Are Offspring common and replaceable?

My commentary on Pete Parada's story (and some stuff about spells)

I saw a short clip today on Twitter of a drummer and self-proclaimed super-dork Pete Parada, who was told that he was easily replaceable as the drummer of his band. Pete refused the injections on the advice of his doctor, and he was replaced for doing so.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NoodlesParada.jpg

Pete is my kind of super-dork.

This article is about my own feelings about how heart-breaking this must have been for him. To me, this isn’t about ‘losing a job’ or simply being replaced for not being able to keep a beat anymore; he was refused ‘maintained belonging’ to his own band and all the gigs (scientifically-baseless injection rules or not) set up, for not being injected with something. Think about that please. All other things aside, revert to your self 10 years ago and read that sentence again. How does it make you feel?

[Pete] remained as the drummer for the Offspring until he was fired from the band in 2021 after his doctor recommended against the COVID-19 injectable products.¹

Well at least there’s one doctor who is thinking clearly in the States!

I don’t know Pete personally, although I see he follows me on Twitverse (thanks, bro) but I do know Pete. I was also a drummer, a bassist and a keyboard player in a couple bands. I know this life and have played many gigs in the past. Although we never got remotely big (I don’t know that life), one of my bands even had a couple CDs. Here’s a song named Lady Silhouette from our CD entitled ‘Jumping out of the picture’ (לצאת מהתמונה) if you care for a listen. It was written by our bassist Jimmy about me standing in the shadows at rehearsal one day. Apparently, there was a good silhouette created from the light. I wrote the synthy chorus line. (I think it was over-written by guitars too much in the master recording, but maybe that’s just me.) My band mates Jimmy and Nimmie and Ido (and Gil) and Chico were my brothers. We weren’t a studio band. We weren’t that good. We weren’t in it for money. We weren’t in it for fame. We were a tight-packed, emotionally driven unit of people who just loved making noise together. We were a family. We laughed, cried, loved, lived and played together for 5 years.

To me, most bands are very much a family. I don’t know what would have happened to me as the synthy player of Altneuland if we’d still been together for the ‘covid-era’, but I dare say, I might be the only one of us who didn’t get injected. It is sad to me that I don’t even know. It’s a hard question to ask sometimes because the answers are hard to hear. If we were still together playing gigs, and had gigs to play, I also likely would have been ejected for not being injected because where we lived at the time, you weren’t allowed into clubs and bars without the digital digits on your phone: aka - ‘green pass’. I would love to believe my boys would have told some manager to shag off at the mere suggestion of booting me, but the spell cast over the people of the world is a strong one, and it is very hard to anticipate who was/will be entranced and who will not. I would have been sad, but wouldn’t have stopped loving them for a moment.

Three years ago, it would have been impossible for me to believe that it would even be conceivable for a family member to be kicked out of their family, or excluded, for simply making a personal (medical) decision. I am referring to blood families and band families now. I know that it is not only possible now, but seemingly, common. Returning to Pete’s story, he was in that band for 14 years - 14 years! Clearly, the spell fell hard on his band mates.

I said I do know Pete because regardless of whether or not we have met face-to-face or even spoken, I believe we are bonded now because I know how heart-breaking this must have been for him. From so many points of view. I don’t know how close he was with his band mates but I can certainly imagine. And regardless, even if it was more a ‘working relationship’, that shit still had to hurt. It’s betrayal. They chose ‘the man’ over ‘their man’. And ‘no’, manager person: Pete is NOT replaceable. Every musician is their own universe and brings something musically and energetically unique to the table.

Being rejected by a manager is one thing, but being rejected by band mates is another, and this is the part that bugs me the most in Pete’s story. Managers aren’t part of the band. In most cases, they are just task takers and gig getters. Band members are bound by something that most managers have nothing to do with. So, imagine your mates, your noise-making buddies, falling into line with ‘the manager’, whose decision was made based on pure ignorance and fear. Imagine you being (r)ejected - an actual member of the band family - and not the manager.

Punk is the antithesis of ignorance and fear! Punk is about fighting hypocrisy! Punk rock is about doing these things with righteous beats and screaming guitars and driving bass lines! To inspire generations of gorgeous minds to stay out of step with the world. I never could keep up.

Punk is about tossing a middle finger, or two, to the man and screaming truth!

There are so many philosophical questions that arise for me on this subject matter. Did the hypocrisy always exist in the hearts of the men who succumbed to the spell? How was this pilot light of hypocrisy stoked to inferno levels so easily? Why were these dictates able to over-ride 14 years of bonding and playing with brothers in Pete’s case? What frikkin’ insane power did these psychopathic narrative drivers tap into to over-ride the normal and decent and common sense thinking of good people, including managers? In other words, what infernal words were cast in this spell to ensnare the minds of men? And perhaps even more importantly, what is the counter spell? What words do we have to utter to break it.

Blasto inferno? Inferno begono? Am I close?

Here’s Pete’s short on Twitter. Click on the photo. I am following you now buddy. Love to you and never mind the Bullocks. Maybe we can jam together one day.

God speed punk man. The show will go on.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Parada