March 10, 2021 • 49 mins
As we continue celebrating dope women, in this week's episode of Questlove Supreme we speak to legendary music journalist, Lisa Robinson. On the heels of her latest book Nobody Ever Asked Me About the Girls, Lisa speaks with Quest and Team Supreme about her 50 year career and 5000 hours of interviews that include many of the biggest and most talented artists of the times. Class is in session!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Qost Loft Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Ladies and Gentlemen. Right now, Lisa Robinson is showing us.
We're on zoom right now.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
She showed me her illustrious record collection, and I'm celebating
right now.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Okay, what's behind me is a portion, not all of them,
of my five thousand hours of interviews, all the original cassettes,
plus manic backups. Richard did my husband before he died,
on CD because he didn't believe in the cloud, the
internet or the computers, so he made backups on two
(00:44):
or three CDs of every single cassette. Then I had
to hire an IT guy after Richard died, and he
copied it onto two different computers, three external hard drives,
and three backups of the external hard drugs and secure
undisclosed locations. So what's behind me? All the original interviews
(01:08):
were some of them.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I have to say that I've known you about twenty years,
and often I have I haven't stayed up at night,
but I've definitely wondered, are you properly going to archive
your your collection, your collection of notes in He told
me that you have like original hotel notes in stationary.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Yeah, I have an original questionnaire Michael Jackson toil that
when he was eleven that I kept in a safety
deposit box for years where.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
He was Is this the infamous one where he called
himself a nigger?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
He wrote? The question was what's your nickname? And he
said the nose and then he wrote ni g one word,
one g er but he crossed that out.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, that's not I've heard about this or I have
Where did you hear about it?
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Other than me? Because I have nobody else.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I know you, so uh okay.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Letters, yeah, letters from Bowie and John Lennon and everybody
on the planet. And four storage spaces that I spend
fifty thousand dollars a year in addition to this museum
I'm living in, and an office across the street that
also houses a lot of shit. And in terms of
really properly appraising or archiving it, I've been too busy
(02:34):
trying to earn a living for all these years. I
just haven't had the time. So the audio archives are
pretty well documented now, they're on a bunch of databases.
The photos I have trunks and trunks and trunks of
original photos from Bob Grew and Lee Childers, Annie Liebovitz,
(02:54):
Peter Hughes or Maplethorpe. I mean so much stuff that
I never hung any of it up. It's in storage,
It's in my house and boxes and closets. I actually
have something, maybe you would want it. I was in
Nashville and I was in a thrift store and there
(03:15):
was one of those huge posters of a black barbershop,
you know, the drawings with the fabulous kind of old
like some girls kind.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Of wigs it.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
I bought it and I shipped it back to New York.
And this was in two thousand and.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Four, maybe okay, And.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
I said to friend, what should I do with this?
I was going to either give it to Tony Morrison
or that an artisan, because they collect that kind of stuff.
And she said, well, I wouldn't display it. It's really
not correct for you to display it. So it's hiding
somewhere in a closet. It's awesome, though, it is so
great anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, I have to properly introduce you, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
This is quest lof Supreme. I knew the second that
her mic was on the stories would come. And of
course the stories came even before I did the proper introduction,
I will say that our guest, Damn Near is a
pioneer or invented rock and roll journalism.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
There was a time in your life where.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Making a living writing about the lives of rock stars.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Was a questionable thing. One couldn't make a living off
of it. So I will say that our.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Guest today is a pioneer in terms of one that
actually made their full time career kind of journaling.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
The lives of others.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Name them New Music, Express, Cream Magazine, the New York Post,
even all the way down to Vanity Fair, if you will.
