Lisa Robinson with Fran Lebowitz on There Goes Gravity: A Life in Rock and Roll

hi hi I wasn't talking to you I'm friendly but this is Lisa Robinson I am going to basically be interviewing Lisa who is my best friend for 40 years otherwise I'd be next door watching Philip Roth you still have time I am NOT a journalist Lisa is a journalist so I'm not used to asking people questions I'm not usually that interested in what other people have to say so lisa has made some questions for me with the help of other people are you ready for these questions Lisa yes Fran your love of the music comes through in this book yet you never reviewed records or concerts why did you never want to be a critic well I could answer that but I'll let you I mean you're not wanting to be a critic is confined to music I just wanted to say go ahead please I never wrote criticism because when I started out you know who the people were who were writing criticism most of them were boys most of them took themselves very very seriously and I thought music was supposed to be about fun and it's an emotional thing I never really saw the point of reviewing it frankly I was much more interested in the people why I'm interested in people funnily and why so and this has not changed by the way that's right I mean most of them are boys yeah not just music critics the musicians as well pretty much everyone who's interactive anything yes Lisa how did you develop your intro your style and get people to open up to you did I write that I don't yeah I wasn't intimidated by any of these musicians you know people are always asking me aren't you nervous when you met Mick Jagger no I was not the first thing I ever said to him and this is in the book which is titled there goes gravity a life in rock-and-roll my first meeting with Mick was backstage at an Eric Clapton concert and I told him his shoes looked really tacky and I think he was so taken aback that somebody actually talked to him like that that we just established that kind of rapport and I was always like that with people I just talk to them the way I would talk to normal people do you think Mick Jagger his shoes have improved no absolutely not in fact without going into great detail about his clothing choices in recent years I've always had this argument with him he looked much better offstage than he ever did on stage and again there are many descriptions in this book about his clothing unnecessary scarves extra belts different ridiculous mixed patterns you know I mean Georgia financial Oh costumes what's in necessary scarf Alesha and unnecessary scarf is what you wear to protect against the cold yes exactly I see nice cashmere ones not printed flowery you know one around your waist one around your neck what do you think of Keith's scarves see now that's a whole separate subject because keith has many scarves that he covers lamps with in his hotel rooms so that's a whole art direction thing he comes into a hotel room and he covers all the lamps with scarves to sort of dim the lighting it's kind of the way bandy school of art direction and lighting for those of you who may be old enough to remember that makeup artist those people are watching Philip Roth somehow no way bandy Philip Roth I'm not so sure however Keith is so you know that whole gypsy persona it's fantastic he can do it Keith can wear whatever he wants have you told him that yes Lisa mm-hmm what was your first big interview the first band well my first interview actually was Richard Robinson sent me two and Lisa who is Richard Richard Robinson is my husband and he's someone I worked for doing his filing when I first got into the music business and he didn't want to go interview Tommy James understandably so he sent me and I went to Tommy James apartment on eighth Avenue there was a shag carpet that was so thick you could barely open the door I think it was short truce Tommy James of the Shondells I'm sure the only people who remember Tommy James and the Shondells are also Philip Roth but he did these songs crystal blue persuasion and monie monie right yes which is what that was a sign in Times Square remember no that's where he got the idea maybe thank God you want to trace back the philosophy of Tommy James in the Nando's well he was sweating profusely I think he was on some sort of amphetamine and he kept leaving the room I don't remember anything else about that interview but he was the first interview I ever did the first big interview I ever did was with Led Zeppelin in New Orleans in 1973 and I wrote about it extensively in the book and their carpet no carpet it was a rooftop of the Royal Orleans Hotel remember the Royal in his hotel right in the French Quarter and Robert Plant was wearing a tiny little red sort of speedo bathing suit situation Jimmy Page was wearing a maroon velvet jacket a silk shirt and it was 83 degrees which at that time seemed sweltering in New Orleans now it's spring yeah now it's year-round that is that the fault of Led Zeppelin they've been blamed for a lot of things but I don't think we can blame the weather on them now Lisa what are the biggest changes you've seen in the music world over the past four decades go there's absolutely no privacy anymore but this of course applies to all life so there was no internet no cell phones no Instagram tumblr Twitter so when a band came to America such as Led Zeppelin and they sort of raped and pillaged their way through America I don't mean literally raping but you know it was a candy store for them it was a very hedonistic life their wives were back in England they had no idea what they were doing you couldn't even make a transatlantic