[decasia]

I thought this was a really good piece of writing. It’s rare to do something like this because the job discourages it by putting PR filters on everything you say.

My uncle was a pretty big pop star in the 1960s. His group at one point had a big fanzine, they were household names across the country, over time they had stalkers and weird fans and all that, made movies and albums, had big parties and knew other famous people, pretty much all those things that the OP writes about (circa 50 years later, some of it has changed but not that much).

He could be charismatic and surprisingly eloquent and I could picture him writing a piece like this, if the mood had struck.

He also lost pretty much all the money through mismanagement (several times over), eventually moved out of LA, had a tumultuous family life with numerous spouses and wasn’t around much for his kids, and after his 40s was trapped in a sad cycle of reunion tours because the band still needed the money. The tours still had some level of excitement and crowd enthusiasm, even pretty late in life and I guess he always loved the stage, the performing, all that. But in the end, I kinda felt it seemed like a lonely existence. Hard to form really deep connections when you’re always traveling and often away in your head.

[ilamont]

> after his 40s was trapped in a sad cycle of reunion tours because the band still needed the money.

Celebrity memoirs are often written for the same reasons, or to promote other ventures. For instance Peter Wolf seemingly reluctantly shared vignettes about Dylan, The Stones, Faye Dunaway, and rock 'n' roll life in the 1970s to promote his newer stuff:

"I was putting out solo CDs. Not to sound self-congratulatory, but I thought each one got better and better— but they weren’t finding an audience. I thought a book might encourage people to check out the other stuff. So basically, the intent of the book was to find a wider audience."

https://www.boston.com/culture/books/2025/03/10/peter-wolf-m...

[Insanity]

It was interesting and a fun read, but not a “good piece of writing” in my opinion. Apart from some spelling mistakes, the sentences droned on and it read more like a semi-coherent rant than a thoughtful piece on “being a pop star”.

[nunez]

I thought it was excellent for something that appears mostly off the cuff. This is what lots of good writing looks like before the editors get to it, btw

[tomsmeding]

It is thoughtful, that's not the problem. It's just not written in the standard language "written English", but instead in "spoken English" with some attempts towards the former ("My final thought on ...") that sound like someone trying formal writing for the first time.

[thaumasiotes]

The sentences do drone on, but they're fully coherent; this is above-average writing. It wouldn't likely meet publishing standards, but it's a lot better than you'd expect a randomly-chosen person to produce.

[CoastalCoder]

I was interested by the part in the middle talking about society not tolerating women stepping too far out of traditional roles.

I'm a 50-ish years old American man, and I just don't notice anything like that in my own attitudes or of those around me.

I wonder if one or both of us have biased vision, or alternatively maybe we just live in different societies.

[TheTon]

I admit I started reading with some skepticism. It didn't read like PR, so I assumed I was reading fanfic. By the midpoint, she managed to convince me otherwise.

I think the author is walking a tightrope between convincing the reader that she wrote this herself and that there's more depth to her than what we see on stage or in pop media. Writing this blog is definitely a tougher assignment than doing podcast interviews or behind the scenes videos.

You are right, of course, a good editor could make this better, but I think she's deliberately avoiding that here. A pop star is unwise to fire a good producer without a better replacement, but sometimes they have to bring out the piano and do an acoustic performance live.

[IceDane]

As interesting as I find it, cannot agree more. It's very childish writing - feels a lot like it was written by a teenager. It sort of reminds me of my young 8 year old niece telling me a story she finds so exciting she barely comes up for air.

[nunez]

That's the fate of many acts from that period. So so so many artists who were stratospherically popular but are still touring for cash playing to nobody younger than them. It's sad.

[derangedHorse]

"better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all"

Is it sadder than any other individual who has to work into retirement age? Or is the fall itself what you find sad? I can imagine some artists might be happier in this latter stage of their lives where they can focus on their real fans and better fostering other personal relationships in their lives.

[BrandoElFollito]

This is a staple of French TV music prime time shows. You get the stars of the 80s and 90s and it is often simply sad to watch.

[sandblast]

Sorry, I'm curious: why it "was", not "is", a really good piece of writing?

[CoastalCoder]

Presumably the tense refers to the time of the reading, not the time of the article's existence.

[singleshot_]

This was slightly better than reading something generated by an AI but I have a similar sense that I am dumber for having read two paragraphs of it.