Don't we all love funny rumours and anecdotes about our favourite bands? Ozzy Osbourne once bit off a bat's head, Nicky Sixx once died for 2 minutes before a fan revived him with a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart, Led Zeppelin once "pleasured" a groupie with a fish, Jimi Hendrix once worked with Cynthia Plaster Caster to make a plaster mould of his... junk? And the list goes on. I couldn't get my hands on any outrageous stories about X, but serendipity dictated that I would somehow meet a guy who worked as a roadie for them in the 1990s (don't ask, long story!), so here's a little list of funny anecdotes of his, courtesy of Mr. [Redacted]. [Disclaimer: don't take any of this at face value, this happened 25+ years ago]
Hairspray radioactivity
>Back in the day hairspray brands didn't abide by the same safety regulations as they do today, hence it could quickly get quite toxic. It took a minimum of 3-4 hairspray units to the upwards hairdos the band sported back then, so the air backstage got unbreathable quite fast. Lots of people would pass out and/or experience extreme respiratory distress.
> Hide's hair required the most hairspray units, which could be 6+ units.
> His hair was styled with him putting his head down so the hair could be sprayed at the roots to lift them up. Thanks to the fumes and keeping his head down for so long, he would feel sick and have trouble breathing. This didn't keep him from doing that epic 'do though.
> For that reason, from the mid-nineties onwards, his hair was mostly wigs or extensions that were prepared by the staff before being pinned to his real hair.
> The poor staff who had to prepare the wigs and extensions would get sick too, so every ventilator available was dragged backstage to ventilate the room. People would also drop by to fan the staff with those matsuri fan thingies.
Divas
> Yoshiki and Hide were, unsurprisingly, the brattiest members.
> Hide had a policy that said no food or drink whatsoever on the day of a concert. No one knows why, but from morning until after the gig, he wouldn't eat or drink.
> Reason why he was frequently hangry and sometimes lashed out at the staff.
> The staff still liked him, though, because he was the coolest. Everyone wanted to cater to him so they could copy his clothing style, way of speaking, etc. By 1995, the roadies was mostly an assortment of band clones.
> Yoshiki on the contrary ate like a starving shark. He requested huge ammounts of food, of which he only ate like 20%, which is still impressive. Mr. [Redacted] was once in charge of buying his food, and it was very stressful because he knew he couldn't screw up. Yoshiki had requested curry rice, McDonald's-style hamburgers, fish and plenty of other stuff.
> Yoshiki could spend hours in front of the mirror trying new outfits. His make up also had to be extra waterproof so he wouldn't sweat it out on the drums. He got very upset if sweat caused his mascara to run down his face. Remember kids: extra. strong. mascara. at. all. times.
Groupies
> Unlike in the West, groupies weren't really a thing, even if young girls would literally do anything to sneak backstage or to get a glimpse of the band's private moments.
> It was common for such fans to wait for hours at the venue after the concert was over so they would see the band leave on their vans. Also, they'd jump on taxis and yell "follow that car!" like in the movies. It was a pain in arse to make sure they didn't follow them to their homes or hotels, so sometimes a couple of similar cars would leave at the same time and drive through different roads so they'd get lost.
> Still, many fans managed to sneak around and do things such as camping outside the band's hotel with posters and flowers. Mr. [Redacted] says it would have been cute if they didn't start shrieking their favourite bandmember's name in the wee hours of the morning.
> It was also common for them to figure out the bar a bandmember would be drinking at, they'd sneak in, sit somewhere in their line of sight and start crying, shrieking or creepily hoovering to attract their attention. Creepy.
> The band was mostly private about their personal lives (as it often happens in Japan) but it was known that they all had their girlfriends/wives/whatever, except those were hardly ever seen in public and didn't usually come to concerts (because they'd be murdered by the fans in no time, I presume).
> Sorry for you, slash fanfiction writers of the internetz, but to Mr. [Redacted]'s knowlege, none of the band members were gay. .
> Also, sorry to disappoint you fellow Westerners, but their love interests were all Japanese. Except for Yoshiki. Yoshiki liked them white ladies, nothing new here!
> Mr. [Redacted] says his primary motivation for working that job was courting the female fans and offering alternative "emotional support" when they were denied access to the actual band. It worked. He says it worked particularly well when he wore eyeliner. The chicks couldn't get the rockstars, but they were okay with doing the roadie as a consolation prize. Guys, take notes.
Trivia
> Contrary to popular belief, they didn't drink all that much. Japanese people really do seem to be quite sensitive to alcohol, so a couple of beers actually did it for them.
> Hide was the one who always managed to get the drunkest on the least alcohol units. And he really was a rowdy drunk.
>Mr. [Readacted] doesn't think drugs were ever involved, since they weren't widely available in Japan at the time and even people in the rock scene appeared to be opposed to drug culture.
> It was widely believed that Taiji was fired for questioning Yoshiki's artistic and business direction, if other motives were involved, they're not known.