phone call without it was a performance now it's there's no there's no there's no divide like that so that's a huge change in the music world yeah but the whole world but certainly with the musician was are the biggest changes you've seen in the music world that's the biggest change I've seen in the music not records oh well I mean the way people get music now yes they can get it on the wrist watch as their phones it doesn't mean the music has changed but the way the technology has changed of course but you know the funny thing is it's going backwards because their vinyl is so groovy again and so it started out with vinyl then it went to a track then I went to CDs then it went to these mp3s and digital and downloading iTunes and now it's back to vinyl again and how many times you've seen platform shoes come and go I don't know but that's connected to music don't you think yeah yeah because I certainly wore them in the 70s I loved being taller and I can't wear them now you will if you old enough to wear them the first time you can't wear them in a second right what music still sounds great to you that was recorded 40 years ago or more well I still love the stones Exile on Main Street which was blasted by reviewers when I came out and now it's considered a masterpiece I love that record I love a lot of Led Zeppelin especially some of the underrated stuff the crunch trampled underfoot I love Frank Sinatra you and I was sitting in a recording studio with Capitol Records a few years ago with John Bryan while he was remastering actually he was taking the gunk off is the way he put it and we heard Sinatra's vocals that was recorded in the 1950s that sounds amazing so there's a lot all the blues guys Muddy Waters Howlin wolf still sounds great because it's great because it's great that's the thing I mean anything that's great or it was great then it still sounds great now I still love the New York Dolls first record I mean you probably don't listen to it that often but you don't love you love them and if I played in there what if I played personality crisis you would like it looking for a kiss I would like it funky but chic are you gonna play it now no I discovered the New York Dolls how by accident tell me about it for him you know I don't remember how but I know I got them I know I got them their first gig because I drove them to it in what vehicle in a rented van who paid for the room not me they ain't no one I was just gonna say where was this where was the gate it was where was the gig Princeton New Jersey at the collar sure no no no in a house of some rich guy I can't remember how this came about but I met him somewhere I told him about the dolls he said he was having a big party I told him about the dolls I told him oh great you got this great gig we drove there we went to the van there was a Colonel place on East 14th Street that's how cheap real estate was you could buy all of 14th Street for about 25 dollars at a time that's thought we had $25 and I did I drove them to the gig and they played the gig and the guy didn't check that bounced did you get paid for driving them or getting them the gig I'm certain I did not I'm positive I did not I can't even imagine how did you get together with them to get them thinking mean how do I know them yeah we do I mean I met David at Max's that's how I knew them okay Amanda would you like to ask me more questions about mixer music no but we could talk about the dolls I mean all night cuz you know how great they were the dolls were great great David Johansen was the greatest rock performer I've ever seen ever I agree with that and nobody believes me because of you yeah well but you didn't see all the other people that I've seen because you didn't have any interest in them well you have seen Mick Jagger many times yeah and we still think David Johansen was a traitor yeah I mean and she was mature wise and scarf wise yeah no David was just incredibly witty he brought the whole sensibility of the Max's back room when it was the Max's back room to the Mercer or it's Oscar Wilde room where the band played every night and I just remember there was no stage they played right on the same floor that we will all standing around my thing so some people were still standing said people or not yeah but I remember taking an English journalist there Richard Williams who was the editor of the Melody Maker and he just looked at them and they did one number you know with all the drag and the make up and the whole thing and he just said they don't do anything wrong do they and he they still were just the greatest too bad they fell apart and many of them died and drugs took over but great great band what was the last concert you paid to go to what was the first concert you paid to go to well I want paid to go to a concert yeah I paid to go to a lot of concerts before I met Richard and when I started working with Richard Robinson doing his filing I remember to represent at home no no I do not but I'm just checking can't just say Richard and have everybody assume that they know who well once you've said which ok this is the 92nd Street Y they can retain this so I remember the first concert Richard took me to was the stones in Madison Square Garden 1969 and we were in the third row and I couldn't believe that we didn't have to pay because prior to that I had gone to the Fillmore as a kid I had gone to the Brooklyn Fox or the Paramount I had seen a lot of rock and roll shows so I paid for those the last concert I paid for ever since working as a journalist and getting free tickets was when you and I went to see the Rolling Stones I think in 1989 at Madison