I overlooked this little gem of an article that mentioned how Boston’s Tom Scholz has threatened a fan site with a cease-and-desist order if they don’t remove the offending material related to Scholz. I totally overlooked this story just like Tom Scholz overlooked the fact that Brad Delp isn’t alive anymore, so what the fuck is he doing touring as Boston?!It reminds me of a conversation I had last year with a guy who’s around my age at work. I hate telling people who I like when they “So what kind of music do you listen to?” 99% of the time they go, “Who’s that?” when I tell them, so I just say “The Beatles” or “Bob Dylan” and be done with it. Everyone’s heard of them and the answer probably isn’t that far from the truth anyway.
So this guy notices that I drum all the time on my desk, a habit that thankfully nobody has really harped on me about, even though everyone has noticed. He’s seen me do this countless times, assumes that I’m a “rocker”, and proceeds to tell me that I should check out the concert that he and his wife are going to for the weekend. Apparently, Boston was playing at some nearby fair and I had no idea they were even touring.
“Isn’t that kind of hard to do, considering their lead vocalist killed himself?” I asked without a hint of sarcasm.
He made up some excuse how it was for his wife and stopped pressing the issue.
More recently, a guy who happens to be an admitted Boston fan started a couple of websites devoted to the band. I say “a couple” because the first one was shut down because Tom Scholz didn’t like that one either. If you’re a member of Boston, you’ve got a lot of time to Google your own name during the downtime.
The guy starts a second site and a few fans immediately begin to badmouth Scholz and his treatment of Delp. This leads to Scholz hiring a lawyer and then the whole threatening prospect begins again. The website is called Cool The Engines, and its proprietor is one George Gouldsmith. Mr. Goldsmith recently replied to the accusations on the Musicradar website:
“I am frankly tired of Ms. Parenteau's (Scholz’s lawyer) inaccurate remarks, which she chooses to spread around the Internet about me and my group. Ms.
Parenteau has yet to detail what remarks my private, invitation only group (
> 20 people) made which were "malicious untruths". She says I took pleasure
in making "defamatory remarks about Mr. Scholz" which is completely absurd. Our
group had unmonitored, open discussions about many Boston topics, unlike the
other Boston fan boards, which are heavily monitored by those in the Boston
camp.Instead of Mr. Scholz strong arming small fan boards to close, because he
doesn't like what they post, why doesn't he focus on creating new music,
releasing a boxed Boston DVD/CD set and making peace with the prior bandmates?”
Valid points, and the entire thing points to the fact that Tom Scholz sounds like a complete asshole. If he gets so worked up about such things, you tend to wonder if there isn’t some truth behind the words he’s trying to conceal.
8 comments:
Except that what Gouldsmith is saying is not true. The Scholz's and Parentaeu have PROOF and there are witnesses. This is not Big Man against the Righteous Little Man. This is Man Against A Pest. Like when you find a rat, gnawing away at your grain. Something that you have taken care to store away and here it comes, to do it damage. Blogging is great, and I do it too, but get your facts straight dude. Don't ley Gouldsmith BS you.
Why am I obligated to get my facts straight? You're right: it's a blog. There's no pretense here that I'm claiming to be a source or authority on this or any topic. It's an opinion. And my opinion is that Tom Scholz is doing a very good job of chipping away at the Boston name by touring under its banner and spending time off the road by dealing with such bullshit as some blogger who holds a grudge against Scholz's actions towards Delp. Here's the only fact I know: I never heard of Gouldsmith or his site(s) prior to that aforementioned article. I had heard that Scholz threatened Delp's former wife with similar legal action resulting from some kind of indescretion. What does all of this mean to me? There's Scholz touring the country as Boston even though the voice and original band members are nowhere part of the line-up. There's evidence of him threatening legal action against everyone he disagrees with. Has he ever considered why people talk shit about him, sometimes in ways that may not involve the truth? Perhaps it's because he's shown us a career of making sure that he gets compensated for every hint of wrong doing but doesn't mind taking money from Boston fans even when it's through tactics that are less than scrupulous.
Tom Scholz is a grade A asshole. How pathetic he's got some yahoo lead singer from Home Depot. IMO Scholz has severe mental illness.
Hi Todd - I came across your article last night and appreciated your words, in defense of Mr Scholz's lawsuit against me and Jeff's rather angry, inaccurate post about me.
Unfortunately after 1-1/2 yrs, Scholz's defamation lawsuit against me continues, along with Scholz's two other defamation lawsuits against Micki Delp and the Boston Herald. I still contend that I (and my group) did nothing wrong, and I'll continue to fight for my freedom of speech.
Rock on,
George
I've been going through Wikipedia, reminiscing about all the great bands. I eventually got to Boston, who I had seen in concert once. It reminded me about Scholz and how he seemed like a real dick to MANY people. I was a fan of the Band early on, and then the shit hit the fan, and they turned to crap. Basically became a cover-band, of their old selves. So, I wanted to see who else Scholz screwed over and did a Search for "Tom Scholz Asshole" and ended up here. Going to check out some other sites I found now. Can't believe people still go see them.
Can confirm that, in 2021, a Google search of "Tom Scholz asshole" still leads to your blog (and is still accurate).
And deep in 2022 can confirm, yet again, that a Google search of “Tom Scholz asshole” still leads to this blog. Now I’m gonna look up “Tom Scholz douchebag”
And in 2024 Tom Scholz asshole still leads to this site. Well done!!
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