RECOVERING FROM DAN VASC
Vasc Trilogy, Part Three
Note: Please see the previous two stories in this trilogy, Discovering Dan Vasc and Uncovering Dan Vasc.
Note 2: Something it may be interesting to know – when you make a comment on a story, the full comment is emailed to the author. If you subsequently choose to delete that comment, it does not mean that the author has not seen and recorded it.
Note 3: Despite various suggestions in comments, these three stories will not be taken down.
The caption under the photo above is a paraphrase of a comment made by one of Dan Vasc’s male followers. Vasc applauded it by saying it would make a great T-shirt.
It would appear that others have begun to question the character and behaviour of the popular YouTube singer, and their comments are not going unnoticed by the man himself. Despite his previously posted TikTok video advising that true heavy metal™️ fans do not allow the opinions of others to affect them in any way and proclaiming that he never responds to criticism or negativity, that is precisely what he is doing.
This occurs mainly on X, formerly Twitter, where Musk has recently declared that members are now free to say whatever they want. (Yep, Roseanne Barr is back. SMH) If there was ever any doubt that Vasc is a misogynistic dick (his word) and homophobe, with an addiction to fat hate, that doubt has been swept away.
It’s been a turbulent few months since I discovered Vasc’s version of Amazing Grace on YouTube. Like countless others, I was enthralled with his considerable vocal prowess and undeniable physical charisma. Hail Vasc Nation! I blissfully plundered his catalogue of over 200 cover performances, becoming more and more convinced that he is destined for stardom.
Most of the comments on his videos come from women like me, old enough to be his grandmother, but nonetheless obsessed. I believe we are the ones he refers to as blue-haired land whales. Ouch!
In his early videos, Vasc often includes outros where he thanks his fans and Patreon sponsors and encourages them to buy his merchandise. He has offered T-shirts proclaiming “Never Mind the Wimps” and “Dan’s Law: Shut Up and Do Something!” He used to respond personally to the odd comment on YouTube. That faded until he made only the rare response to other well-known performers and personal acquaintances, then no one.
It isn’t difficult to understand. It would be impossible to even skim the hundreds of comments each video received as his following grew, never mind respond to them. At some point, he found it necessary to hire a social media manager, the drummer from his band Fearless, Giovanni Rezende. What was surprising was that Rezende was then able to post as Vasc, at least on Instagram and probably everywhere else. That means it is impossible to know if Vasc is even aware of any trends in fan commentary on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.
It is no secret that one of Vasc’s goals was to achieve passive income on YouTube, which he has now done, as evidenced by the fact that he has ceased having Patreon sponsors and become a sponsor of others.
There was a time not so long ago when he committed to providing a new video every week on YouTube. Now, despite promises that any number of earth-shattering, face-melting music videos are on the way, he has posted nothing but video gameplay since Easter 2023, four months ago. In the past month he has also reneged on his promise to live stream his video gameplay once a week.
There is no longer any need. Heavy Metal Singer Performs Amazing Grace still provides viral response at 5.6 million views, 256K likes, and over 24,000 comments. His subs are at 834K and climbing steadily to his goal of one million.
There seems to be at least one new reaction video to this particular performance daily, certainly a passive way to gain followers. A very popular operatic vocal reactor, The Charismatic Voice, has just reviewed his performance of Amazing Grace in-depth. That is sure to increase his visibility to a whole new audience.
Despite his lack of activity, Vasc is getting no pushback on YouTube. All seems well there.
X/Twitter is a different matter. His recent tweets and comments have become increasingly vitriolic. He has retweeted posts in defence of the Tate brothers, who have been accused of sex trafficking and rape. He states sarcastically that, when he becomes President (of Brazil? or the USA?), he will determine taxation by body mass index, and fat women will be illegal.
When an apparently female tweeter noted that he had no personality worthy of being stalked, Vasc responded that she had created a fake personality to fit him and became disappointed when he turned out not to be her virtual husband. He went on to say that he intends to improve his effectiveness in offending such thirsty creeps, among others.
He makes scathing references to gay and trans persons and is obsessed with something he calls Big Pee Pee.
However, things didn’t really hit the fan (pun intended) until Vasc tweeted that anyone who had put push notifications for him on their phone was creepy and demanded they be turned off. He went on to say that he muted these fans when he noticed them and that they are always funny-looking women, even though his audience is supposedly 80% male.
It surprises me that Vasc has faith in that statistic. Surely it’s self-reported? I can’t imagine that he wonders how many of these males are gay, bi, trans, etc. He simply wouldn’t accept that those individuals could be fans of real heavy metal.™️
Understandably many followers replied that they were not creepy stalkers and had no intention of turning off notifications. One well-recognized fan went so far as to create a separate tweet, not referring to Vasc specifically, where she explained that she was happily married and, while she might occasionally use a wink emoji, it in no way indicated that she was flirting with anyone!