Square for that I paid why because that was the beginning of something called the Golden Circle tickets and they were $300 and they were the best seats in the house that's when we left yes so I was getting to that but you gave away the punchline we left MIT profession we we left we left midway through it yeah it was I don't know know what 150 was 300 H but we left halfway through now it was the first time and I think they had used a different promoter again I write about this a lot in the book and they used a different promoter other than Bill Graham because Bill Graham was such a mention he had great backstage stuff he had a dubs hot dogs hot dog carts egg creams and this was a different promoter and all of a sudden that became a little more corporate and very businesslike and I think we just looked at each other midway through the show there was something off about it and we left $600 yes that's the last time I paid to go to a concert I think is there anyone who would pay money to see now yeah I actually would go pay to see Kanye West now I would I love Kanye I would go see Eminem there's certain people that if I could I don't know soul Williams Trent Reznor I mean there's odd people that maybe I would go pay to see them Frank Sinatra if he were alive obviously even dead yeah but we also I did walk out on Frank Sinatra once which night the Forester shows yeah I was there was Sam yes we went to see Sinatra in Forest Hills I was during the Son of Sam summer Frank Sinatra was very drunk he was not remembering the lyrics it was really depressing so I said I'm gonna leave I'm gonna go sit in the car when Steve Paul he had a car so I walked about a block away I went and sat in the car there was a New York Post in the car I picked the New York Post up of course like every issue of the New York Post in that era it was completely about Son of Sam so I'm sitting there reading and it says Son of Sam is known particularly to choose for his victims girls in their 20s with long brown hair sitting in cars and Queens a bolt of electricity went through me since I was a girl in my 20s with long brown hair sitting in a car on Queens and I jumped out of the car looking around for Son of Sam of course we didn't know what he looked like so he could have been anyone in Queens raced back to the Forrestal stadiums where they wouldn't let me in and I was like sobbing I had my ticket I said you can understand son of sam he could be anywhere however finally they let me back in and then not that long afterward they they caught Son of Sam and we went to see Sinatra again yes you know we forget Frank Sinatra yeah we did he had an off night you know for a couple of off nights I think didn't we see an off night once the Radio City was it or Madison Square Garden I can't remember I don't know we saw we saw numerous times that's the only night I ever left yeah you know in order to get murdered by Son of Sam you are a true New Yorker now about this what is it true New Yorker well I are in native New York there's a difference yeah I was born here so I still you know I remember Rumple Meyers I mean I remember things that don't exist anymore even things from last year that don't exist anymore I a true New Yorker I don't know you once said to me I'm an Upper West Side New York Jew a rent stabilized apartment is my birthright that's right that's right I absolutely well I do feel that way my father died in the same apartment that he lived in for I don't know however many years since I was born and I just assumed that if you were born in New York City you were entitled to have a rent-controlled or a Wednesday oh that's department I know you think it's ridiculous but everybody did I mean unless you were very rich and then you lived on Central Park West but if you lived on a side street it was different I think many people would beg to differ with you Alicia what was the best interview you ever conducted mmm I honestly don't think I could pick one because there's been 5,000 of them I think possibly Keith Richards again I know I keep coming back to him but he's so special as you know when Keith really kind of sobered up or was when he wasn't really stoned at the end of the 70s and I got to talk to him at length many many times he was just brilliant funny smart lucid clever honest the thing about Keith was there was really he just was honest and most people when you're doing an interview they're not that honest it's it's a there's always that bit of a wall between you especially when you're talking about the stones Charley hardly did any interviews he was very distrustful of the press nick was always kind of flippant I mean we got deep and a lot of interviews but not like Keith so I would say Keith is right up there jay-z was pretty good recently Lady Gaga Robert Plant I don't know there's been so many then he should have written this question I didn't Marc Bouwer wrote that was the worst Madonna and it was two hours which was the worst hour I'm sorry which was the worst hour it was just been a second obviously it was just boilerplate you know it was just boring it was just dull it was boring she doesn't give much in general and um she gives what she has to get I know which is not much in general I was not a fan but we had a mutual friend at the time and he said you've got to interview her and she said I'm going to take over the world and literally was the first thing she said to me I'm gonna and that Minnie Mouse Foley is that again and I recently listened back to it and I was shocked that it was two hours because I remembered it as being just a snooze that was probably the most uninteresting interview I ever did