Music writer/dad Pete Paphides says the following about seeing paparazzi photos of OasisProdigy member Liam Howlett with an infant carrier on his arm [Same with Oasis-hole Liam Gallagher. What this mistake tells me: 1) I don't care about Oasis OR Prodigy. 2) now it's official: too many Liams. -dt]: "If you ever needed proof that fatherhood confers a creative death sentence on rock stars, these pictures provided pretty damning evidence."
Hey, Oasis might suck, but this may be throwing the baby out with the bong water here. Even as Pete praises women whose music increases in intensity after having a kid, he's pretty unequivocal in his view that when lad musicians become dads, they risk losing their edge. Or, if they somehow keep their cool, they lose their kid, who grows up resenting them (and, in the case of the late Jeff Buckley, writing scathing songs about what a cruel loser his dad was. Ouch.)
But there may be hope yet:
Perhaps as fathers become more hands-on with their children, we can expect rock stars to stop drawing such a distinction between their parenting duties and their creativity. In fact, procreation doesnít have to be the enemy of creation ñ a fact borne out not only by Radiohead [whose 2003 album Hail To The Thief was all written after Thom Yorke's son was born], but by a new wave of pop fathers who seem happy to find their muse in the crËche.When rockstars become dads [junior magazine, uk]
Recently: Children of Rock [rollingstone.com, can't remember where I saw this. Definitely not in the mag itself]
>>Music writer/dad Pete Paphides says the following about seeing paparazzi photos of Oasis member Liam Howlett.
Uh...listen Dad, Liam Howlett is not in Oasis.
Jeeeez...now I'm afraid to have kids.
Nick, I've got a 4-month year old, and not only do I know which band Liam Howlett is in, but my baby daughter has fallen asleep to "Fat of the Land" a couple times... :)
Ok -- I can see your point here, but there are definitely a VAST number of exceptions. Steven Tyler, who, okay, maybe didn't talk to Liv for a long time but now has a great relationship with her. (We'll see if son-in-law and new dad Royston Langdon does as well....) David Bowie, who now gets on well with son Duncan -- despite the fact that the poor kid was given the birthname "Zowie Bowie." Bowie also has a four-year-old daughter, and has put out two great albums since then. No edge lost there. And what about John Lennon? And that moron from Creed? And Sting? Oh, wait, no -- that one doesn't work....
I think that the idea of what a rock-star, or even a man, should be, is almost considered contradictory to the role of a father, and therefor part of the reason people/men think that fatherhood is such a terrifying thing. It is assumed that motherhood is a role that women gently, easily, & naturally morph into- an extention of what they've always been. And yet a man is considered too masculine to be a natural, comfortable extention of himself as a father. What reason is there that a new father should lose part of his identity simply because he changes diapers?