She's probably the trusted pla one in the rooms. He's
literally seen everyone and everything. And these types of venterviews
are my favorite because oftentimes I say that you'll learn more.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
About a subject based on the extra eyes.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
In the room, not necessarily the subject themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So name them from Jagger to Richards to Paige and
Plant to Bowie, Read Lennon, Ono, Jackson, Bono. I forgot
what Bono's I forgot what Bono's last name is.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's a that's right, Houston.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Paul Houston. That's right. It's like an uncle of my
I don't recognize any of those names. Did you ever
meet anybody famous?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I will say that I highly recommend as far as
memoirs are concerned, both both of her books, uh No.
One never asked me about the girls and There Goes Gravity.
Those are probably two my favorite memoirs.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I don't know like I. Journalists to me are like
just as equal rock stars as the actual rock stars himself.
So please welcome two quest left Supreme Lisa Robinson. Okay,
what were you saying, Steve? No no, I made my joke.
Now you made.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Anyone famous?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Just for me? All out out out the gate, Lisa.
For our guests that might not be familiar with your
your pedigree and your history, could you please give me
three random historical I was there moments that that come
come to mind? You know this gives you a.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Chance Led Zeppelin when it to a manager pulled out
a gun.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Oh, I was on the other end of the Peter
Grant he pulled out a gun.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
It was Richard Cole. Anyway, I was.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well, wait, wait, you can't just glide by that.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
You just asked the three random You want me to
tell you the whole story?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
We'd be on for that's what we know.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
No hold on a second. Let me just say something. Yes,
I'm doing a serious radio show by the way, Serious
XM starting tomorrow night from seven to eight pm. And
it's called Call Me with Lisa Robinson. Because, as you know,
I'm still in an old BlackBerry. I only know how
to text on it.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yes, and I.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Like people to actually call me at any rate. Okay,
so that's one.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
The Texas instruments in business. That's that much, I'll.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Say the second, I am worldwide West. Who's with the
Knicks now? My favorite team? Are the only people I
know who still use a BlackBerry? Anyway, back to the
three random incidents, let me think I can't think of
just three out of thousands. But okay, the LED's up
room of the gun, Michael Jackson calling me on the
(07:59):
phone crying that he did not want to tour with
his brothers in nineteen eighty on that victory tour, I
eighty four CE. You're the scholar. I don't remember all
the dates, okay, So oh man, I don't want to
talk about the time Mick Jagger had to borrow my
underpants because he lost his jockstrap. But I guess backwards, right,
(08:23):
that's been well documented. Here's the point, I just want
to say two things. You said all the people that
I had interviewed, and or you started to talk about Bowie,
Lou Reed, the stone Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, et cetera. You
mentioned one woman, Yoko Ono. The reason I wrote nobody
ever asked me about the girls is because I had
(08:45):
interviewed Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell, Mary j Blige, Linda Ronstadt,
I mean, everybody after Jennie Stoplin. Thank god it was
someone before my time. And the point is I always
had to answer questions like what's Eminem really like? What's
cunning like? I mean, you know you probably get the
(09:06):
same thing, or what was John Lennon really like? Or
what was David Bowie really like? And I finally got
to the point after having written There Goes Gravity, which
was mostly all about guys except for one chapter on
Lady Garda, I thought it's about time I started dealing
with the women. So that was one thing I just
wanted to clarify. And the other thing is when you
said that I was a pioneer at a time when
(09:29):
no one was making a living writing about rock and
roll musicians or a popular culture. We still don't make
a living and do it matter? So I just like
to clarify that, for the record, we were having too
much fun. Nobody was talking about money. Nobody was thinking
about that. In the seventies, I would make like forty
(09:50):
dollars a week from a syndicated column or editing Hip
Parado with my husband, or going on tour with Zeppelin,
and the Stones are hanging out and CBGB's every night,
and I thought this was great. I mean, we were
in a rent control department. I'm still in a rent
stabilized apartment, same one. We moved into a nineteen seventy
(10:10):
six and it's like a museum. I never decorated it.