cuz usually I can get somebody to say something interesting but this was just boilerplate literally but don't you think that part of the horribleness of Madonna in your mind wasn't only the horrible and sober Donna but also Ronald Reagan was the president at the same time and don't you believe these things are connected because I do here's what I have to say in response to that Prince also was recording them okay so if we're looking at other point 80s if we're looking at the 80s and everybody was just still recording and Prince is a genius but I mean musical genius but here's the thing it was a terrible time MTV ruined everyone's imagination about what music was supposed to feel or sound or look like and it was the heyday of Madonna it was the heyday of Michael Jackson's solo career it was Ronald Reagan and it was Prince so it wasn't a total loss and the shoes do you recall the shoes whose show which which which shoes the shoes people were wearing at the time no I just remember Michael Jackson shoes what were the shoes of the eighties like do you remember no I asked you know that they must not have been very memorable you once told me oh this is actually incorrectly written when Michael Jackson was a little boy you told me that Michael Jackson was going to be the greatest Entertainer of his generation oh it's like ghosts somewhere here you said Michael Jackson Hey is there anyone else you'd rather bring back to Michael Jackson says I I personally Abraham Lincoln we need him more than Michael Jackson when Michael Jackson was little boy you told me Michael Jackson is gonna be the greatest Entertainer of his generation he's gonna last you know cuz he was a little kid at the time he's gonna be like Frank Sinatra that's what you said which he in a way was or would have been okay how did you know this this is really weird because I met him at his house in Encino when he was 10 years old and actually he was 12 years old but he talked about his age Nona Barry Gordy wanted him to lie about his age and say he was younger because they thought that would be cuter so he was always getting on I think I think he was 12 but they told me he was 10 anyway I spent the afternoon which hat he was 15 when he was born was fit you do know that he had a spiritual advisor who was a rabbi at the end of his towards the end of his life it would be a movie yeah I think also Madonna's spiritual advisor or maybe no Kabbalah anyway I was at his house that first afternoon and I go into this in more detail in the book but I did call you that day and I said this kid's gonna be the greatest Entertainer of his generation he's gonna be like Frank Sinatra how did I know that I think first of all we talked about stuff he asked me more questions than I asked him he was incredibly inquisitive incredibly engaging adorable he was dancing for me he was showing me James Brown steps this was a kid who stood in the wings at the Apollo and studied Jackie Wilson James Brown and he just had a knowledge about music and such an interest in show business even at that age and the voice and everything he was just adorable and I just had that feeling and I was right until when right if you had to pick your favorite band which of course you don't people always ask questions like that if you had to under what circumstances would this be true if the Nazis came you have to pick your favorite band if the Nazis came I don't think we'd be talking about our favorite bands this is a good venue could you pick Nazis past present of all time the New York Dolls but you're right up there yep Rolling Stones maybe television New York John's probably the early New York Dolls there really wasn't a late New York Dolls no well they've actually read Oh period they've reunited and they're outperforming again but it's certainly not they're all dead so thinking about except David yeah that's just the New York doll yeah why did you call your book there goes gravity well picking a title was a nightmare and as you know because you went through it with me and I couldn't come up with anything that I liked everything like song titles all night long I wasn't gonna name my book after a Lionel Richie song after midnight I wasn't going to name my book after an Eric Clapton song lush life had been taken All Tomorrow's Parties was the name of a festival the song remains the same everybody would have thought it was just led Zeppelin so we had lists and lists of possible titles and I was told by my publisher that I had to give them a title by five o'clock for the catalogue something that I didn't know that they still did you know catalogs to give to salesmen to bring to bookstores what bookstore yeah exactly so I was told I had to have a title for the catalog and Richard had always liked that line it was a Robin Richard had always liked the line there goes gravity which was in Eminem's oscar-winning song lose yourself and I started reading you a list of titles on the phone and when I got to there goes gravity you said wait a minute stop what's that and I told you what it was and you said oh I like that and so that's that was after months and months of trying to think about torture yes it's really hard to think of titles and as I kept telling you it's not that important it only is important to retrospect you know that's true I mean the best book title probably ever is Breakfast at Tiffany's it's not the best book ever all right they can you imagine that you'd be allowed to call a book Moby Dick still a better book than represent if aney yeah but not a gravity a wonderful title and a wonderful book do you have any journalism idols what would a journalism itíll be um