AP Magazine

i got my new issue of AP magazine today (and just a little sidenote, i cannot type the word 'magazine' correctly the first time, ever.) and i while flipping through it, i felt the need to respond to something a reader wrote in about.

I was thoroughly disappointed to see Bert McCracken disgracing the cover AP 228. Not only am I disgusted that the majority of the Used's fame relies on broken relationships with Kelly Osbourne and Gerard Way, but trash-talking My Chemical Romance to sell records. I also find McCracken's widely acknowledged substance abuse to be a bad influence on a very naive generation of fans, especially when I started listening to them at the age of 12. When I found that Bert had started badmouthing someone he publicly acknowledged as a good friend, it made me think: "Is he just some scuzzy rock star that screams out a song or two before vomiting onstage to sober up enough to make it through a set? When I witnessed his drunkenness at a Vans Warped tour Show, I'd lost all respect, as he drunkenly wobbled around with a megaphone telling kids not to watch My Chemical Romance perform. So, AP, I still love you but am a little disappointed in your article attempting to glorify a drug addict and backstabber.
Julia Slater
Martinez, CA

okay, now before i respond, i just want to clarify that i am in no way testifying to bert's character because i don't know him. for all i know, he could be the world's sweetest dude or the world's biggest prick.

first of all, julia slater, you should know that a great deal of my chem's initial fame was due to bert being a huge fan of them and the used taking them out on tour after tour after tour. so to say it's the other way around is just ridiculous. and as for him trash talking them- often times when people have a bad falling out with a friend, they talk shit. it's just how humans work. now, i understand that it isn't a classy thing to do, especially on stage, in interviews, in songs, whatever, but that's not the point. the point is that bert is a person just like you and me (or maybe just me, you seem kind of... dumb.) and therefore is going to act like a "normal" person does. so please get down off your high horse when it comes to what bert says.

second, the fact that this generation is so naive is not bert's fault or problem. i'm not saying i agree with substance abuse in any way, because i definitely don't, but that's another rant altogether. but it seems to me that if people see the effects of substance abuse it should turn them off of it, rather than on to it. i know that's not exactly how it works. everyone wants to be like their 'idol' or 'hero.' and therein lies the problem. the kids don't think for themselves. and it's not really fair to put that on one man's shoulders when there are tons of other people out there abusing controlled substances (lindsay lohan, what's up?). are you going to write to everyone and tell them how much so and so ~sucks?

now onto the cute little comment about him 'vomiting onstage to sober up enough to make it through a set.' from everything i've heard about those instances, he was, in fact, not drunk on stage, but rather running around like a mad man under really hot lights and screaming his lungs out. why don't you go outside and run a mile in hundred degree weather, screaming the whole way and see if you don't vomit. my money says you do.

and finally, i read that article, and my memory may not be perfect, but i don't recall it seeming like they were trying to glorify anyone. in fact, if i remember correctly, they more made bert come off as an asshole than anything. either way, it's nothing to get worked up over. he's just a regular dude.