It's just full of books and records and interviews and
some memorabilia that I don't trust to leave in Manhattan
mini storage. But it just was different time. It was like, also, Amir,
you know you grew up in this business. I mean,
(10:33):
I even think I saw as a kid Lee Andrews
and the Hearts. I don't know, maybe at the Brooklyn
Fox or one of those places I snuck out of
my house as a teenager to go see Thelonious Monk
of the five Spot or on Coltrane or Anito O'Day
and Stan Getz at the Village Vanguard, but also to
(10:54):
go to those early rock and roll shows at the
Brooklyn Fox Theater. I don't remember going to the Apollo,
but I do remember going to the Apollo much later
when I was teaching school in Harlem in the sixties.
But I grew up with all this music. I used
to listen to it under the covers with the transistor radio,
(11:16):
you know that old cliche, And it just made me
feel like there was a great, sexy, interesting world out there,
and I was a fan. And I grew up in
a left wing household that played Led Belly and Woody Gothrie.
And I knew about Mama Mae Thornton and sister I
was Ota Thorpe, and you know a lot of stuff
(11:37):
that no other journalists. When I was starting out, knew
about extept From my husband, who was on WAWFM when
it was nineteen sixty nine free form music. And I
heard his voice in the middle of the night. He
was on the graveyard shift, and I thought, A he
(11:58):
had a very sexy voice, and B he played unbelievable music.
And he got fired five times. The first time was
they're playing music what they called unfamiliar music, which was
can Tina Turner, Tina Turner and Vanetta Field's doing a
battle on something got a hold on me. I'll never
forget it. Pp Arnold doing first cut is the deepest
(12:22):
Curtis Mayfield and the impressions because he also worked at Buddha.
So so yeah. So Richard got fired for playing unfamiliar music,
which was black music. Then they hired him back again
because he was like the house tippy, and he got
fired for playing Jimmy Hendrickson's star spangled banner because they
(12:42):
told him it was unpatriotic. Then they hired him again,
and I think he played the stooges and the velvets,
but like really, you know, some of the sicker stuff
like I want to be your dog, or Heroin or
white light, white heat, or just kind of noise stuff.
They fired him again, and I think the last time
(13:03):
they hired him he just went on the air, flush
the toilet and walked off. And so this was my
introduction to the music business. I went to work for
him doing his smiling. Five months later we got married.
He turned one of his columns over to me in England.
And that's kind of how it started. He opened a
(13:23):
door and I barged through.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
What I'll say is based on.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
You know, I've collected a lot of old periodicals and
all those things, so I've seen your work, you know.
I'll say that the difference between your brand of documenting
a moment was way different than say, you know, the
Beatles with land in America in the sixties and have
a press conference like at the airport or at the hotel,
(13:55):
people have random questions. It's like audio CrowdWork whatever. But
your brand work, how did you know that? I mean,
it's somewhere between like page you know, I know that
you've done in depth Q and A interviews as well,
but you know, you doing quick takes like you know,
(14:17):
Bowie hung out at Maxis Kansas City and he wore
a leopard T shirt. Like people weren't describing like what
people were wearing or any of those things.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Like you you were like the precursor at like page six.
So how did you even know?
Speaker 4 (14:34):
I don't know about page six, but maybe MTV and
fashion and style.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, the idea of it right, Well.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
First of all, thank god, the Beatles were before my time.