I guess somebody that I admired as a journalist but the thing is I didn't want to be a journalist I didn't plan on being a journalist it wasn't like I lusted after a journalism career I fell into it thanks to Richard and things just happened as you know during the 70s it was a time when things could just happen and again to quote Keith Richards the whole career was a lucky accident which had turned a column over to me and I didn't think I could write it and he said you can talk so you can write and I certainly could talk not always true yeah but that's what he said and then I started writing these columns I used to read people what growing up in this Upper West Side sort of liberal household I read Pete Hamill and max Lerner and you know all those kind of more left-wing writers but they weren't idols no no I don't have any journalism I you are a basketball fanatic I am you are disgusted by that I know I'm not disgusted I'm just bored what's the connection between music and basketball oh well first of all hip-hop without question second of all basketball is a rhythm game and all music the main thing about whether it's rock and roll or hip-hop or jazz or rhythm is really important and basketball is just beautiful to watch and it's like to me it's music in motion that's just how I see it I see it as a gorgeous kind of game very fast very rhythmic the way people hold back sometimes doing things the way they count the timing involved it's just and especially now with hip-hop because all the basketball players grew up with hip-hop and all the hip-hop stars are obsessed with basketball so there's that connection and you feel a connection with these people yourself I do because I love they have rent-controlled apartments on the upper lip no but I love hip-hop I really do I mean I came to it late I do admit that and when I got into it I mean some of the eminem is an incredible lyricist he's really really talented and has unbelievable skills and I love Kanye's latest record and I listen to this all the time I find it very inspiring I really do as I do with basketball do you ever believe what you read in the papers no I don't blame you we are now going to take questions from the audience we will answer them in an amusing fashion or at least I will you don't have to ask some in amusing fashion just raise your hand we will call upon you yes no I have not the question because people I'm sorry the question was do I attend Coachella which is a festival in the desert no I don't go to the desert no unless actually here's the thing and I know this may sound a little spoiled but unless I'm writing about something now I feel I've put in for decades I don't really have to go cover this stuff unless I really want to and going to the desert is not high on my list of a fun weekend that's really for a lot of younger kids who want to show off you know their clothing and Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez and the Kardashian younger girls and that group are there old Kardashian's already well I don't keep up with this well there's two really young ones that are in their teens Kylie and Kendall Jenner what a disgrace that you know next question just like I says what happened as two and well you know first of all nothing lasts forever and those magazines never made any money so they just fell apart they just went out of business basically I think hit Parader went out of business before having after I stopped editing it cream I think there was some huge legal dispute but you know there's different things now for different generations I mean people in their 20s now have totally different magazines and different blogs and different internet fanzines and everybody has their own music so that stuff can't go on forever I mean if you really want to read about that still you could get mojo I guess which is a British magazine that still covers a lot of that stuff yes the question was how did Fran and I meet do you want to take this do you want me to well there'll be two different stories okay my recollection is that I knew of Lisa I would sometimes see her in the back room of Max's not all the time we had many mutual friends and they would always say you should be friends with Lisa you would love Lisa and I said I can't stand Lisa Robinson her voice is too loud then Lisa had a best friend named Lily and Roxon who I was also friends with although not that close a friend and Lilian died in 1974 73 73 and I went to the funeral and then afterward people went to Lisa's house and I don't want to go because I didn't like Lisa and she had her voice was too loud and people said you can't not go it's impolite so I went and so basically what I Phil is that Lisa best friend died and she had an opening I will just add to that that I saw I saw a friend in Max's and I obviously had read her column in Interview magazine she did two columns and entered a magazine she did the best of the worst which were movie reviews of really hilarious like Blacula movies like that and then she wrote I cover the waterfront and so I admired her writing I thought she was very funny but she seemed very surly and I didn't think she liked me but I didn't think she liked anybody actually because she looked very surly so when she came to the Shiva at my house because that's really what it was I feel comfortable saying that here most of you know what that is and I think then I invited you to dinner right that was it that's all you had to do in those days like someone with it not just to dinner to a steak restaurant actually it was to the ginger man which is the same restaurant where I introduced David Bowie to Lou Reed where we had