Kürzlich hatten wir ja schon den Ryan Adams vs Father John Misty Zwist aufbereitet, zwei Wochen vorher hatte sich Ryan Adams die Strokes ausgeguckt:

Bitchfight No. 2: Ryan Adams vs The Strokes:

Um die Angriffe von Ryan Adams via Twitter zu verstehen, muss man ein wenig ausholen. Im sehr empfehlenswerten, weil überraschend offenherzigen Buch “Meet Me In The Bathroom”, das im letzten Monat erschienen ist, wird unter anderem enthüllt, dass Ryan Adams in den frühen Jahren der Strokes erst best buddy und dann persona non grata war. Höhepunkt dieser Entwicklung war ein Bandmeeting, in dem Ryan Adams mitgeteilt wurde, dass er sich von Albert Hammond Jr. fern halten solle, da er ein schlechter Einfluss sei. Hammond Jr bestätigt das auch in “Meet Me In Th Bathroom”, dass er vor allem mit Ryan Adam in Richtung Heroin gedriftet ist:

“Ryan would always come and wake me at two in the morning and have drugs, so I’d just do the drugs and kind of numb out. (…) I remember Julian threatening to beat Ryan up if he hung out with me, as a protective thing. He’d [Julian Casablancas] heard that Ryan would come and give me heroin, so he was just like, ‘If you come to my apartment again with heroin, I’m going to kick your ass.’ I hadn’t really been doing it in baggie form until Ryan showed up. He was definitely a bad influence.”

Auch Casablancas erinnert sich in “Meet Me In The Bathroom”:

“Did I specifically tell Ryan to stay away from Albert? I can’t remember the details, to be honest. I think heroin just kind of crosses a line. It can take a person’s soul away. So it’s like if someone is trying to give your friend a lobotomy — you’re gonna step in.”

Ryan Adams dagegen bestreitet übrigens im Buch diese Darstellung:

“That’s so sad, because Albert and I were friends. If anything, I really felt like I had an eye on him in a way that they never did. I was around and we actually spent time together. He would show me his songs. It was like, “No one ever listens to my music, but do you want to hear it?” I would be like, “Fuck yeah!” I loved him so deeply. I would never ever have given him a bag of heroin. I remember being incredibly worried about him, even after I continued to do speedballs. (…) I didn’t do drugs socially, and I don’t remember doing drugs with Albert ever. I wanted to smoke cigarettes and drink, like, dark red wine or vodka and write all night. (…) It was very dramatic, the way it all went down. I was asked to meet one single person in a bar and I got there and it was the whole band and Ryan. I was more or less given a lecture, a hypocritical lecture, and then they told me that I was not going to be part of their scene anymore. It was very weird. (…) The impression was “you turned him on to this”, but the irony is – and I think I said this that night to Julian – that he was talking about th drug that he came to my apartment several nights ago asking for it.(…) And strangely, counter to the reputation of me being a madman, I actually was pretty Zen about it. I never pressed them after that. I didn’t call or get mad or retaliate. I moved on. (…) I do remember thinking that the Strokes guys were way more into heroin than I was. (…) It was easy to brand me as the problem. I would suspect that they soon learned that I was not the problem.”

Fragt man die Umherstehenden, dann ergibt sich folgendes Bild:

James Endeacott (damals A&R von Rough Trade Records): “Julian was dabbling, as we say. He was a dabbler. I don’t think he was a frequent user, but he was definitely a dabbler. I just know that heroin was around and he wasn’t like, “Oh my god!””.

Mark Spitz (damals Spin-Redakteur): “He had that song which I think is literally called “This is it”. But by this point Ryan’s made the transformation to full-on Stroke and not just coked-out Gram Parsons wannabe. He’s now added heroin to cocaine. I know this because I did heroin with him in the basement of Black & White. (…) He was just high. (…) Like, I saw him literally running through the streets of the French Quarter [in New Orleans], with the sun coming up, singing “Frere Jacques” at the top of his lungs.”

Ryan Gentles (Manager von The Strokes & Ryan Adams zur damaligen Zeit): “Ryan [Adams], I loved him, and now he’s sober, I’m sure he’s a different guy, but back then, it was pills and everything. Forget it. Just up all night, wanted you to be at his disposal.”

…und die anderen Strokes:

Nick Valensi: “Not to say that Ryan was an angel, becuase he certainly was not; he was a severe drug addict. But is it fair to label him as a bad influence? No that’s not fair at all. Everyone was down. Whoever was doing drugs, no one was getting forced or peer-pressured into doing it. People did it when they wanted to do it, and by the way, a lot of people in my circle, in my band, didn’t even fucking do drugs. Nikolai [Fraiture, Bassist der Strokes] doesn’t do drugs; Fab [Moretti, Drummer der Strokes] doesn’t, barely, once in a blue moon. Julian’s thing at the time was mor drinking anyway. Julian would do drugs so he could keep on drinking. Albert had a romantic relationship with it.”

Fabrizio Moretti: “I’m sure Ryan Adams has his own story and it’s grandiose and beautiful and whatnot, but he’s not that major of a player in the Strokes’ history.”

Nach langem Ausholen nun also zu den kürzlichen Twitter-Angriffen von Ryan Adams, die ein wenig im Gegensatz zum oben geäußerten “I actually was pretty Zen about it. I didn’t get mad or retaliate” steht….

Ein Lasagne-Tweet gegen Julian Casablancas ist eher rätselhaft (ich vermute allerdings, dass er damit andeuten will, dass Casablancas selbst zu der Zeit Heroin genommen hätte, der Rest leichter verständlich:

– “Julian Casablancas: who got you strung out on lasagna tho?”
– “I sold more t shirts last night than people who actually made it thru a single Voidz [die neue Band von Julian Casablancas] song, bro. What’s he gonna do? Sit on me? ”
– “Ooops one of is (sic! meint wohl: “One of us”) is top 5 EVERY FUCKING record.., and it ain’t the dude in the Hawaiin shirt and feather earring”

Und dieser Tweet soll wohl bedeuten, dass das dritte Strokes-Album “Last Impressions Of Earth” das letzte akzeptable gewesen sei:

– “Last Impressions of Actual Songs”

Aber auch der ehemalige best buddy Albert Hammond Jr bekommt sein Fett weg, nicht mal der richtige Vorname fällt Ryan noch ein:

– “Abert Hammond is a more horrible songwriter than his dad. If that’s possible. It rains in Sthtrn CA & washes out the dirt”

Das oben zitierte Buch von Lizzy Goodman heißt Meet Me In The Bathroom und ist derzeit nur als Import erhältlich.