Something else before my time, but I never asked a
question at a press conference because I always ask more
interesting questions and I didn't want anybody else getting the
answers all the quo Kanye. Kanye had a listening party
once for which is the album is a late Graduation
(15:02):
that John Bryan produced with WE Major and gold Digger
on it.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The second one.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Anyway, you had a listening party for that with a
whole bunch of press in the room, and Jay was there,
and I'm friendly with John Brian and I knew he
produced the record, and I had met Conye several times
through John, and when they played WE Major, I went
ballistic because to his day, I still think it's the
best thing he's ever done. But it was like a
(15:31):
Phil Specter symphony, and I just went crazy. So I
had to ask a question, and I raised my hand
and Jay went on, he has a question. He says
a question, and I said, how many tracks are on
WE Major? And they had no idea, They didn't know,
they didn't know the answer, and so they started calling
me the stumper. For a long time. Actually, Jay started
(15:53):
calling me. He kept calling me Stumper, and I went
home and called John Brian, who told me that he
got it from some kidne Agar Archer made a loop
of it. At any rate, what I did as a
journalist from the jump was I was interested in their lives,
their music. I mean, when I met Jimmy Page, I
(16:15):
would talk to him about Muddy Waters and Holm Wolf
and Elmore James and Willie Dixon, who they ripped off allegedly,
although I think they had to pay. Well. I get
very nervous about that. So you know, it's like a
deesu is a maryle thing allegedly allegedly allegedly anyway, So
(16:36):
so and I. But I'd also talked to Robert Plant
about Fairport Convention and Kaleidoscope and Incredible String Band and
Jenny Mitchell because I grew up the same loving the
same music they did, and I I didn't love a
lot of the folks stuff so much then I grew
to I did like the Incredible String Band, but on Kaleidoscope.
(16:58):
But I would talk to them about their musical taste.
I would write about their clothes. I mean, I'll never
forget when I was in New Orleans with those guys
the first time I ever interviewed them lengthily. Robert was
wearing a red Nilon speedo bikini parading around the pool.
(17:18):
Parading is the only word I could use for it.
And Jimmy Page was wearing a maroon velvet jacket in
eighty three degree weather, and I remember writing that it
was sweltering at eighty three degree weather, so some of
the climate change that was nineteen seventy three. Anyway, I
just started talking to them about music. I started talking
(17:40):
about their clothes. And this was a time that people
don't know they were written about as a heavy, cheesy,
heavy metal band. Every male journalist, every one of my
so called colleagues who threatened to quit Cream magazine when
I started to do a column called Elaganza, which was
(18:02):
named after a black pimp catalog, and it was all
about clothes, and all these guys threatened to leave the
magazine because they said it was decadent. I shouldn't be
writing about clothes. This was the alternative culture. This was
the revolution. I mean, this is in Detroit, by the way,
where the White Panthers and John Sinclair were sitting around
(18:24):
a table plotting revolution while the women were in the
kitchen cooking. So I would just love to make that
point about the MC five even though they were a
great band. However, I would always talk to these guys
just on a level of mutual musician fandom and asked
(18:46):
them about their lives. I didn't review their records, I
didn't review their concerts. I didn't do any boring analysis
shit about their lyrics. And I just think they were relieved.
I mean again, this was at a time when John
Mendelssohn wrote in Rolling Stone about the lemon song that
was on a Zeppelin I think the first album, maybe
(19:07):
the second, and he said Robert Plant sings notes only
a dog come here. And if I remember that from
nineteen seventy three, you can be certain that Robert Plant
remembers it. And Jimmy would bitch about the reviews all
the time, and I would just say, I don't give
a shit about reviews. You don't understand. Your music is majestic.
You combine the hard knocking of folk music and Eastern
(19:29):
stuff and all the scort and years from now your
music will be remembered, and those magazines and newspapers will
wrap fish. And sure enough, now Red Zepplin is considered
one of the greatest. I means eggs All on Main
Street was panned. It was my favorite Rolling Stones record
(19:50):
panned when it first came out. So I think part
of the reason that I have the access to these
bands was a I was a woman, but I was
not sleeping with them, and I was not taking drugs
with them. I was newly married. Richard was much cuter
than any of them were anyway, and smarter. And when
(20:12):
I first met Mick Jagger, the first thing I said
to him was those of the tackiest shoes I've ever seen,
because he was wearing some sort of sequin Papagallo encrusted shoes.
It was backstage at an Ever Captain concert, and you
know that was refreshing to them. People would meet McJagger
and they'd be like intimidated. I was from New York.