dinner that way tonight not the same night but you have to read the book to hear the true story about that because it's been written about and other books by people who are not there is there another question yes um I'm not sure we went to that many concerts together we went to a lot of Rolling Stones concerts together we went to only some because they're not that many rock and roll bands I like so we went at stones several times I see at the dolls yeah we saw prints several times yeah that's about it Fran would not come with me to a Led Zeppelin always you did in Washington DC we cuz I happen to be in Washington yeah Fran didn't really like Led Zeppelin or Van Halen or most of the CBGB's bands or you saw David Bowie right cuz you were friendly with David Bowie yes David in fact I went with Keith to David Bowie concert and he told me that it was the first and only time he'd ever sat in the audience at a rock concert really yeah so our musical tastes not the same I mean we both like jazz we both like Sinatra correct that's correct friends listen to some hip-hop that I've played for I love it likes yes she does like it but has not gone to any of the concerts yet another question I mean yes yes actually Joni Mitchell and I had never met and at Vanity Fair we were doing a music cover when we used to do these great music issues with the fold-out covers and Joni was on a cover it was in 2001 and the lineup on that cover was David Bowie Beyonce Beck Jewell Stevie Wonder Joni Mitchell Gwen Stefani jay-z Missy Elliott all at once Annie Leibovitz took the picture it was in the same room at the same time but I had I knew everybody except I had not met Joni Mitchell and we had a mutual friend her makeup artist Paul Starr who was passed away a few years ago and Paul said I have to get you together with Joni and I had grown up a little bit with Joni Mitchell's music but I thought she was this kind of folk princess type and Paul said are you gonna love Joni she's great and I said okay so we arranged to meet just for a drink for 10 minutes in the Carlisle hotel and this is when you could still smoke in the Carlisle hotel you could still smoke anywhere 2001 I think pre bloomer yeah and we were just gonna meet for 15 minutes and I think the first thing that we said or I said to her within the first five minutes was well Madonna ruined the culture and three hours later after she agreed with me about that statement and three bottles of wine and three packs of cigarettes Joni Mitchell and I were still talking and I recently interviewed her again for a piece for Vanity Fair about Laurel Canyon so yes I have spent a few times with Joni Mitchell and then Annie photographed her again for a Vanity Fair portfolio and Joanie's she's exact she was so the opposite of what I thought she was she's tough she's outspoken she's just funny just completely whatever she feels like saying she says she's great-great and we agreed about everything so that was good always people's definition of it really intelligent yes well first of all I know him really well and I spent a lot of time with him and he's a sweetheart and he's one of the more I think misunderstood misquoted people partially because sometimes he gets totally carried away passionate and he puts his foot in his mouth a lot and people don't really know exactly what it is he's saying to me the body of work is what's important and I love his music I love his work when I first got to know him our mutual friend John Bryan who's a really brilliant producer and singer songwriter and performer he was producing I think it's late registration that had gold digger on it and we major which is like a Phil Spector symphony and I said to John I'd ever met Kanye and I said isn't he an [ __ ] I mean he sounds like that Jesus thing with their wings and all that and I just thought he sounded ridiculous and John said no he's a sweetheart he's fabulous and then I saw him come to the Largo one night to see John and just the fact that he appreciated John that sort of opened the door and then I got to know him really well I just loved his work I loved his music and I know him sort of in a different light and the fact that he tweeted about my book today didn't hurt you know I have never been tongue-tied around anybody um and I was not until you until 8:00 it when you met these rock stars and the thing is I was a fan of rock and roll but also I was a New York girl who snuck out of my house when I was like 12 or 13 and went and saw a felonious monk and Miles Davis and Horace Silver and so after seeing those kind of jazz musicians I mean I didn't know them and I don't know how I got into those clubs I must have looked ridiculous but I got in and so when I met the rock and roll musicians yeah I love the music but his people I felt like we were all in this together I was never intimidated I mean I was backstage once with Frank Sinatra I was a little you know was Frank Sinatra but not starstruck not intimidated no not really welcome yes yes don't hurt I did interview Jerry Garcia actually once backstage at the Fillmore East when there was a group of East Village I don't know what they were do you remember they were called the [ __ ] and they were no seriously they were have like some protest there was some crazy it was must have been 1970 and again I had just married Richard David Peel I'm sorry David no David Peel was having marijuana yeah that was David peel and the Lower East Side was the name of that band the [ __ ] must have preceded him the mother for the [ __ ] were a political group that were very angry that Bill Graham was running a commercial enterprise I think in the East