Former Boston drummer Jim Masdea has hit out at bandleader and guitarist Tom Scholz, labelling his old friend "the Donald Trump of rock ’n’ roll."
Masdea met Scholz in 1970, when the two musicians auditioned for a Massachusetts Institute of Technology band named Freehold, which featured future Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau. When that band dissolved, Scholz formed the group Mother's Milk, with Masdea, Goudreau and vocalist Brad Delp. But realising that the band was making little impact on Boston's live circuit, Scholz decided to focus on recording demos in his basement that aimed to replicate the sound of the dream band he had in his head.
With Masdea and Delp, he recorded demo of songs such as San Francisco Day (later to be renamed Hitch A Ride), It Isn’t Easy (re-titled Something About You), Foreplay (originally composed in 1969), Peace Of Mind, Rock ’N’ Roll Band, Don’t Be Afraid (eventually included on the 1978 Don’t Look Back album) Ninety Days (later called More Than A Feeling). But when these demos caught the attention of Epic Records, Pure Management partners Paul Ahern and Charlie McKenzie decided that Masdea was surplus to requirements, and the drummer was 'let go' ahead of Boston signing their record deal.
Subsequently, Masdea’s drumming is heard on only one Boston song, Rock & Roll Band.
Speaking in a new interview with The Telegraph, Masdea suggests that it was his desire to write more for the band that led to his being ejected from the line-up.
"I tell Tom that I don’t just want to play songs, I want to write songs, to contribute songs to the album," he recalls. "I’m gone a week later.”
"Tom Scholz is the Donald Trump of rock ’n’ roll," he adds. "He’s not horrible, but he’s a narcissist. He believes it’s only him, that everything was only him."
It's unlikely that Scholz would be flattered by this comparison from his former friend. In 2008, after Republican Party presidential Mick Huckabee played More Than A Feeling at campaign rallies, Scholz stated, "Boston has never endorsed a political candidate, and with all due respect, would not start by endorsing a candidate who is the polar opposite of most everything Boston stands for."