(20:33):
I wasn't intimidated.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Well, okay, so what I want to know is, obviously
you're from even though you're of the time, you were
clearly thinking future generation. Case in point, like prints opening
for the Stones in La even though he himself is
a baby boomer, his music and his presentations for Generation Next,
(20:58):
it's for what's next. So obviously you know you you
were for thinking who were the other women in that era?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
That was documenting. I know that.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
You know, you spoke of a time where you and
and fran Leewoods came up together on that the Stones tour,
But like, were there you.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Mean the photographer not friend? Was not?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Not?
Speaker 3 (21:27):
No, I said, I said, friend, forgive me Annie boy,
I know corrected an.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
Annie had already been a rolling Stone. So Annie had
already established her reputation as a photographer when she was
a rolling Stone. We started working together on the nineteen
seventy five Stones tour.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Before cocks Sucker Blues or that was during.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
That tour where or was that the big fallas coming
up from the Butterfly stage. Yeah. And also we kept
thinking every city we went to that they were going
to get arrested for singing starfucker. Imagine. I'm trying to
remember other things that, Oh god, there's so much that
went on on that tour. I remember mixing to me
(22:15):
at the time that he couldn't get a pill. This
is a little gross, but he said, you can't get
a pill for diarrhea, but you can walk into any
store and buy a gun. And this was in nineteen
seventy five, and I had no idea that you could
walk into a store in the South and buy a gun.
I'm from New York City. I'm from the Upper West
(22:35):
Side of Manhattan. I'd never seen a gun until I
saw it on that plane with Zeppelin. But it was
I mean, we weren't pour underground. Atlanta had a Less
Dramatics store where they sold less dramatics memorabilia. I mean,
it just was such a different time. It was like,
for those who don't know, Lester Matos was the racist governor,
(22:59):
governor or Georgia or something, or mayor of Atlanta or
some political person very much like Lindsey Graham or somebody today,
only worse, I mean, more, well more whatever. I'm not
going to say it, that would be an allegedly defamator.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
We found anything out else about.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
No, I know, I know, but I'm not going to
say it. Anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The bottom line is I yeah, he was the governor.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Uh yeah. So I was sort of a conduit between
a lot of these guys, like Richard was at RCAA
records and convinced them to sign David Bowie, Lou Reid
and the Kinks. So I introduced David Bowie when he
came to America to Lou Reed and to Iggy Pop,
both of whom he was very inspired by. Let's put
(23:48):
it that way, I am, I came to my house.
They hung out and reduced to come to my house
because Richard produced his first album, although it really he
did not do well because Lou was a mess at
the time and it was a very checkered situation. But
then Low and Richard didn't talk for years, but then
(24:10):
Luke called him back and asked him to co produce
Street Castle with him, which is a great record. And
so because of our friendship with Lou, or my friendship
with Patti Smith, or my going on the Stones tour,
or John Lennon and Yoko letting me in their house
from nineteen seventy five to eighty to do interviews, Bowie
would say to me, what's Mick Jagger doing? And Nick
(24:32):
Jagger would say to me, don't tell that idea to
Bowie because he'll steal it. Or John Lennon would say
to me, I just turned stairway to Heaven. Tell Robert
Plant it's great. And then I would tell that to
Robert Plant and he'd say he only heard it now.
I mean, it was like I was friends with Brian Ferry,
when he was living with Jerry Hall and she was
dating and I put quotes around that Mick Jagger, and
(24:56):
I never said a word about it. Because here's the
other thing. I was like a fly on the wall.
I would not take note in front of people. If
we were doing a real interview, i'd have my tape
recorders on. You've seen them, the analog tape recorders. Yes, machine,
I have three of them right behind.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Have I ever producted an interview like digitally? Or they all.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Hold on, this is really actually, We'll do this tangent
for a second. Then I'll get back to the why
these guys and these women trusted me. When I first
interviewed John Mann and I went with one analog tape
recorder sony cassette, and the tape fucked up. So he
let me go back the next day and do it again.
So from that day on in nineteen seventy whenever it was,
(25:47):
when did they first move to New York, I don't know.