Village and there's theater the Fillmore East the Grateful Dead were playing and I was backstage and I had my tape recorder with me because I always had my tape recorder with me it was a small cassette recorder it's still the same tape recorder that I use and I interviewed him for about 15 minutes backstage and I still have the tape and it's still it's amazing that it held up he was really sweet he was I'm sure stoned out of his bond very very well yeah well very shy well okay here's my regret when everybody says to me is there somebody you regret you never interviewed there are two people one is Frank Sinatra because I was writing for Andy Warhol's interview and we were going to interview or I was going to interview Frank Sinatra but Andy was going to come along and they said well Frank has to approve the questions first and I said oh no no no we won't do that and then I thought later what are you out of your mind I mean anything to have gotten in the room you know what was the that was silly Prince would never sit down and do a real interview with me because he wouldn't let me record him he still won't let anybody record him actually I think we did a phone interview very very early in his career for during the dirty mind period but I've been around Prince a few times I've told him a Howie I think he's an incredibly great underrated guitar player he said why don't you write that I said well why don't you sit down and we'll do an interview and he goes well you give me the cover of Vanity Fair and we'll do an interview and I didn't make those decisions so he didn't get the cover of Vanity Fair but there was one of the music issues when he said he would do it if he and Annie DeFranco who also had an independent record company and at that time Prince was doing the slave thing with Warner Brothers and he said if he and Annie DeFranco could be on the cover not in Chains and everyone else including Joni Mitchell Stevie Wonder Keith Richards David Bowie whoever they would be wearing chains Fred and I went to Prince's house for a party actually you remember that right in LA yeah and twice yeah and human houses yeah but a swimming not rent control a swimming pool and the front of the house with the symbol like on it and he came downstairs I think it was what was her name one of the one of his rhythm section it's just completely escaped my memory but she said well he's gonna make his Norma Desmond entrance at around 3:00 in the morning for those of you who may not know that reference that's a movie Sunset Boulevard Gloria Swanson played an ageing fading movie star named Norma Desmond and he did he came down around 3 in the morning and played until like six right did we leave did we stay I don't remember I was on Letterman with him once that's right and he called me three o'clock in the morning to tell me afterward no in the greenroom and he had a lot of people with him including a chef because unit might need a five course meal at five o'clock in the afternoon you never know and there were a lot of people in there and there was no room for anyone else and so I felt that I deserved to be able to sit down in the greenroom so I went in and there there was a giant bodyguard and I said excuse me do you mind if I sit down and so they let me sit down and then he was on he was during the slave thing he came on with that slave thing and then at three o'clock in the morning he called to say who's playing some club did I want to come it turned out I didn't and I love Prince but not that much yeah but to answer what you said about him being shy I do think he's shy I do yeah so you have 25 minutes of him on tape yeah would you care to play it maybe that's why he won't let any of us record him anymore ah yes yes yes I don't know your name otherwise I would say like in the yes Jane know her you I'm sorry I didn't hear you and there any artists you were very intrigued by that you would like to interview now Prince I'm serious and we actually have been negotiating about it because he still won't let anyone record him now I feel if I got there and I got in the room and I had a conversation with him and I were to say to him listen you want to be quoted accurately don't you let's just turn this on you can turn on a tape recorder also and you can keep the tape that maybe it would happen but then again he's still insisting on a cover of Vanity Fair so you should marry Kim Kardashian and then the cover of Vogue yes we can serve you any Beatles well if you get the book and you read it there is a very lengthy chapter about my interviews with John Lennon I interview gentlemen and many many times starting in 1973 and then between 1975 and up until actually about a month or so before he was murdered I interviewed John extensively I interviewed George at great length that's also in that chapter I interviewed Ringo who's a lot of fun I am too viewed Paul once briefly and that was enough for me he was not my favorite John was my favorite yeah the question is what do I think of almost famous which is the movie that Cameron Crowe did about his experiences or fictionalized experiences on the road Cameron and I went on various tours together Cameron tended to go with a you know the who the Eagles he did go on one Led Zeppelin tour I went on five we were friends he was very very young and his movie was a kind of feel-good Hallmark card kind of I mean that's the kind of movies Cameron makes and it was his experience my experience was never being with a band where they burst into an Elton John song on a tour bus I was with David Bowie and Jimmy Page in a darkened corner suite of the Plaza Hotel while they were doing mine