The Curse of Adam Curry

There are a lot of famous curses out there.  There’s “The Curse of the Hope Diamond” that has been attributed to the fact that virtually every person who ever owned that particular piece of jewelry wound up losing their head…literally.  There’s the “Kennedy Curse” that supposedly began when JFK was assassinated in 1963 and continues today with the recent suicide of Mary Kennedy.  In sports, there’s “The Curse of the Bambino” (which was broken in 2004 when the Red Sox finally won another World Series), “The Curse of the Billy Goat” (which may be broken this year) and the more recent “Madden Curse” (which continues to plague a different NFL player every year).

There are musical curses, too.  There’s the “Buddy Holly Curse”, which is cited by many as being the cause of the deaths of at least a half dozen musicians and other people connected to Holly.  There’s also the “27 Curse”, which refers to the fact that such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse all died at the age of 27.  The most famous of them all, though, is probably the “Robert Johnson Curse”.  Of course, that’s the one that involves Johnson meeting The Devil at a crossroads and trading his soul away for sweet guitar-playing chops.

However, this isn’t about any of them.  This is about a lesser-known curse – one to which I was a witness…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

When I was a kid, there was no internet.  I didn’t have Facebook and Wikipedia and a million other websites that I could use to access all of the knowledge known to man.  If I wanted to hear a song I didn’t own, I waited for it to come on the radio.  If I wanted to see a music video, I waited for it to come on MTV.  If I wanted to know the lyrics to a current song, I waited for it to appear in “Song Hits” magazine.  And, if I wanted to know the story behind the songs, I waited for an interview in “Rolling Stone” magazine…or on “Hitline U.S.A.”, a syndicated radio show that spotlighted a different rock star each week.  It came on every Sunday night at 10:00 p.m. on WOKI-FM 100.3 in Knoxville, TN.  I never missed it.

It was January 14, 1990 and the guest was Richard Marx.  I was stoked.  I tuned in and patiently awaited his stories about the early years & the recording of his (then current) album “Repeat Offender”, as well as hints of what was to come.  Things started out innocently enough with Richard declaring, “I’m very self-critical, but I’m not nearly as critical of me as some other people – like our co-host Adam Curry.”  Marx went on to explain how a friend of his had heard Curry insult him on MTV, comparing an incident during which he trashed his tour bus while being delayed at the Canadian border with “Doogie Howser going on a homicidal shooting spree.”

Marx recounted how, at a later MTV taping, he had confronted Curry, who denied making the comment.  Marx didn’t believe him, though, and was able to acquire a tape from the network which proved that the statement had, indeed, been made.  Marx then said matter-of-factly (on LIVE radio, mind you), “So, Adam, you lying scumbag, I don’t want to hear your voice for the rest of this interview.”  He went on to say how Adam had a “hairdo like Mrs. Howell from “Gilligan’s Island”.

Now, even though I was a HUGE Richard Marx fan and didn’t really have strong feelings about Adam Curry one way or the other, I thought that was a little like the pot calling the kettle black.  I mean, have you ever seen pictures of Richard Marx’s hair circa 1990?  It was a helluva thing.

Curry tried to smooth things over saying, “Hopefully, we can refrain from all the personal differences.  I don’t think this is either the time or the place to discuss it.  Although…”

“Adam, you jerk, I don’t even want to hear your voice!” Marx interrupted.  “You’re just a mousse endorsement!”

Again, look in the mirror, Richard.  I’m just saying.

Luckily for everyone involved, they weren’t actually in the same studio.  Therefore, no punches were thrown – just one insult after another.  Adam seemed to restrain himself in the interest of professionalism, I suppose, jabbing Marx one last time when he said, “Remember, I’m on MTV every single day…and you’re not.”  The two agreed to compare careers in 5 years and then Richard stormed out.

I was in shock.  It was one of the most awkward and bizarre things I had ever heard on the radio.  How cool that I was in the right place at the right time and heard it all.

But, “What’s the curse?” you ask.  Well, in 1990, Richard Marx was one of the most successful rock stars in the world.  He was on an incredible run that had begun 3 years earlier when he released his debut album.  During the period from 1987 thru 1990, he had 7 top five hits, three of which had made it all the way to number one.  His current (at the time) single was “Too Late to Say Goodbye”.

It just happened to be his first to miss the top ten, stalling out at number twelve.  His next single, “Children of the Night”, would peak at number thirteen.  Over the next four years, Marx would only hit the Top 40 five more times and only two of those would reach the top 10.  His last hit was in 1994, one year before he and Adam Curry were supposed to compare careers.

Coincidentally, 1994 was also the year that Adam Curry quit MTV declaring that he could no longer play Winger videos when the internet was happening.  Of course, nobody knew what the hell he was talking about at the time.  He would go on to host a number of podcasts, earning the nickname “The Podfather”.  By and large, though, he, like Marx, would essentially disappear from the face of the Earth…four years after the “Hitline U.S.A.” incident.

All that being said, a number of questions still remain:  Did Adam Curry really put a curse on Richard Marx?  If so, did he accidentally get some on himself?  Did the two of them actually ever compare careers in 1995?  Will Richard Marx hire Theo Epstein as his new manager? Does anybody really give a shit?  I don’t have the answer to any of these.  Sorry.

 Go Cubs!!!