The band Taylor Hawkins called too pretentious: “What are they so fucking serious about?”
In the world of media training, it’s becoming increasingly rare to find a good quote of one artist ripping into another. Everyone’s too polite now, censoring these opinions to ensure no connection is ever jeopardised – not like in the good old days of the early 2000s, when a band like Foo Fighters would go out on tour with someone and then swiftly tell the press how rubbish they think they are.
Surely, those were the golden days of music journalism? It was the moment when the Gallagher brothers were picking a fight with any band who dared to breathe near them. Amy Winehouse was feuding with Dido in any interview she conducted, and if any artist didn’t like another’s music, they’d straight up say it.
It’s that kind of fighting attitude that had given music some of its funniest moments and some of its most savage quotes, like the moments when the Sex Pistols told the Rolling Stones to retire, or Blur and Oasis were throwing increasingly tough verbal punches at each other.
Given that Dave Grohl is often deemed the nicest man in music, his band aren’t really one you’d think of when it comes to mean soundbites. But clearly, in 2000, Melody Maker caught Taylor Hawkins on a loose-lipped day.
First, he started in on Limp Bizkit, stating, “Maybe I would have liked them when I was 14, but I like to think not,” hoping that even his adolescent self would have better taste. Then he begrudged the Goo Goo Dolls, lamenting, “What happened? Every band just looks like a fucking boy band now. It’s fucking boring.”
But out of all the bands he took shots at in that one interview, there was one that got the brunt of it, and it was somewhat personal given that earlier that year, they’d been on tour with them, sharing duties as the opening act for Red Hot Chili Peppers. Having only just released their debut album, they were still only a baby band – but that band was Muse.
“Muse are nice guys, but what are they so fucking serious about? Nothing!” Hawkins said, clearly unimpressed by the group during those shows. But to him, their brand of seriousness is unwarranted in comparison to some of history’s other most earnest and dedicated acts. “Queen were pretentious, but it was always tongue-in-cheek,” he said, arguing that the theatricality and fun of the band gave them a pass.
On the other side of the spectrum, he acquitted another act, adding, “Radiohead get away with what they do because there is real anger and paranoia in that music.” That makes sense, too. Given that the band often sang about the fears of the modern age or dealt with some real angst in their work, balancing it all with musical experimentation, their seriousness makes sense.
In the middle, in the soured space without the joy or the depth of those other acts, Hawkins saw Muse as nothing more than an act that needed to cheer up. Having heard their music live back in their early days, while Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers were undeniably lighter and brighter acts with more outright joy or at least more energy in their work, he wasn’t sold on Muse’s brand of moodiness back before they had the fame and success to leverage it.
