It’s a strange thing when you learn a lot of things about an artist you like. Sometimes you discover things that aren’t so great and make you question whether you even like them anymore. Do we apologize their flaws and just listen to the music and appreciate the art? I think it matters on the individual person and their scenario at hand. I keep thinking about Nico and realizing how little I really knew about her before I started to read Nico: The Life and Lies of an Icon. She didn’t even know how to play an instrument and taught herself the harmonium which she lugged around with her everywhere. It was sheer determination (or fate, she was a Fatalist) and her beautiful look that helped her carve a place in music history. Rock journalists are quick to deem her just a heroin addict junkie without really looking at her story. She was a complete nihilist and detached from the world in a way where she would disassociate with her body. I discovered some horrific things while reading this book which made me not really like Brian Jones anymore, one of the original founding members of the Rolling Stones. Nico and Brian had a friendship that led to an intimate relationship; Nico really just wanted to be close to their manager at the time, Andrew Loog Oldham. “Nico made sure that first of all she met their manager. She had been told he was looking for ‘girls to turn into stars’.” (Witts 101)

Brian and Nico had a dark relationship. “Jones was a sadist who could turn submissive” (Witts 107).

Here are some passages I found which disturbed me:

“On one occasion he had taken some amphetamine pills which rendered him nervous and impotent. He wanted sex but couldn’t manage an erection. He slapped her around and punched her in the face, leaving a bruise. Another time, while tripping, he attempted to stick a brooch pin through her vaginal lips, cutting her. She also said he placed a loaded gun into her vagina as a dildo. She talked of his ceremonial candles, their golden flames, the dripping of hot wax on to his nipples, and the pouring of the stinging wax on to her vagina hair, which Nico had to cut off with scissors once the wax had cooled and congealed. Jones also used candles as dildos, she said. On the occasion of the Los Angeles hotel sighting by a photographer, they had both taken LSD, the drug that induces adventurous hallucinations and mood shifts – the ‘good trip’ or the ‘bad trip’ depending on results. Jones tied Nico down for anal intercourse, which he conducted without a lubricant. She bled profusely, inducing a bad trip, but she dared not call for medical help from the hotel only once she was finally alone and had ‘come down’.” (Witts 106-107)

“She knew, though, that Jones had little more to offer her, for he had been quoted in the rock press then as saying: “I haven’t tied myself down with a girl yet [an unfortunate turn of phrase]. After all, how many girls could I find who would make me tea, cook me meals, tidy my house, and talk intelligently to me while I sit and watch with my feet up?” (Witts 109)

I have met a lot of people who idealize Brian Jones as the “original Rolling Stone”, a “fashion icon”, a sort of “rock legend”, but I have never seen this side to the story. Knowing about his personal life has made me not the biggest fan.On July 3 1969 Brian Jones was found dead floating in his swimming pool. His death was written down as “accidental death”.  This is just something I have been thinking about while reading and reevaluating the music I have always loved.