The Kinds of Anecdotes About Musicians That Will Not Even Get You a Free Drink
I was telling a friend a story about the time I interviewed Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips and went on a tangent about how in the old, old days, we get an interview scheduled with someone from a band and then at the appointed time, we’d call them or they’d call us.
(In my 1997 day planner, I have a phone number for Jeff Tweedy, which I’ve never checked to see if it still works.)
The artists would do 30-minute interview after 30-minute interview as albums or tours were launching. Probably repeating the same stories and answers over and over.
On the time I was supposed to call Wayne, he answered and apologized, saying he was on the other line and the interview was running long, that he would call me back when it was done. I said sure, and asked who was using up my time, as a joke. When he told me it was Greg Kot, one of my actual heroes of music criticism, I asked him to pass along a hello and that I was a big fan.
Sure enough. Wayne called back a few minutes later and said that Greg Kot was very happy to find out that he had such a big fan.
That’s the kind of thing that never made it into any of the artist profiles I wrote, because it has nothing to do with the story, and maybe it’s only interesting to me. But I’ve got enough of those experiences that I wanted to put them down before they are lost to time.
I interviewed Billy Howerdel and Maynard James Keenan when A Perfect Circle was launching, and Maynard was known to be a bit prickly and intimidating. We met up in a hospitality suite at a hotel in the San Fernando Valley and they were both perfectly nice. It was sort of early in my career and helped me get over the idea that anybody was like their reputation.
For instance, I went to the home of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, before the TV show, and met their three kids as part of the pre-Ozzfest interview process. Sharon was absolutely charming, Ozzy fell asleep a few times and then the kids came home from school and Ozzy teased Kelly about liking boy bands.
Both times I interviewed Art Alexakis, he took issue with either the line of questions or the magazine I wrote for. Gave good interviews, but it was sort of tense.
Jane Wiedlin came into the office of the magazine I wrote for and sat with me for about 30 minutes and was delightful. No real story there, but if you have the chance to talk to her, I highly recommend it.
I interviewed Kelis as she was blowing up, in the back of a limousine as she was being driven to other interviews or meetings in Los Angeles.
Two friends and I drove from Cincinnati so I could interview Wesley Willis at a coffee shop. When I went to introduce myself to him, he had a bad reaction at first, and told us to get away. After a few seconds, he regained composure and we talked for almost an hour. He even headbutted us.
A Happy Outcome
While it wasn’t directly related to the interview, when I spoke with Juliana Hatfield in the early spring of 1998, I had to arrange for it to be at a time when I could leave my job, drive to my apartment, and then drive back to work. It was one big factor in me quitting that job to write full time, which is why you have these tidbits to read.
