Loveable redneck speaks!

[Stonewall]

Well if it as I hear, and the bloke (can you call someone who gets paid that much a bloke?) was on-call, and he was at the top of his field then it is probably reasonable.

From what I have seen in a variety of American shows and movies there seems to be a love of therapy. Now I know some will say that you cannot believe everything you see on tv but I will explain. In some cases it seems that if a person experiences a crisis with the issue they are having therapy for, they feel they need to see their therapist straight away. Basically they have been unable to think about this new crisis and deal with it, they need to ask someone for the answer, for what they should do.

The other thing that annoys me, and is probably more indicative of an obsession with therapy is how often you hear a phrase similar to "you need to get some help" in American shows, becuase someone does something a little strange, or don't behave completely rationally when dumped by someone.

The more I think about this issue, the more reasonable spending that much money seems. Metallica are not a bunch of guys who have met up for beers after work on fridays and played on the same football team, and gone on camping and fishing trips on weekends over the last 25 years. From what I gather they are a collection of highly dynamic and strong personalities who have written and recorded music, toured together, lived together and altogether spent entirely to much time together for people who are not blood related, whilst trying to preside over a multi-million dollar business.

What they are going to be thinking about when considering therapy is how much fun they have had over the years and how much money they have made, and the lifestyle they've created for themselves. I guess they decided they wanted to preserve that, like you would with a company that is making excellent profits, despite major differences of opinion and feuding amongst the board of directors.

They then found someone they thought could help them do that. They would have talked to their rich friends or whatever and picked someone with a good reputation, and if that guy they chose had really helped out someone they knew with some issue or another, then I fancy they wouldn't have thought twice about spending an extra 20 grand a week on the guy, based purely on the reccomendation.

 

[Stonewall]

You pretty much beat me to it Gorey hehe, I actually think $40,000 a week would have been reasonable, and $40k a month was fairly cheap at the price, considering what was involved.

 

[Goreripper]

I can sort of see things from Spawn's side as well, but the argument has to be put into perspective. On the one hand, he's saying that it's immoral to spend $40,000 a month on therapy, but at the same time, Spawn is a guy who spends hundreds of dollars on CDs and DVDs every month when there are people who post on this board, who can barely afford to hire a movie on a Saturday night after all their bills are paid for the week. He'll argue that it's not the same thing, but it is.

 

[The Amazer]

hahaha...

there hasn't been much Zakk Wylde conversation going on here...

but yeah, they earned their money and they can use it however they want.

I think it's stupid saying it's immoral. They thought it was a solid investment and the doco shows that it was. Think of all the celebrities spending tens of thousands of dollars on clothes... WHEN PEOPLE ARE STARVING IN THE WORLD OH MY GOD ITS IMMORAL.

I think paying $40,000 a month for an on-call therapist is perfectly fine if they can afford it and they think it's needed. I also find it highly more immoral for some celebrity to spend $100,000 on a dress that they'll only wear once.

 

[spawn]

Its not the same thing because its not $40000. A month.

How come I have to keep saying that? If I was saying I spent $40000 a month (US) on cds and DVDS, or even $10000 a month, id agree. But im not. Maybe $100 a month. Of course, I dont drink, smoke or do drugs so its amazing how much you will find if you dont do that. My spending is nowhere even near excessive.

It isnt simply the money, its HOW THE MONEY WAS SPENT. If they had just sat down in a room and stopped being egomaniacs they could have fixed it themselves, they are a bunch of fucking crybabies with too much money and too many people kissing their asses.

I should say Kirk looked like he pretty much had little to do with it all, it was all between Lars and James so it wasnt all of Metallica, but facts are facts, those two are so far from reality they honestly think it was a good thing. The only reason they think the band couldnt have gotten through it without him is because they are dramatists and egomaniacs.

 

[Goreripper]

Well at least it was their money. They hadn't stolen it, or loaned it off someone. Wasn't it Megadeth who used an entire recording advance given to them by their label to buy heroin? That's far more immoral, if you ask me.

Oh, and looking at your journal entries for the last month spawn, you bought, or received from Amazon, 10 DVDs and 14 CDs. I wish I could afford that. There's no point arguing with you, because you never listen, but a $40,000 a month investment to save a multi-million dollar business is nothing.

 

[spawn]

Well again, theres quite a difference between $40000 US a month and what I spend, surprisingly, but just for shits and giggles:

Yeah and the reason I get them from amazon? Because they are $17 each as opposed to $30, and the DVDs I buy are from JBHiFi, or Amazon, where I pay $10 to $15 for all of them. Also, they arrived in the last month, via the slowest (and thus cheapest) shipping on Amazon. Also, half of them were paid for months ago because I had cds on preorder so I wouldnt have to buy them all at once when they come out on the release dates, so I didnt spend all that in a month. Id actually have you tally up the amount you have spent on alcohol and stuff for a month, but its completely irrelevent.

But if you have been spending money on therapy to talk to the friends you have known the longest, let me know.

But anyway, ill try again. $40000 a month for therapy so you can talk to people you have known for 25 years is an obscene waste of money. They didnt buy a house or somethign with it, they pissed it up the wall because they are two egomaniacs, and because they are so full of themselves, they wouldnt have any trouble looking you in the eye and telling you they "needed" it, when really, the managers just said "Hey we should use this guy" and because they havent lived in reality for about 15 years they just agreed without saying the natural reaction of most people (though not most people here surprisingly), which would be:

$40000 a month? Fuck off!

Just because its "their" money doesnt make it any less of an obscene waste.

 

[spawn]

Oh and before someone says it, I know they dont charge your credit card until the item ships but the ones on preorder were paid for by a gift certificate, and it takes the money from your gift certificate account when you purchase the preorders.

