Part Two my MY PERSONAL HEROES. Today we chat about a special kind of man, that would be the amazingly prophetic and angry poet with the serene soul: BILL HICKS.
I grew up listening to many comedians. George Carlin, Richard Pryor, the Monty Python troupe, etc. All of them are great but never really captured what I felt about life, no one channeled my frustrations of how we are just wasting time and not evolving. How crap means more to people than art, writing or learning. No one had my voice. But then, I discovered the works of BILL HICKS.
I guess in a way, I can thank my favorite comic PREACHER for introducing him to me first. I was reading that and he appears in a flashback in an issue. I never heard of him. But then a couple co-workers were talking about him one day and I said I heard about him from the comic. They recommended his CDs to me. I went out and got “REVELATIONS.” I don’t think I laughed as hard or nodded my head in agreement so many times. I now own all his stuff and any bootlegs or anything related to Bill Hicks.
Bill was a musician, a poet, a comedian, and a preacher. He ranted and raved about everything that was wrong with us. He claimed he was waiting for us at the evolutionary ladder. And moaned to the crowds in the smoke filled bars that we “just don’t get it.” Well, some of us do Bill. Some of us do.
It’s kinda special. When you meet someone and you find out that they are a Bill Hicks fan, you instantly know the kind of person they are. And you are immediately mentally attracted to that type of person. You can relate to them in a way you cannot relate to anyone else when you are going about your day in a sea of morons, at times. Bill didn’t hide the truth. He gave it a loud speaker. He called us out. He wasn’t afraid to say what we needed to hear. He was our truth.
Bill died of Pancreatic cancer in 1994. Its funny to listen to his CDs today and how much nothing has changed. His rants about pop music icons and the Iraq war. Nothing has changed. Just some names have been replaced. George Bush is now George Bush Jr. Debbie Gibson is now Britney Spears. People still have the same hang ups, and its all even worse now. I don’t even know if we can handle a “Bill Hicks” today. He would have got assassinated (as he mockingly did to himself at the conclusion of every show he did).
One thing that Bill ended his shows by saying, and we would be good to listen to this:
“Instead of spending all that money on weapons and killing each other, we could be feeding and clothing the people of the world. NOT ONE HUMAN BEING EXCLUDED! If we could do that, then we could as one race, explore outer space in peace, forever.”
But we couldn’t handle that message or logic. Not then, and not today. I can picture Bill in the afterlife just shaking his head at us thinking “God, what idiots!” And he’s right. We are idiots. It’s almost hopeless. But every time I turn on a Bill Hicks CD or DVD of his, I am reminded that there is hope. It merely rests in the hearts of those who want it bad enough.
So Bill Hicks, is my hero. I wish I had as much guts he did. We miss you Bill. And we need you now more than ever.
T
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