Supportive towards an artist? Yes. Extreme and blind? No!

Metro, London s most read free newspaper, reported a strange story today that happened in Alabama.
A James Brown fan who was obviously upset and angry against a fellow fan who happened to disagree over the recently deceased legend s height. The disagreement escalated to an unexpected extent and had dramatic consequences: the angry James Brown fan shot his fellow fan twice in the abdomen and killed him. The fool tried to kill himself after the shooting, but being unsuccessful in reaching his goal, he walked to the police station and admitted killing his former friend.
Most sources reported that James Brown was 5 feet 6 inches, but I don t even know what his height was. Who cares anyway? I love his music and so do many people in this world!
Today, I would like to address to a specific category of fans: the extreme ones.
Not the quantity of details you know about your artist, nor the number of posters or garments from his clothing line you actually have at home will make a better or a more interesting fan of you. The number of gadgets or clothes you possess might just tend to prove that you are a good consumer, not even a dedicated fan. Please don t misquote me: I do have some T shirts, posters and garments too, like many other fans. But I think that I wouldn t buy all of an artist s commercial stuff, because I think it is just plain stupid. I d rather spend the money on the music than on the clothes or any other gadget.
Of course-particularly as a biographer- I have been in depth with my favorite s artist s life. I have tried to do my best to combat the media s bad stereotypes against Eminem and have gathered a lot of info through the years. My goal was to picture Eminem in his every day life as a father, a husband and a friend to his fellows, so people could realize much more that he was just a human being. However, I don t really appreciate people who spend their spare time talking about celebrity gossips, because I find those annoying as hell.
As a journalist, I like true facts, not rumors and I do believe that a true fan should be much more focused about an artist s music than his whereabouts.
What makes an artist interesting in my eyes is his music. The paradox with Eminem is that you could barely dissociate the man with the music, because you need to know the story if you want to understand the music. But there is a huge difference between having a good knowledge of the man s biography and spending one s time fantasizing about his life and frequentations. I m not keen on crusty details about his personal life, simply because I do consider that it is none of my business. Any reasonable person would probably agree with me.
I would like to put a few things clear with my readers: most of you know me as the supportive Eminem fan I actually am. Most of you know how much I have expressed about the man and his music. I admit that while expressing some views on Em, his family or his friends, I might have been wrong.
I never said that anything I pointed out about Marshall Mathers was the gospel truth. You know why? Simply because I don t know Marshall Mathers as a person.
I have explored Eminem and Slim Shady, his characters. But the real Marshall Mathers remains veiled to me.
Any Eminem fan, even those who met him shortly should have the modesty to admit that they don t know their idol. To be able to pretend you know him for real, you must belong to his intimate circle of friends.
If we all made a slight mistake about Eminem s height, the world would keep turning, wouldn t it?
If Eminem told you to jump from a bridge, what would you do? I know I wouldn t.
If having a filthy backstage behavior was the only way to meet him, would you become 10 people s dirty slut? I perfectly know I wouldn t. I leave such disgusting behavior to the groupies.
Do you get my point?
Be a supportive fan as much as you want, but never cross the line of becoming one of those creepy extreme fans!
Copyright 2007 by Isabelle Esling
All Rights Reserved