This Time The Music Gets Lost in the Scandal

One of my all time favorite rock and roll stories involves rock god Alice Cooper biting the head off of a chicken. Way back in the days of Heavy Metal's infancy, Cooper was on stage performing a concert at temporary venue erected on someone's farm. Somehow a chicken wandered up on stage. Cooper had never been on a farm and assumed the chicken, as most birds, could fly. He picked it up and threw it out over the audience. Of course the fowl fell into the crowd where the, no doubt stoned, masses of moshing fans promptly stomped it to death.

The next day the press reported the incident something to the affect of "Alice Cooper Bites Head Off Chicken on Stage." Apparently Frank Zappa, responding to the stories, asked Cooper if the rumors and stories were true. Cooper initially denied it to which Zappa famously replied, "Well whatever you do, don't tell anyone you didn't do it."

You've likely heard by now of American Idol runner up Adam Lambert's performance on the AMAs this week which prompted literally thousands of complaints to the network and a subsequent cancellation of another show. No chickens were involved but Lambert kissed another male musician and gave a face-full of crotch to another.

I'm sure the whole incident will no doubt serve as great publicity for his album and certainly can be justified under the mantra that even bad press is still nonetheless press.

However Lambert spent all of the Idol competition and the months afterwards not focusing on his sexuality but on his music. This prompted many in the gay community to criticize him for not being gay enough.

Clearly Lambert's actions were both premeditated and designed to shock and to garner attention. And they were likely in response to these critics. The tragedy is that now instead of a focus on his very obvious talents as a musician, the story is instead about what really amounts to a juvenile publicity stunt.

Lambert of course claims a double standard, and claims the furor is because he is gay.

Unlike Alice Cooper, who frankly needed a good chicken biting story to make up for mediocre at best singing skills, Lambert would do well to focus not on sensationalizing his sexuality, but to truly make his career, all about the music. In other words, let the talk be about his merits as a musician.

Isn't that what being treated equally really means?