 

[spawn]

I think we should agree to disagree and run like hell in case Spiff finds out.

 

[Goreripper]

Id actually have you tally up the amount you have spent on alcohol and stuff for a month, but its completely irrelevent.

I buy a six pack once a fortnight with the groceries. I don't smoke or do drugs. I'm a married man with a pregnant wife who can't work at the moment (because she's pregnant). So out of one income, we have to pay rent, power bills, phone bills, internet bills. Apart from groceries for two people, there's petrol for the car twice a week, a $52 rail ticket every week, a car repayment, a credit repayment on the white goods, plus 18% of my wage goes on Child Support every fortnight. So to use your own logic spawn, any amount of money you spend on DVDs of dud films you could rent from the video store for $7 (or less if they're not new releases) seems like an exorbitant waste from my point of view. The whole point of the argument is perspective. You're looking at the Metallica therapy from within the limits of your own experience. It's all right for you to say "They've been friends for 20 years, but they can't talk to each other", but you don't have any inkling of their lifestyle. Here's three guys who are the CEOs of one of the biggest companies in the music business. They are responsible for millions of dollars and they have spent the best part of their lives living in each other's pockets for months on end, for years at a time, with the constant pressure of maintaining a level of creativity to produce new records that will satisfy their investors (record company, management, merchandising companies) and their fans (fickle at the best of times) so they can continue to make money and support not only themselves but in James' and Lars' cases, their families as well. They travel for months at a time, spend months and months away from wives and children for years on end because they have responsibilities to each other, to their investors and to their fans. How can you even begin to imagine what the stress and pressure of that must be like, and how much it could get to you after 15 - 20 years of it? You can shake your head in disbelief and tell us until you're blue how exorbitant and immoral and wrong it is, but you've never been in a situation like theirs, and you never will be, so how do you know how you would be affected and what sort of therapy you would need if you were? You simply can't relate it to your own experience of "the real world" because even what you think the "real world" is differs from what I think it is.

 

[spawn]

Stress and pressure? Are you here on planet Earth with the rest of us? Stress and pressure is working 12 hour days for shit money in a factory and trying to make ends meet. Or being a single mother trying to raise kids and work a job. Or not being able to pay for your kids uniform for school or buy Christmas presents for your family, stuff like that.

Last time I checked, travelling the world in a rock band was their choice, not stress. They could quit tomorrow and never "work" again.

 

[Goreripper]

Having travelled around the world in a rock band yourself, you obviously know all about the stress it can create on your life and your relationships, so I don't need to say anything more. There would be no point, anyway.

 

[Celestial-Todd]

I totally agree with Goreripper here. None of us can really put ourselves in Metallica's place because they earn more money each day then most of us would in a year.... how they spend their money is their own business. Look at it this way.... if I have a fight with an old friend, I just don't talk to them for a while. Whenever I've been FORCED to keep contact, the friendship has just been strained further.

Now imagine these guys.... being on the road together just highlights any differences you have (hell, the 16 hour drive to Adelaide when I was in Apolyom almost broke us up)

 

[Goreripper]

Ah but you chose to be in a band Todd.

 

[Shannow]

Gorey,
great series of posts.

But you should look at your priorities and make the beer purchase weekly, not fortnightly.

Metallica should have taken a leaf out of my organisation's book, and paid some company a few hundred thousand to implement a "staff survey". Then hidden the results, and complained that their staff are so dumb that they didn't understand the questions.

BTW, how is the family thing going ?
We are at bursting point...nearly.

 

[JonBonJovi]

that would mean buying really awful shit tasting beer,making it pointless to drink and enjoy the refreshment it gives.
We are now 27 1/2 weeks,she keeps me awake till all hours with her constant kicking and movement.Was at mid-wife clinic today all is well.

 

[Stonewall]

I'm sure the $40k a month saved a ridiculous amount of peoples' livelihoods.....

 

[Shannow]

We are now 27 1/2 weeks,she keeps me awake till all hours with her constant kicking and movement.Was at mid-wife clinic today all is well.

I think that the awake part is the worst part of the whole deal. Can't get comfortable, then an almighty side kick to the pancreas (not talking from experience, but when your hand is getting a flogging just from hugging the better half, it can't be that great to be the Mum.

Glad all is well

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I totally agree with Gore here.

Spawno there is no need to keep repeating, it isn't that we don't get your point or anything, we just don't agree with it.

On the stress of being in Metallica thing, for the last 4 years or so, Lars and the boys have been some of the most hated people in metal. I'm sure that adds to the stress and isn't easy to deal with. You can't just keep saying if they all sat down and talked about it it would have been fine. Perhaps they tried that. Sometimes it might make it worse.

 

[Goreripper]

You know, I was doing some thinking on the way in to work this morning. I don't know exactly how much money Metallica makes. Someone here posted the figures for their record sales a while ago and it was something like $148 million a year, just in album sales alone. So if you add tour intake, merch., publishing royalties and all the other income, this band is making $2 million a day. $2 million A DAY. Easily. $40,000 is half an hour's work for them. This therapist dude made as much money out of Metallica in two years as what they make IN ONE DAY. This will be my final post on this subject, but it backs up what I've been trying to say all along: to someone who makes a few hundred bucks or so a week, spending $40,000 a month on therapy sounds like an obscene amount of money, but relatively speaking, it's small change. Lars sold one of his paintings for $5 million. He could have paid his own therapist $40,000 a month for ten years with that much money. For the service they got, $40,000 a month was ridiculously cheap. Metallica was ripping him off.

*Added: Even if they only make $50,000 a day, that's still $1.5 million a month, or $18 million a year. Even on that scale, $40,000 a month is still fuck all.