Dec 16 2008
Musician Blocked From Selling Soul
Rock music has a long history of people supposedly “selling their souls” for talent, fame, and fortune.
There is the legend of Delta blues musician Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the Crossroads in exchange for being able to play, sing, and create the greatest blues anyone had ever heard. Johnson went on to become one of the finest ever blues musicians and influenced rock artists such as Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton. (Rockblog note: this legend is explored in the 80s film Crossroads. In the movie the Karate Kid battles the devil’s guitarist, Steve Vai, for the soul of Robert’s old friend Willie. Check it out.)
And in 1975 heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath went as far as naming their first “greatest hits” compilation album We Sold Our Soul For Rock ‘N’ Roll.
With the internet and online shopping sites it should be easier than ever to sell your soul for musical immortality. Right?
Apparently not.
MusicRadar.com report:
“A musician fed up with his life has today been barred from selling his soul to the highest bidder on eBay.
“Dante Knoxx, 24, of Bournemouth in the UK offered his “used” soul on Ebay for a starting bid of £25,000.50 - or a Buy It Now price of £700,000.
“But eBay have today (15 December) pulled the listing. The auction had two hours to go and no bids had been made, but eBay said Knoxx’s auction breached one of the firm’s policies.”
My guess is the devil was sitting at his computer waiting to put in a bid at the last second so nobody would bid against him and drive the price up.
The Rockblog would like to wish Dante Knoxx luck in finding a suitable market in which to peddle his soul and hopes he can soon find a satisfied buyer.
Where’s your sense of fun eBay?! Great idea for the guy to sell his soul, I wish I could have seen the listing… just a bit of a shame that eBay chose to pull it though really. I’m sure there’ll be a whole lot of copycat instances of eBay soul selling now; their soul selling crackdown department will no doubt be on constant call!
You think that selling his soul deal was his last straw with the biz and will make him better? sounds like a nut. The whole process of getting signed by a label has changed, ever hear of the push economy and the pull economy in the music biz, its pretty dif and Dante, wow, is all I can say.