Die Little Stranger
By: Arthur Stuart

A man is least himself when he speaks in his own person - give him a mask and he'll tell you the truth.

Everyone wanted to be Brian Slade. His predecessor Jack Fairy; his former partner, both musically and romantically, Curt Wild; his manager, Jerry Devine; every child of the glam-rock movement. No one could match Slade's influence or charisma. Some envied him, some adored him, some even resented him, but in the end, everyone wanted to live the life he lived. Who wouldn't want the fame, the fortune, the money, the power, the women, the men?

Everyone wanted to be Brian Slade. But Brian Slade just wanted to be somebody else.

In 1974, glam rock had taken over the world. Unlike the peace and love decade, the 70's rock scene was a different kind of revolution - a sexual one. And at its heart was pop sensation Slade, who won over a slew of followers in a whirlwind of electic guitar, bright colors, and lots of glitter.

Slade's influence, however, transcended just the musical preference of teenagers. His was a voice that spoke to the orphans and the outcasts; a voice that declared homosexuality and casual sex as not just acceptable but bordering on nessecary. Slade himself openly admitted his own bisexuality, and while happily married to his wife Mandy, proceeded to fall in love with her fellow American Curt Wild, rocker and founder of the influential garage band The Rats, right before the eyes of the nation. Together, Slade and Wild took the country by storm. They had the fame and the fortune and the money and the power, but they also had each other. In short, they had it all.

Which was why America was shell-shocked when the singers abruptly ended their partnership in every sense of the word. Contractually bound, Slade continued the rest of his sold-out Maxwell Demon tour solo, fueled by an admission in a television interview that he had had a premonition of being assassinated on stage.

And then it happened. Exactly ten years ago today, Slade performed the last concert of his tour, without anyone knowning that it would be the last concert of his career. Before he could even sing a note, he was shot square in the chest by a figure in the crowd. To say that the rock-and-roll world was devastated would be an understatement - that final image of Slade's bleeding body lying atop a pile of feathers while more rained down from the ceiling was one that was engraved upon the minds of anyone who had ever purchased one of the pop idol's records. But even more pressing was the eternal question: why?

Only a day later, the shooting proved to be a hoax. A clever ruse dreamed up by none other than Slade himself. But still, as former fans burned posters and records while jeering at mention of the singer's name, that single question remained. Why destroy the life he had spent nearly a decade cultivating? Most blamed the split from Curt Wild as the reason, although that certainly didn't hurt Wild's image as he went on to tour with fellow singer Jack Fairy, arguably the sole creator of the glam rock movement. But then, why did the split occur in the first place? There are but a few answers to a thousand why's.

Slade will be sorely missed for his contributions to the entertainment field, notably his outlandish, outrageous, over-the-top stage shows. But mention can hardly be made of these without shedding light as well on Slade's alter-ego, Maxwell Demon. Demon's is the story of a space creature who ventures to earth and becomes a rock-and-roll messiah, only to be destroyed by his own success.

Born Thomas Brian, Slade dreamed of stardom from the very beginning. And become a star he did. But somewhere along the way, he got caught up in it all - unable to distinguish fantasy from reality. He was like nothing the world had ever seen before - and in the end, like nothing he appeared to be. Maxwell Demon was not only tragically flawed, but also self-seemingly invincible. And that was Brian Slade. He was elegance, walking arm-in-arm with a lie. The fact was, the world was simply not big enough for neither Slade nor Demon.

But though the size of the world has not changed, that still holds true today. Brian Slade possesses the kind of ambition and charisma that is impossible to ignore. He still enjoys the fame, the fortune, the money, the power, the men, the women. He still puts on elaborate shows for packed stadiums nearly every night. He has everything anyone could ever want. But after everything that happened ten years ago, he also has what he wants: to be someone else entirely.

Funny how some people never learn at all.