Can’t Explain: Kyle Busch Disrespects Guitar, Everything Else
Oh hell no! I know this picture isn’t of Kyle Busch smashing a prize Les Paul customized guitar, is it? It is? This jackass is really smashing it? Why? Who told him he could do that?
Oh, that’s right. No one, ’cause don’t nobody tell Kyle Busch nothin’. Both Busch’s disregard for the NASCAR public at-large as well as his guitar smashing shenanigans have been documented enough that I won’t rehash them here (I suppose I will a little). Feel free to read here or here if you want the full scoop.
Busch-league is messing with an iconic rock tradition and using an iconic rock instrument to do it. His aggression will not stand.
Within seconds of being handed a customized guitar (a trophy handed to each of the winners on this Nashville track), Busch-league began banging the beautiful instrument on the ground like it was filled with candy. Why? Because the Nashville Superspeedway had given him trouble in the past (0-for-7 before Sunday) and he promised his crew that if he won, he’d bust the hell out of that guitar and give a piece to everyone.
Did his crew members even want a splintered sliver of guitar? I wouldn’t. But let’s say they did, and let’s give Busch the benefit of the doubt that this really is the arrangement he had with his crew, did it have to go down like that? What about requesting a prop guitar to use as a symbolic gesture so as not to offend the kind folks over at Gibson and the Nashville Superspeedway? And if symbolism just isn’t in the pit crew’s forté (shocker), did the guitar have to be smashed immediately like the talisman’s key from “Tomb Raider?”
Yes, that was a “Tomb Raider” reference. Do you see how upsetting this whole thing is? I’m referencing crappy action movies. I hope you’re happy Kyle Busch.
Busch said he didn’t mean to be disrespectful toward all the people his action ended up being disrespectful to. Adding that he was just acting on sincere emotion. Don’t believe it. He’s ripping off rock ‘n’ roll clichés that mean even less to Busch than the others musicians who’ve been ripping off that move for 45 years.
When The Who’s Pete Townshend smashed his Rickenbacker in 1964 for the first time, THAT was just an accident that turned into an act:
“I just started getting into feedback and expressed myself physically. One day, I was banging my guitar around making noises and I banged it on this ceiling in this club and the neck broke off, because Rickenbackers are made out of cardboard. And everybody started to laugh and they went, ‘Hah, that’ll teach you to be flash.’ So I [had] to make it look like I had meant to do it. So I smashed this guitar and jumped all over the bits and then picked up the 12-string and carried on as though nothing had happened. And the next day the place was packed.” (April 1980 Issue of Sound International)
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via AP
And Townshend was the first to do it. And it was cool. And it was iconic. But it was for show. So when everyone else from KISS to Nirvana began doing it in the name of frustration and rebellion, well none of ‘em realized how stupid it all was. All those other musicians are the equivalent of the guy who thinks he has ”wisdom” or “honor” tattooed in Chinese on his bicep, when he actually has “pettycoat” or “carrot stick.”
Kyle Busch might as well have “carrot stick” tattooed on his arm.
He’s faced frustration before. What did he smash then? And more importantly, if Busch’s actions really were just a sincere outpouring of unbridled emotion, how was he able to make a deal with his crew months or years beforehand?
Busch is as concerned about the people that allow him to make his living as he was for that beautiful piece of steel craftsmanship lying splintered in the winner’s circle.
Leave a Reply
