Ole Sleufoot

In the following statements, rock musicians testify of
an outside power that has taken over them while
writing and performing rock music. Some of them
have actually identified this power as demonic:

JIMI HENDRIX’ girlfriend, Fayne Pridgon, said: “He
used to always talk about some devil or something
was in him, you know. He didn’t know what made
him act the way he acted and what made him say the
things he said, and the songs and different things
like that … just came out of him. It seems to me he
was so tormented and just torn apart and like he
really was obsessed, you know, with something
really evil”

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of LED ZEPPELIN
both claim that they don’t know who wrote their
occultic song Stairway to Heaven. Plant testified:
“Pagey had written the chords and played them for
me. I was holding the paper and pencil, and for
some reason, I was in a very bad mood. Then all of a
sudden my hand was writing out words. … I just sat
there and looked at the words and then I almost
leaped out of my seat”

“I’ve always considered that there was some way
where we were able to channel energy, and that
energy was able to be, from another source, if you
like, like a higher power or something, that was
actually doing the work. I’ve often thought of us just
being actually just the earthly beings that played the
music because it was uncanny. Some of this music
came out extremely uncanny”

“It’s amazing, ’cause sometimes when we’re on
stage, I feel like somebody’s just moving the pieces.
... I’m just going, ‘God, we don’t have any control over
this.’ And that’s magic” (Stevie Nicks of
FLEETWOOD MAC)

ANGUS YOUNG, lead guitarist for AC-DC, is called
the “guitar demon”; and he admitted that something
takes control of the band during their concerts: “...it’s
like I’m on automatic pilot. By the time we’re halfway
through the first number someone else is steering
me. I’m just along for the ride. I become possessed
when I get on stage”

“We receive our songs by inspiration, like at a
seance” (Keith Richards of the ROLLING STONES)

“I was directed and commanded by another power.
The power of darkness ... that a lot of people don’t
believe exists. The power of the Devil. Satan”
(LITTLE RICHARD)

“They [The Beatles] were like mediums. They weren’t
conscious of all they were saying, but it was coming
through them” (YOKO ONO)

“[Of his music JOHN LENNON said] “It’s like being
possessed: like a psychic or a medium”

“It’s amazing that it [the tune to ‘In My Life’] just came
to me in a dream. That’s why I don’t profess to know
anything. I think music is very mystical” (John
Lennon)

“I felt like a hollow temple filled with many spirits,
each one passing through me, each inhabiting me
for a little time and then leaving to be replaced by
another” (John Lennon)

“The music to ‘Yesterday’ came in a dream. The tune
just came complete. You have to believe in magic. I
can’t read or write music” (PAUL MCCARTNEY)

“I wake up from dreams and go ‘Wow, put this down
on paper,’ the whole thing is strange. You hear the
words, everything is right there in front of your face. I
feel that somewhere, someplace it’s been done and
I’m just a courier bringing it into the world” (MICHAEL
JACKSON)

“When the Siberian shaman gets ready to go into his
trance, all the villagers get together... and play
whatever instruments they have to send him off [into
trance and possession]. … It was the same way with
The Doors when we played in concert... I think that
our drug experience let us get into it... [the trance
state] quicker.... It was like Jim [Morrison] was an
electric shaman and we were the electric shaman’s
band, pounding away behind him. Sometimes he
wouldn’t feel like getting into the state, but the band
would keep on pounding and pounding, and little by
little it would take him over. God, I could send an
electric shock through him with the organ. John
could do it with his drumbeats” (DOORS keyboardist
Ray Manzarek)

“That certain feeling happened to me in a big way
quite often with the first King Crimson. Amazing
things would happen--I mean, telepathy, qualities of
energy, things that I had never experienced before
with music … you can’t tell whether the music is
playing the musician or the musician is playing the
music” (Robert Fripp)

John McLaughlin, leader of MAHAVISHNU
ORCHESTRA, testified: “One night we were playing
and suddenly the spirit entered into me, and I was
playing, but it was no longer me playing”

In 1974, JONI MITCHELL told the press of a male
spirit who helps her write music. “Joni Mitchell
credits her creative powers to a ‘male muse’ she
identifies as Art. He has taken so much control of not
only her music, but her life, that she feels married to
him, and often roams naked with him on her 40-acre
estate. His hold over her is so strong that she will
excuse herself from parties and forsake lovers
whenever he ‘calls’”

GINGER BAKER, drummer for the popular ‘60s band
CREAM, said: “It happens to us quite often--it feels
as though I’m not playing my instrument, something
else is playing it and that same thing is playing all
three of our instruments. That’s what I mean when I
say it’s frightening sometimes. Maybe we’ll all play
the same phrase out of nowhere. It happens very
often with us”

The original recording of “I Put a Spell on You” was
done after the SCREAMIN’ JAY HAWKINS and his
band members got drunk and “some type of
presence seemed to seize him.” He began
“grunting, growling, screaming, gurgling in strange
unknown tongues, and wildly dancing around the
studio”

“Rock has always been the devil’s music, you can’t
convince me that it isn’t. I honestly believe everything
I’ve said—I believe rock and roll is dangerous. … I
feel that we’re only heralding something even darker
than ourselves” (DAVID BOWIE)

“I really wish I knew why I’ve done some of the things
I’ve done over the years. I don’t know if I’m a medium
for some outside source. Whatever it is, frankly, I
hope it’s not what I think it is—Satan” (OZZY
OSBOURNE)