shelter to an obsessed fan.
Sir Paul McCartney (who wrote the stalker anthem ‘You Won’t See Me’), for whatever reason has had little publicised trouble with stalkers. In fact Sir Paul has usually been very assertive though polite, about expressing disapproval when his boundaries are violated. It may have made all the difference. Whether he made a conscious decision to try to mute any media attention a hypothetical stalker might get is unclear.
The kinds of wackos who might have given him trouble are doubtless among those who think he died in 1966 and was replaced by a double who killed the real Paul. Some others may have targeted McCartney at inopportune times like for instance any one of his marijuana busts. Stalkers usually try to avoid cops but not always.
As for Ringo Starr evidently stalker interest was never very high. Whilst revered amongst even the most distinguished of fellow drummers, the general public including Beatles fans tend to view him as iconic mascot for, and employee of the Fab Four rather than as the great musician he truly is.
The Senseless Death of ‘Dimebag Darrell’ Abbott
Groove metal god ‘Dimebag Darrell’ Abbott was shot to death on stage during a concert at the Alrosa Villa club in Columbus, Ohio on December 8th, 2004 (24 years to the day of Lennon’s murder) by ex-Marine/semi-pro football player Nathan Gale. Three others died and seven more were wounded in trying to stop the attack before Gale himself succumbed to a 12 gauge shotgun blast to the face from cop James Niggemeyer which literally blew Gale’s head off in front of already shocked concertgoers.
A longtime fan, the hulking (6 foot 3, 19 stone) Gale was angry that the brilliant guitarist and his brother Vinnie Paul had dissolved their former band Pantera and was evidently less than enthusiastic about their next band, Damageplan. Delusional in the extreme (which he would have had to be if he didn’t blame vocalist Phil Anselmo for the end of Pantera) Gale also purportedly believed that Pantera had stolen his music, was known to pet an imaginary dog and talk to walls.
Other than illustrating the frustration in the minds of some stalkers at the autonomy of the career/creative decisions their heroes make it also shows that a stalker rampage can have considerable collateral damage especially when the assailant has had military training. The military, for its part was unable to successfully treat Gale’s psychosis before discharging him inadvertently unleashing him on a suburb of Columbus a year before Damageplan visited on tour.
A musician can carefully plan an itinerary to avoid the media, fans and of course random psychos as well as known stalkers. But playing live is a different thing and it is a necessary thing for most of them. What Nathan Gale did beyond the human tragedy is take from other fans the privilege of deciding whether Damageplan live was something Pantera fans would love.
Squeaky Calls Upon the Laird of Boleskine
Manson Family acolyte Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme is alleged to have stalked Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page during the band’s 1975 North American tour. She submitted a note through a band intermediary she hoped Page would read in March of that year which was later purportedly burned, unseen by the legendary axeman.
Fromme would come to be convicted of attempting to assassinate American President Gerald Ford, an attempt made in the late summer of that same year. Her Manson Family associates of course had a notable track record which had plunged Hollywood into a paranoid frenzy in the summer of 1969 for their gruesome ritual murder spree which they had inexplicably drawn inspiration for in the Beatles’ ‘White Album’.
Did Fromme really stalk Page? Stalkers are not usually as easily dissuaded as Ms. Fromme was though it sounds as if a particularly diplomatic band/record company employee (purportedly Danny Goldberg) who intercepted Fromme handled things well protecting his employers from a potentially dangerous encounter and unpredictable repercussions.
Ms. Fromme also potentially faced unpredictable repercussions if you believe the groupie folklore surrounding Led Zeppelin while the band was still together. Going by that she could have gotten either a beating, a whipping or a shark meat pap smear for her trouble had she hypothetically managed to find her way into their presence.
Former Zep singer Robert Plant’s own obsessed fan Alysson Billings purportedly began stalking him as he was well into his solo career in 2010. It took three years before a threat assessment triggered his request for a restraining order in May 2013. The alarm bells went off in reaction to the darker tone of her fan mail in which she cited jealousy about his romance with folk recording artist Patty Griffin. Plant maintains he has never even met Billings. She claimed to have been in a relationship with him.
A Stalker’s Attention Can Shift From Target To Target
One of the most notorious of alleged rockstar stalkers is Karen Jane McNeil who is said to have harassed Axl Rose, singer of Guns N’ Roses. She just showed up one morning in late April, 1995 illegally entering his house whilst he was playing guitar in the kitchen. She purportedly had traveled all the way from Ohio in answer to his ‘psychic call’. Rose’s brother Stuart Bailey reported having turned her away from the front gate a couple of days earlier.
Her illegal entry into his Malibu house would be repeated in multiple violations of a restraining order. Her disappointment in not receiving red carpet treatment was expressed most acutely in one of her many letters to him in which she spoke of belief in the afterlife and of following Kurt C (As in Cobain? He’d been dead for a year by then). A key thing in identifying stalkers is, of course, persistence.
She spent time incarcerated for repeatedly hounding Rose over the years that followed which resulted in prison correspondences sent to him. Given Rose’s history of violent outbursts any sane woman would have counted herself lucky to have emerged from her adventures without having been beaten unconscious. But she did outweigh Rose by about four stone.
In March 2009, Lars Ulrich – drummer for Metallica – filed a restraining order in Los Angeles superior court against McNeil to keep her 150 yards (An American football field and a half) away from the members of Metallica, their families and those who administrate the Metallica fanclub. It remains unclear what McNeil did to prompt such a precaution.
Justin Timberlake would later do the same thing in October of the same year claiming McNeil kept showing up at his house and refusing to leave.
Some might read in to the fact that McNeil shifted focus from Rose after the release of ‘Chinese Democracy’ – the much anticipated sixth Guns N’ Roses studio album. A bizarre concoction which sounded like a chalkboard stuck in a wood-chipper at various points and stray cats getting their freaks on in an alleyway at others ‘Chinese Democracy’ alienated a lot of people.
Danzig – Not Only Nice Guys Get Stalked?
According to musician/comic book mogul/pro wrestling aficionado Glenn Danzig’s bodyguard Russ MacKay discovered a guy lurking around Danzig’s property and trying to break through the front on Halloween 2005. After giving chase and finally catching up to the guy MacKay was unable to apprehend him but was able to pry away the guy’s backpack.
It was discovered that the would-be intruder’s backpack was full of porn mags with photos of Danzig’s face superimposed onto naked bodies both female and male. A journal was also found in the backpack with the words ‘KILL DANZIG!’ written under the date October 31st. This was explained in the periodical LA Weekly. The sordid summary horrified and disgusted many including me. I never once doubted it was all true.
Danzig – characteristically known for bluntness was initially reticent about the incident in interviews. He would later dispute this account and say it was the result of a miscommunication without going into detail. He is not known to have ever mentioned any hypothetical stalker activity widely in the past other than perhaps alluding to it in very general terms.
Whether Danzig has ever even had a real stalker would detract credence from much I have written in this article about why stalkers might target specific musicians. Danzig doesn’t make time to pretend to be a nice guy or even to show the requisite common courtesy of a pit viper. What stalker can project fantasies of kinship with this dude? We’ll probably never know.
What most of the dribs of information we have gleaned from the most well-publicised cases of stalking tells us is that the truly dangerous stalkers are a pretty small group. What is not readily apparent is how they select the people they obsess over.