Steven Tyler
I had one of those wonderful, unexpected moments last week… one of those great creative hits when the inspiration for your next story blitzes in via your heart. I was travelling to the Australian Romance Writers’ Association conference on the beautiful Gold Coast .
Lenny Kravitz
Jon Bon Jovi
Mick Jagger
Now if you want to see naked heroes… just go to the beach there any time of the day- but I digress. Before I collected my travelling buddy, I was listening to a favourite CD from the 70s. I was bopping along listening to Peter Frampton sing one of my all time favourites at full volume (and concentrating on my driving of course) and a story line just appeared along with the music. By the time I collected my friend, the whole story was there and for a died in the wool panster that is most unusual!
David Bowie
So why do we find our rock heroes sexy and why does their music get the creative juices flowing? How do they ooze sex appeal when some of them are not particularly handsome and don’t fit the usual sexy stereotype. Some of the top bands today are in their sixties and they still draw a crowd. Is it the bad boy image? Because they are mega rich? Because they sing to us of love? Is it the big hair? Is it the tattoos? Is it the glam factor? Or does Nickleback’s recent song give us the answer.
‘Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars And live in hilltop houses, drivin’ fifteen cars The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap We’ll all stay skinny ’cause we just won’t eat.’
Bruce Springsteen
Bob Geldof
And can you guess… the hero of my next story is a rock star! So now just enjoy the images…and then tell me why do you think they keep the appeal? For me it’s the passion they put into their craft… and the glam!
Robbie Williams
About Annie Seaton
Perhaps because they speak to our hearts, our emotions, we get picked up and carried along on the ride. Some of them are not good-looking, but they commonly have great character, confidence and yes, they’re often bad boys too. Who doesn’t love a walk on the wild side?
[Reply]
Yeah, I gotta say…music speaks to me in wild ways. from the music itself to the characters that want to come out of it. I’ve got a rocker on tap too. And it’s so nice to see that we can actually write them again. It used to be the worst taboo on the planet to have a musician in a book.
[Reply]
I’m almost embarrassed to say that the first full story I wrote was inspired by a country and western song. We had a young man with with Autism staying with us for several months and he played the same CD over and over again. I got three story ideas out of them but the one I completed was based on “You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille”. Next thing I’d started writing a story about a marriage on the rocks after drought, financial problems and family tragedy drove the protagonists apart. No it’s not really like the situation in the song, but it was triggered by me thinking about that line.
[Reply]
Jenna Bennett Reply:
August 28th, 2012 at 5:30 pm
Ah, Kenny Rogers! Not a rocker, but quite a good looking guy, if you like the type.
And he certainly had some fantastic songs!
I once started a book about a country music star. Never finished it, though. Maybe I’ll pick it back up again. Living in Nashville, research is easy!
Then again, I have enough books I have to write; I don’t need any more, so maybe I’ll just leave it alone for now.
[Reply]
Amy Andrews Reply:
August 28th, 2012 at 7:15 pm
I think country music is great fodder for plots Fiona and I’ve used some of the great one-liners in stories often and you always know the country fans becasue they’re the ones who write and say – hey laughed so much when you used that line from Earl Had to Die or You Need A Man Around Here. I too have a plot percolating about a country music heroine but wierdly she keeps telling me she sees ghosts and as I’ve NEVER done anything paranoraml I just keep telling her to get back in her box! One day…
Annie for me it will always be about the lyric – you write a lyric that makes me swoon, laugh, cry, or shiver then I’m going to heart you no matter what you look like. Meatloaf’s lyrics slay me and my love for him has never dimmed! And thank you for including a pic ofRobbie – have used him as hero material in the past. Love that lyric “I’m here to make money and get laid”. Cracks me up every time
[Reply]
Peter Frampton. Oh Lord, I loved that song too! I think those guys with great voices (and sometimes great bods) get us pumped because the (more often than not) simplicity of their songs (lyrics, amazing guitar solos) brings out the raw, oftentimes dark emotions that live inside each one of us. I was listening to 70s George Harrison the other night and was so moved again by songs like “What is Life”.
Amy, I’m a HUGE Robbie Williams fan too =)
[Reply]
Oh, if we’re talking songwriters, then Kris Kristoffersen all the way. “Help me make it through the night.” “Loving her was easier than anything I’ll ever do again.” “The Silver-Tongued Devil and I.” He had the greatest story songs. I cry every time I listen to “Jody and the kid.” I can listen to that song three times in a row and still choke up at the end. And of course he’s not a bad-looking guy, either!
[Reply]
Hmmm Kris. Hmmmm.
Picture a big Homer Simpson drool….
[Reply]
Since I’m a child of the 60′s of course many of my rock heroes, were of the old acid rock. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrex, any of the Beatles. And who can forget the Rolling Stones, my all time fav. Fun post.
[Reply]
Music lyrics are a great source of inspiration for me. I think that all the musicians you mentioned are very confident in their on stage personas, and they have a hint of the bad boy. Confidence is a big attraction to women. We like to think our men know what they are doing. The only time it becomes annoying is when they refuse to ask for directions.
[Reply]
Music touches us at a primal level and the musicians give us something to project that emotions onto.
[Reply]