The Most Head-Turning Musician Quotes of 2014: Gene Simmons, Lorde, Eminem and More Make Marks on Twitter, Elsewhere

Musicians, like every other branch of celebrity, are bound to say head-turning things every once in a while. This year was no exception. Check out these eight eye-catching lines and the (generally) bad blood that preceded them.

"Music's biggest night...to be disrespected. A heartfelt F--K YOU guys."

Trent Reznor has long been one of the most outspoken members of the music community. It was almost less surprising that he trashed the Grammy Awards following his performance (with a supergroup of stars including Queens of The Stone Age's Josh Homme and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham) than the fact the Nine Inch Nails frontman had accepted the invitation at all. The network cut from the performance early to show some last minute advertisements, which is pretty much the worst way to get a high-five from Reznor.

"I'll hear TV commercials where the music's ripping off sounds of mine, to the point where I think it's me. Half the time, it's the Black Keys." Jack White may have the most violent beef streak outside of gangsta rap itself, based on a number of past physical altercations. This year marked the breaking point of his Black Keys' tolerance as a number of stories revealed his disgust with the group. First there was the aforementioned quote during White's feature profile in Rolling Stone, then e-mails came out during the guitarist's divorce proceedings that featured White throwing a fit that his and Dan Auerbach's child attended the same Nashville school. The Black Keys were admirably not bitter over the brouhaha.

"War on Drugs, suck my c--k."

Mark Kozelek, aka Sun Kil Moon, wasn't mad that another band sounded like him. He was pissed that another band's music was totally unlike his own. He and War on Drugs were scheduled for the same slot at the Ottawa Folk Festival. Sun Kil Moon features mellow acoustic narratives while War on Drugs does less mellow electric narratives, which started to drown out Kozelek's set. The often-irritated singer declared his next track would be titled "War on Drugs Can Suck My F-----g D--k." Later he would released a studio track titled "War on Drugs: Suck My C--k," which—despite claims from Kozelek—was not appreciated by the song's subjects.

"I'm the guy who says 'jump!'"

Gene Simmons is another guy that can make this list any year it gets published. He should probably hire a publicist to translate his opinions into politically correct statements. His most off-putting and distasteful moment came during an interview with SongFacts.com, where the KISS bassist called out people with depression for what he perceived to be melodrama, encouraging those threatening suicide to go ahead and do it. This came on the tail of Robin Williams' suicide so it struck a nerve even harder than it would have regularly. Simmons would later apologize for the insensitive comments on his web page.

"Dada make a nice bed for mommy at the bottom of the lake...tie a rope around a rock...there goes momma splashing in the water, no more fighting with dad."

Yes, these lyrics come from Eminem's "'97 Bonnie & Clyde," which came out during 1998. The fact that the lyrics are so eye-catching during 2014 is that they came from the mouth of Chief Justice John Roberts. The Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments on whether said lyrics could or should be considered a "true threat." A man who underwent a rough divorce recently posted vile rap lyrics about his ex on Facebook, including threats to murder her. He's facing up to four years in prison for the act but his defense argues that song lyrics don't pose a "true threat" (as evidenced by Eminem's words) has made it all the way up to the Supreme Court. The only way the aforementioned quote could be more hardcore is if it were delivered by the Notorious R.B.G. (Ruth Bader Ginsburg).

"Should we do something about your small penis while we're at it hm."

Most of the quote on this list are generally appalling but this tweet caused music fans everywhere to cover their mouths and yell "OHHHHHHHHHH!" Context: Diplo was bashing Taylor Swift—possibly because his beau Katy Perry doesn't take to her much—by supporting a crowd source measure to "get taylor swift a booty." Lorde immediately shot back with the aforementioned diss and presumably dropped a microphone after doing so. Diplo took way too long to fire back and when he did it was only to correlate her d--k joke with being in high school. Unlike, you know, his mid-30's man talking about Swift's butt.

"Now, the process has officially begun and heads are getting ready to start rolling. And I say that in all humility - I'm not trying to be egotistical or arrogant at all, but there is a part of me that is going to feel relief that punishment's on the way and individuals who have slandered me and stolen from me and physically threatened me and physically assaulted me are going to start doing their time, getting busted, getting caught."

Scott Stapp's original video plea was sad but that quickly turned to horrifying when he dropped this speech during a follow-up post. The idea of Creed's former vocalist out for vengeance is worrisome.

"It's funny to people Like Igloo Australia silent when these things happen...Black Culture is cool, but black issues aren't huh?"

Azealia Banks is the face of the Twitter beef as we know it and she's bitten into countless stars for reasons both sound and inane...but usually the latter. Although her threats against the mild-mannered boys of Disclosure were over-the-top in a humorous sense, her recent shots at Iggy Azalea were too much. Azalea has always been a favorite target for multiple reasons: A) The whole "Azalea" thing and B) the Aussie is a white rapper and not a particularly talented one, resulting in an almost constant barrage from Banks. Although this tweet didn't feature any obscenity or allusions to violence, it was most off-putting in the way it hung Azalea out to dry for the botched indictment of the NYPD officer who choked Eric Garner to death. The way Banks framed her counterpart as the face of the police brutality didn't do anything to advance the cause...it just brought undue attention to an emcee who should let her talent speak for itself.

Tags

Jack White, Azealia Banks, Iggy Azalea, Eminem, KISS, Lorde, Diplo, The War on Drugs, Sun Kil Moon, Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor, Scott Stapp