Turns out that Post Malone hasn't quite hit the rock star status he raps about in his hit song of the same name.
According to TMZ, the newly-minted holder of the No. 1 song in America tried to live out his dreams of living the lifestyle of his favorite rockers by taking a Fender guitar and smash it to bits. This is a tried-and-true music tradition, with artists like the Who's Pete Townshend and Kiss' Paul Stanley making the act of instrument destruction almost an art form in and of itself. However, when Posty attempted to do that same at a recent concert, let's just say things didn't go as planned.
In the video clip published with the report, Malone is seen stalking the stage, enjoying the crowd's enthusiastic singing along to the "Rockstar" chorus. After a few moments, he returns to the center of the stage and turns his attention to a guitar with red detailing that sits on a stand not far from his reach. In what was seemingly a planned move (although it's not inherently clear if he was actually playing the ax earlier on in the show or if it was just there for this one purpose), the rapper took the instruments with both hands and proceeded to swing it downwards towards the floor of the stage, with the crowd roaring in approval. And then ... well, it didn't break.
Post Malone had to give the guitar a few more whacks before the breakage was deemed to be satisfactory. He took the remains of the instrument and tossed it aside, moving towards the side of the stage after he was done. It's probably not quite the effect he was going for, but the result kind of made up for it.
Interestingly, the song "Rockstar" may have manipulated a loophole in the streaming play counting system, specifically when it comes to YouTube views, to game the system and accumulate tens of millions of clicks for a video that wasn't the original song. As a result, Posty may have semi-fraudulently attained the top song on the Hot 100. It's not illegal to employ this tactic in the music industry, but more than a few commentors on social media have deemed it unscrupulous at best.