1Tyler, The Creator
A quick look back at May in the words of music’s most outspoken characters, starting with this controversial missive from Tyler, The Creator‘s Twitter page: “If Tegan and Sara Need Some Hard Dick, Hit Me Up!”
2Plan B
“It just seems to be a lot of cock sucking that has to go on in order to get your music to get played to the masses and I’m just not prepared to suck cock really.” – Plan B on breaking America to the Metro.
3Jessie J
“I’ve been with guys and I’ve been with girls. And I kind of think it’s about the person not the genitals. A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, she doesn’t know what she is’. But I definitely think my generation is more easy going about it. I think it’s harder for boys [to be bisexual].” – Jessie J to The Telegaph.
4Gerard Way
“We wanted to get in that pop world and do some damage. ‘Sing’ is an anthem attacking corporate society, and there it is on Glee.” – Gerard Way to News Of The World on why My Chemical Romance gave permission for ‘Sing’ to be featured on Glee.
5Lady Gaga
“I used to get picked on. I got thrown in a trash can on a street corner by some boys. I got profanity written all over my locker at school and all the others were nice and clean. I got pinched in the hallways and called a slut.” – Lady Gaga to The Guardian on her high school years.
6Mark Owen
“There was a feeling like, ‘What if he doesn’t want to put clown make-up on while he’s singing?’ or ‘How’s it going to work with all of us?’ But he’s definitely part of the band in the truest sense. In fact, we have to hold him back now – he wants to put make-up on during every song.” – Take That’s Mark Owen on Robbie Williams re-joining the band.
7Paul McCartney
“I talked to Keith Richards a couple of years ago, and his take on it was: ‘Man, you were lucky, you guys, you had four lead singers,’ whereas The Rolling Stones only had one.” – Paul McCartney to Radio Times.
8Liam Gallagher
“He’s a scaredy cat. He can’t handle being in with the real fans. He was in LA, wasn’t he? With all those LA type people…he’s on the fucking radio every fucking weekend talking about football and he’s not there. Poor, mate. I’m sure he had bigger things to do.” – Liam Gallagher on his brother Noel, who missed the FA Final Cup, to XFM.
9Adele
“’I won’t play a festival. You think I’m gonna play a fucking arena? Are you out of your mind?’ I’d rather play 12 years at the Barfly than one night at the 02” – Adele on playing festivals and arenas.
10Justin Young
“I think I’ve made a better record than he has.” – The Vaccines’ Justin Young responds to Beady Eye’s Liam Gallagher’s taunts.
11Cole Alexander
“To get in the mood to record ‘Raw Meat’ we started eating all this liver sashimi. Then we all started getting sick from it. Mark had to go to hospital because he was so high. His brain was cooking, man.” – Black Lips’ Cole Alexander on Mark Ronson’s near-death experience.
12Lee Newell
“It would be amazing to do something with Odd Future. They have got an insane live set up and they definitely come from the same place as us. We played with them at South By Southwest and it was terrifying, they were amazing.” – Brother’s Lee Newell on collaborating with Odd Future.
13James Allan
“Hopefully fans can get a little bit lost in our music. Lose their inhibitions, get a little bit inebriated, have some romance with a stranger. I’ve been involved in some myself. For about a year I was the tour shag. If you wanted to park your bike or anything. I was your man.” – Glasvegas’ James Allan to FHM.
14Daryl Palumbo
“People are so hung up on us not having a full-length out that they’re overlooking the fact that record labels are becoming increasingly irrelevant, that full-length records are becoming irrelevant and the whole album/tour cycle is pretty irrelevant.” – Glassjaw’s Daryl Palumbo to Kerrang!.
15Morrissey
“The Queen’s visit to Ireland is part of a new Palace PR campaign to re-invent the Windsors. The message from The Queen will be the same as ever: who we are born to is more important than what we achieve in life.” – Morrissey, in an article he wrote for Hot Press.
16Bruno Mars
“[Tyler] has to wait in line if he wants to stab me. [Tyler’s] definitely not the first guy that’s said something like that to me and he’s not going to be the last. That’s what comin’ up is. You pick up some fans and a handful of haters along the way.” – Bruno Mars to SPIN, in response to Tyler, The Creator’s diss.
17Angus Young
“I know The Beatles have changed but we’re going to carry on like that. For us it’s the best way. We are a band who started off with albums and that’s how we’ve always been. We always were a band that if you heard something (from AC/DC) on the radio, well, that’s only three minutes. Usually the best tracks were on the albums.” – AC/DC’s Angus Young to Sky News.
18Bob Dylan
“I kicked a heroin habit in New York City. I got very, very strung out for a while, I mean really, very strung out. And I kicked the habit. I had about a $25-a-day habit and I kicked it.” – Bob Dylan, in a previously-unheard 1996 interview on BBC News.
19Ted Nugent
“I’m repulsed at the concept of man-on-man sex, I think it’s against nature. I think it’s strange as hell, but if that’s what you are I love you. I’m not going to judge another’s morals. I say live and let live. I have friends that are gay.” – Ted Nugent on Piers Morgan Tonight.
20Scott Weiland
A “big muscular guy, a high school senior… [who] rode the bus with me every day to school… invited me to his house. The dude raped me. It was quick, not pleasant. I was too scared to tell anyone. ‘Tell anyone,’ he warned, ‘and you’ll never have another friend in this school. I’ll ruin your fuckin’ reputation’.” – Scott Weiland on being raped as a child to SPIN.
21Josh Franceschi
“With this one [album] we wanted to show that we’ve got a really wide spectrum of sound. There are songs on the album that could be on a Coldplay record and yet there are songs that could be made by a far heavier band.” – Josh Franceschi on the new You Me At Six album.
22Rod Stewart
“It’s a rock’n’roll show. There won’t be any magicians or midgets, just a good rock show.” – Rod Stewart on his upcoming two-year residency in Las Vegas to Billboard.
23Josh Homme
“We’re going to take our one last break that we would get for a month, come back and do Glastonbury, then immediately jump in the studio. Our record will be done by the end of the year. We have enough songs.” – Josh Homme on a new Queens Of The Stone Age album to BBC Radio 1.
24Paul Simon
“I usually come in second to to Dylan, and I don’t like coming in second. In the beginning, when we were first signed to Columbia, I really admired Dylan’s work. ‘The Sound of Silence’ wouldn’t have been written if it weren’t for Dylan. But I left that feeling around The Graduate and ‘Mrs Robinson’. They weren’t folky any more.” – Paul Simon on Bob Dylan to Rolling Stone.
25Brian Wilson
“I’m considering it. I don’t know yet but I’m considering it. Nothing’s really holding me back. I just don’t know if I want to be around those guys you know. They’re zany guys. They’re crazy.” – Brian Wilson to BBC 6 Music on the possibility of a Beach Boys reunion.
26Adele
“If Rihanna wanted me, I’d do it with her. She’s hot.” – Adele to The Sun.
27Steve Tyler
“Gay sex just doesn’t do it for me. I tried it one time when I was younger, but I just didn’t dig it.” – Steve Tyler to ABC News.
28Rihanna
“It’s fucking Twitter, not the altar! Calm down.” – Rihanna, in response to fans overreacting to her decision to follow Chris Brown on Twitter.
29Mark Webber
“Worse than someone doing a bad cover version is someone murdering their own songs years later. We hope to avoid that pitfall.” – Pulp guitarist Mark Webber to The Times on his band’s reunion.
30Liam Gallagher
“And now it’s like Bond Street with mud, with loads of celebrities walking around in their boots and umbrellas. I’m not having it.” – Liam Gallagher to The Times on Glastonbury.