" I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy"

In high school, I was a big Dorothy Parker Fan. I thought it was somehow really cool to quote her. I hoped, one day, that I  also would have fabulous writer friends who exchanged witty banter, chain- smoked, and drank a lot. Then, after reading her biography, I found out that she was  a miserable mean wretch who, surprise...was a raging alcoholic. 

I also loved T. S. Elliot. Then I read:

"The rats are underneath the piles,

The jew is underneath the lot."

He, like Ezra Pound and Celine (not Dion), I learned, were big anti-semites.

It's a bit of a  drag growing up and realizing many of your idols were... assholes; that being uber talented doesn't mean necessarily that you are a nice person. Even today, I can get disappointed.

A year ago, I met a famous new-age  health guru (wearing diamond encrusted glasses) at a conference. I heard he was a dick to all the workers there. They also told me he hid Diet Coke in a tea cup. I'm not sure that's true, but I like the story.

On my Pink Pearl record, I recorded a song about this very subject: imperfect heroes.

You can listen here: Heroes

Why are all our heroes so imperfect
Why do they always bring me down
Why are all our heroes so imperfect
The statue in the park has lost his crown

William Faulkner drunk and depressed
Dorothy Parker mean, drunk and depressed
And that guy in Seven Years in Tibet turned out to be a nazi
The founding fathers all had slaves, the explorers slaughtered the braves,
The Old Testament God can be so petty

Paul McCartney jealous of John, even more so now that he's gone
Dylan was so mean to Donovan in that movie
Pablo Picasso cruel to his wives
My favorite poets took their own lives
Orson Welles peaked at 25, ballooned before our eyes
and he sold bad wine

Heard Babe Ruth was full of malice
Lewis Carroll I'm sure did Alice
Plato in the cave with those very young boys
TS Elliott hated Jews, FDR didn't save the Jews
All the French joined the resistance after the war
Raymond Chandler drunk and depressed
Tennessee Williams drunk and depressed
Think I'll just get drunk and depressed. 
 

By the way, I am thinking of  "Heroes Part 2". If you have any good people to include, please let me know.