after line of cocaine watching Kenneth angers Lucifer rising because Jimmy was doing the score so it's kind of a different view you ever a rent-controlled apartment on the track no but Cameron's great and he his heart was really in the right place and it was a very successful movie and it just wasn't my experience well this is a complicated question because I didn't it doesn't mean you have to give a complicated answer yeah no actually I wasn't really there to judge you know these guys did what they did because they could it was a different time it also was pre-aids they were screwing around there were a lot of girls around and you know that was part of that scene it was the sex drugs and rock and roll I did not participate in either the sex or the drugs so you could be on a tour with those people and not participate in that side of it and be on a completely different tour I really was there for the music and if I saw I never saw anybody being abused I never saw anything really creepy I'm sure it went on I mean I was with Van Halen when their road managers would go in the audience and pull girls backstage to meet David Lee Roth I thought that was gross but you know I wasn't really judging this and I wasn't writing about it that's not why I was there so it wasn't like I was protecting them I just didn't care to write about it yes oh well we love Ray Davies you know we liberated it we love Ray Davies the kinks Ray Davies is incredibly talented brilliant lovely man when I knew him I haven't seen him in years I think he stopped speaking to me because I introduced him to Chrissie Hynde that didn't go well they did have a child together they had a somewhat checkered relationship but for a long time we were quite friendly with Ray Davies because Richard was working at RCA Records and they signed Richard hope the ring at a time when they signed Lou Reed Ray Davies and David Bowie so we got to know him pretty well and you know he comes from that English musical tradition and all of that kind of those songs were just amazing brilliant Waterloo son said all of it and come dancing I loved all that I thought they were great The Kinks shows later on when the two brothers were fighting and you know literally physically fighting on stage and all that that was not something that was a lot of fun for me if we want to see relatives physically fighting we can go to a seder yes Madonna it's the truth sorry I mean she certainly had a great career without my approval so it didn't my distaste or my disinterest or anything for her has not hurt her but I wouldn't listen to it at all I wouldn't go see her I think she's overrated I think she's having talented actually I I can't be very more blunt about it than that do you agree I totally agree yes Patti Smith what about Patti Smith have you ever oh you have to read the book there is tons of stuff about Patti Smith in the book of course I've interviewed daddy Smith Patti Smith I was actually very friendly with Patti Smith in the 70s because Lenny Kaye who's her guitar player still is Richards very close friend and Lenny did rock scene with me and Richard and we always would put Patti in rock scene I wrote about Patti for cream I wrote about Patti for the New Musical Express in England and the New York Post and I would say for the whole decade of the 70s we spent a lot of time together I probably have over a hundred hours of tape with Patti Smith and I there's a lot of it in the book and there's a chapter about New York and David Bowie and CBGB's and Iggy and Lou Reed and a lot about Patti yeah yes it's really hard for me to work for the nets I I can't you know I can't get my head around it I'm a long suffering Knicks fan and we'll have a private conversation about basketball later because she'll call you yeah this she's not gonna put up with that yes do either of us have any music with that Lisa is a fantastic singer she really is a great singer a great singer I have no musical talent none like zero less than zero but I have great rhythm action gradients excuse me Fran was it Keith or was it Steve Jordan who got you that drum kit Keith got you that John Kennedy sent me a drum kit for my birthday one year but the doorman called and said there's some packages here I said I'll get them on my way out don't call me every pack well it's there are a lot of them they're kind of big can you put them in the elleven no I can't put them that anyway it turned out to be an entire drum kit from because I've always wanted to be a drummer and it was tire drum kit from Keith for Christmas and it came with lessons from Steve Jordan did I learn to be a great drummer it turns out I did not I don't remember why I think I took one lesson from Steve and then we both got distracted by our actual lives then eventually I sent this drum kit to a kid who used to be my godson godson's are much better than sons because you can get rid of them you know if you have a godson who's not really up to par he's not your godson anymore so while I was still hoping he would continue to be my godson and he became a youthful drug addict I sent him this wonderful drum kit from Keith Richards pretty good gift in the hopes that he would find this more interesting than heroin even though Keith hadn't had a more interesting that way so I don't REM BER what your question was but there's your answer hotel thank you very much good night

Channel: 92NY Plus

Views: 89,946

Keywords: 92Y, 92nd Street Y, Lisa Robinson, Fran Lebowitz, Music Journalism (Radio Subject), Rock And Roll (Musical Genre), Rock Music (Musical Genre)

Id: YQa4oYSA43g

Length: 60min 56sec (3656 seconds)

Published: Thu May 15 2014