Almost Famous Quotes

Context

This line is spoken by Russell Hammond, played by Billy Crudup, in the movie Almost Famous, written and directed by Cameron Crowe (2000).

Russell Hammond is a real rock star with his smooth charm and even smoother guitar skills. However, he's also super mysterious and the one member of the band Stillwater having problems opening to up to the 15-year-old journalist, William, who is writing a story about the band for Rolling Stone.

William is a stand-in for writer/director Cameron Crowe, who was also a teen rock journalist for Rolling Stone and makes us wonder why we wasted our teenage years on video games and other mundane pursuits. Among the less mundane things William witnesses is Russell dropping acid and jumping off one of his friends' roofs yelling, "I am a golden god." It's an absurd, yet sad, scene.

See, Russell is really tired of being a member of Stillwater because he feels like the band is dragging down his already talented self. (Go solo already, buddy.) And this is why he does risky things like combining drugs and acrobatic feats: to feel "real."

Sorry to break it to you Russell, but that's not something real people do.

Where you've heard it

This is something you might have heard in the early 2000s when one of your friends missed the point of this movie and was going to do something wild, crazy, and possibly death defying.

Additional Notable References:

• "I am a golden god" was originally said by real life rocker and Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant during a photo shoot. He is in a much safer position while saying it though.
• Billy Crudup reflected on his work on Almost Famous and this famous line 15 years later. And he actually doesn't mind hearing it over and over again.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Unless you're at least half as good a guitar player as Jimi Hendrix and have headlined at one of those overpriced music festivals, save this quote for playing Guitar Hero alone in your room.