The world of rock and roll is a big scene full of lost opportunities that could have been legendary productions. We always get curious about what would happen if certain artists didn’t refuse certain offers and grieve for musical projects that never got to exist.
For example, what kind of a song would we be presented if Tony Iommi was aware of who Eminem was and accepted his offer to collaborate on his album years ago? We could have been listening to a wonderful rap-rock piece with our stereos on full blast. But that chance is unfortunately gone, and it’s not the only one lost.
The music of the cult film, ‘Fight Club,’ was produced by The Dust Brothers while it was initially set to carry Thom Yorke‘s signature. David Fincher offered the Radiohead vocalist to make a song for the movie and got rejected by him because he was already under a lot of stress, as he explains in his 2019 interview with The Guardian.
The lead vocalist of the band said:
“Got the email. Got the script. And I was just too f*cked up in the head to do it. I’d just come off tour. I was mentally incapable of even tying my shoes.”
The band was freshly over with the promotion of their album, ‘OK Computer,’ and Yorke was trying to recover from the stress that was draining his creative abilities and enthusiasm. He did not feel like he could write a song for the movie project, and thus, he declined the director’s offer despite the insistence of Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, as he recalled in a past interview with BBC 6 Music.
The musician expressed the reasoning behind his decision at the time and stated that he couldn’t have made it with his mental state; however, even with that awareness, he couldn’t help getting sad whenever he watched ‘Fight Club.’ Apparently, the vocalist received the offer at the wrong time.
Yorke explained his situation back then and his thoughts as follows:
“Things sort of come into my office, but they haven’t really got to me. The one I remember is one from years ago after we’d finished ‘OK Computer,’ and I was completely gaga. They asked me to do Fight Club. They sent me the script, and Ed and Brad Pitt wrote to me and said, ‘we really think you should do this.’ I went, ‘Nah, I can’t.’ I couldn’t. I wouldn’t have been able to do it then, but every time I see the film, I go ‘awww.’“
It’s a sad reality to know that we will never get to hear what kind of a song Thom Yorke would have come up with for the movie if he had been mentally available. But based on his 2018 collaboration with another film project, ‘Suspiria,’ we can guess that it could have been legendary, as he received a Grammy nomination with it in 2020.
There are many moments we would change in the past if we had a time machine just to see the alternative outcome, and the point Thom Yorke refused David Fincher’s offer is one of them. Of course, it’s not possible to do so, but we can always dream of an unofficial ‘Fight Club’ soundtrack created by the Radiohead vocalist.
