So the guitarist for Britney Spears and Rihanna contacted Dylan from Daemoness Guitars (absolutely fantastic instruments and way out of my price range :\) asking to be an endorsee. Dylan’s response is nothing short of legendary:
Hi Alex,
Thanks for the interest in my guitars. I don’t know if your aware of this but guys who are into metal hate pop music. The reason we hate it is that it is the soundtrack to the society that metal rebels against. Rampant commercialism of the human soul, vapid obsession with the self, almost non existant attention spans (who’s No1 this week?), detestable senses of entitlement (“I wanna be a billionaire, sooo freakin’ bad..” Bruno Mars). The list goes on. Most pop music that airs these days, typically documents human behaviours that occur at the end of a civilisation.
Let us for a minute juxtapose these multitudes of sin with the entirely more socially concerned and responsible attitudes that inspire metal musicians. Metal sees the bigger picture. We see a story of mankind. We see the journey to modern thought. We see history, and the progression of ideas and actions. We see the failure of the human ego when granted power. We see foolish, wise, brave, cowardly,strong and weak people. The main thrust of metals philosophical message is that there is a possibility that the world could end as mankind continues to wail on towards its own self made destruction. For someone born behind the iron curtain Alex, I thought these themes would really resonate with you. But apparently you would rather work with Britney Spears. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I would love to hear that I am wrong about you because then I would know that one more extra person is as concerned for mankind as I am. But, as things stand, I cannot endorse you. I cannot even sell you a guitar.
Dylan
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Corinthians 12:9-10
Edit: Since I’m seeing a lot of people calling Dylan “pretentious” etc I should clarify why I like this so much: as a self-employed artist, it takes a lot of balls to refuse a client (especially a high-profile one) because you disagree with what they represent to you. Whether you agree or disagree with Dylan’s views on pop music (I don’t find it to be a personal affront to all I believe in, personally) or metal (there’s plenty of vapidity and ignorance in metal too), it’s admirable that he stood up for his principles.