Another brave individual using a male handle chastised Vasc, advising him to stop being a dick to his fans and take it as a compliment because attractive rock stars always have women flock to them. Vasc’s first brief response was that this was dumb in (sic) so many levels, but it didn’t end there. He seemed particularly miffed by the comment. Perhaps no one has ever referred to him as a dick before? Hard to believe.
In a series of tweets, Vasc shot back that he is just a regular dude making music in his garage, not a rock star, and of course, regular dudes find stalker behaviour creepy and dangerous. He confirmed that, yes, he is a dick, not a virtual boyfriend/pet services. How pets got included there, I have no idea.
I’m going to break away from X/Twitter momentarily to recount something Vasc said in a recent live stream (on SideScrollers, I think) when stalking was discussed. A fan discovered his address by comparing photos of the windows in his home with all the houses on his street using Google Maps. She then managed to move close to him on the same street. (Okay, I think that’s pretty creepy, too.)
One of the other participants asked Vasc if he had taken out a restraining order against this person? Well, he tried, but was unsuccessful because the person in question had done nothing wrong other than befriending several members of Vasc’s former church. He installed surveillance cameras and place barbed wire along the top of his fence. He added that Brazilian police are not quick to act when it is a female allegedly stalking a male. I’m a big guy, he said, flexing his biceps.
For the record, Vasc is 5’9” tall. There is a good chance that his alleged stalker is as tall as, or taller than, he. He once said that it hurt his feelings when someone called him little man.
In any event, the more often Vasc, in his words, shit posts, the more often I find myself compelled to snap back, usually to point out the idiotic inconsistencies in what he has said. I am a Second Wave feminist, and the temptation to put this offensive little twerp in his place occasionally becomes too great. The more outrageous he is, the more brutal my responses. I realize the futility of what I am doing. The chance that he is aware of my comments is slim to none, and if he did ever encounter one of them, I have no doubt I was muted or blocked immediately.
EDITED TO ADD:
I spoke too soon! Vasc just blocked me on Twitter/X. I hadn’t been following him there for a while but something must have irked him.
The solution is straightforward; stop following Dan Vasc on all of his social media accounts.
That does not stop me from listening to him sing covers on a playlist, but it means I no longer watch him on YouTube or anywhere else. It also doesn’t stop me from wondering what the hell just happened to me.
I have spent too much time analyzing my reaction to someone I do not and never will know, but this is what I’ve come up with: I can’t help but admire Vasc’s enormous musical talent, training, skill, and dedication to his art. No one who hears him sing has any doubt that his voice is unique in versatility, range, and power. He should be a rock star, not a regular dude.
As a fellow creative introvert, I also can’t help but empathize with Vasc’s history of depression and anxiety and his admitted nerdishness. We are both probably familiar with instances of presenting a false persona in order to survive public exposure, as well as “going along to get along” in more personal circumstances. I was particularly touched at hearing him respond to praise by muttering, I still don’t think I’m that good…
I certainly will not argue that his efforts toward self-actualization haven’t been successful. Following the advice of controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, himself no admirer of independent women, Vasc has significantly reversed his scores in conscientiousness and neuroticism on Peterson’s version of the Big Five personality test. He started taking cold showers every morning (!) and working out regularly.
Vasc admitted that his father’s death was the catalyst that turned his life around. He regrets that his Dad will not witness his success. He publicly displayed his profound love and grief. It was honest and heart-wrenching to watch.
Putting all of this together, I find that his public displays of misogyny and hatred make me more worried for him than angry with him.
He displays precarious bravado in his disregard for public scrutiny. He suffers from depression that once left him barely able to leave his room for two years. In a recent conversation with a gaming buddy, Vasc said, It is scary to be mediocre. For me, anyway. It’s the scariest thing in the world just to be forgotten, and to not be happy…
Given his lack of recent activity I am worried that he’s experiencing a creative slump. It must be difficult to come up with something to top Amazing Grace.
I cannot imagine the personal devastation that large-scale negativity or ridicule from his followers would bring Vasc. It’s frightening even to contemplate.
The bottom line is that I have no business thinking or feeling any of these things. I don’t know Dan Vasc. He has at least one living grandmother and she isn’t me, so I’m done with this.
The ambivalence I feel toward him is because I still project my worry for him into a possible future. But the person I thought I met in Amazing Grace does not exist, and that makes me unutterably sad.
