Corey Feldman sees the ‘fake solo’ claims from haters as a compliment.
“I guess the biggest compliment is that people are like, ‘There’s no way you’re shredding like that – it’s got to be fake!’” the musician told Guitar World. “People say I was ‘lip-syncing the guitar,’ which is a new one to me. I didn’t even know you could do that! If I was playing with my tongue, that would work pretty well!”
“No,” Feldman replied when the interviewer said he’s not faking it. “‘The Joke’ is literally my new single. It was specifically written for this tour because of the trolls and haters I’ve had to deal with throughout my music career, who refuse to believe that my music is legitimate.”
After the fake solo claims, Fred Durst joined Feldman on stage at a show to see if Corey was really playing his viral guitar solo. Feldman had his solo questioned online, so Durst brought a chair to watch and check for himself.
“Word on the street is Corey Feldman is not playing this guitar solo,” Durst said on stage. “I wanna know if Corey Feldman is really playing this motherf*ckin’ solo, how about you?”
Durst had Feldman play the solo, stop, and start again several times to prove he wasn’t using a backing track. “He’s f*ckin’ doing it!” the singer added.
In the same Guitar World interview, Feldman said he thinks the criticism of his guitar playing is part of a hate campaign that began when he talked about being abused as a child actor.
“To be honest, it comes from a hate campaign that started probably about the time I decided to come forward with some of the information about the bad things that happened to me as a kid,” the rocker noted.
Feldman added, “The timing was right when my music started blowing up, and as a result, they felt the best way to hurt me was to make up stories about me, to paint me in a bad light, and make me look unprofessional, illegitimate, and paint a frame around me that I was crazy.”
In the ’80s, Feldman and Corey Haim were famous as the Two Coreys. After Haim’s death and his own struggles, Feldman spoke out about abuse in Hollywood. He claimed that pedophilia is a major problem and revealed that Haim was raped by a Hollywood figure.