Zeros

Russell Brand and the Collapse of a Rock-Star Persona Russell Brand is back in the news, and not because of anything particularly creative, funny, or musically adjacent. For pop culture fans, this is one of those moments that feels less like scandal and more like weary recognition. The headlines aren’t surprising so much as they are dispiriting. Another loud, charismatic figure who once thrived on excess has reached the inevitable reckoning phase, and it forces us to look back at what, exactly, we were all watching in the first place. At his peak, Russell Brand didn’t just behave like a rock star— he performed being one . He wasn’t a musician, but he clearly modeled himself on that Mick Jagger archetype: skinny jeans, untamed hair, exaggerated sexuality, nonstop chatter about indulgence, addiction, and conquest . He played the part loudly and relentlessly, like someone afraid that if he stopped narrating his own wildness , the spell would break. For a while, it worked. He...