It was around seventy two, seventy three. Yeah, From that
day on, I always took three tape recorders, and one
of them I would have an external mic, two of them,
not inevitably one of the three would screw up, but
at least I had two, so I had a backup.
(26:07):
Right when I first interviewed Beyonce in two thousand and
four or five, when was the last Destiny show, I
think it was two thousand and five, when she was
on Cover Fair. Yeah, So she looked at my setup
and she just, very politely, because she's very charming, said
did you ever think of moving up to digital? And
(26:29):
I wasn't even embarrassed. I just thought, oh, digital, I
don't know, probably now. And then I went home and
I said, Richard, maybe I should get a digital tape
recorder because people are making fun of me, and so
a lot of digital tape. He got a digital tape recorder.
He made a diagram for me that was literally like
in crayons, as if it were for a five year old,
(26:53):
with like step one, step two, do this, do that,
press play color coded on the god damn thing. And
when I first interviewed Lady Gaga and Ten at the
Beverly Hills Hotel, I very proudly brought out the digital
tape recorder along with my free analog cassette and guess
which one didn't work?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
The digital digital?
Speaker 4 (27:13):
You know, somebody says, sit with what you know. I've
stuck with what I know. But back to being a
fly on the wall with these guys and these women
and whoever I interviewed, and much later on, I always
respected people's private lives. You have to remember there were
no there was no cell phones, no Internet, no Instagram,
(27:36):
no everybody with a telephone with a picture with a camera.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Right.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
So these guys, especially the Zeppelin, who had wives and
children back in England, had us girlfriends, let's put it
that way. These were groupees, and some of them were
really their girlfriends. Yes, And I thought, I'm not going
to write about this. They've got wives and kids back
in England and it's really none of my fucking business,
(28:00):
and it's nobody else's business either. And I think in
that way I was trusted, not because I was writing
like puff pieces about them or anything. I just was
respectful and not invasive. To the point I may add
where I was so respectful and not invasive that I
(28:22):
toured a lot with Elton John. Of course I knew
he was gay. He was showing me his handbag collection,
for God's sakes, and I mean we were friends, but
he wasn't out, and I was not about to out him,
whereas somebody else might have done that, but then they
never would have seen him again.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
So then during his prime that he was out or
it was just like no, no, this.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Was way before and before he even married that woman Renato,
who was his engineer. This was in the early seventies,
and I'd be on the plane with him and we'd
be screaming and having found instrig and I, you know,
we just talked very comfortably with each other. I mean,
I can't explain it. I think in one way this
(29:11):
is going to sound braggy, but it's not that I
think I was more sophisticated than a lot of the
rock journalists. I was from New York. None of them
had gone to see Pilonius Monk at the Vice, but
I can assure you not at the age I anyway.
And I just had a different kind of confidence and
(29:33):
I wasn't cowed by any of this, and I just
respected people's private lives. And if somebody told me something
is off the record, it was off the record to
this day.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
And can I ask you something, Yeah, you don't have
to tell a story. You don't have to tell a name,
But I'm just curious how many secrets will go to
your grave that you like will never admit to the world. Well,
(30:05):
I know in general you won't admit it because you
just said, well.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
Here's the thing. Now, I'll tell you here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
How many? How many secrets? The finish? We know that
Stevie Wonder is not blind? Like how many secrets?
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Although when I did talk to Stevie Wonder and we
were in the studio and I told him I had
an analog cassette recorders.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
He said, now I was still a good like he
knew what side one inside two was at the cassette Nobody.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
Took me into his kitchen, opened the cabinet, pulled out
from the top shelf a DT recorder and gave it
to me. I still have it in the packaging in
one of my storage spaces because Stevie Wonder gave it
to me.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I'm not going to muse it.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
And then I ran into him and mister Charles last
year and I went up to him and I said,
I'm Lisa Robinson from Vanity Fair. Do you remember when
Annie and I came to photography and you gave me
that machine? He went, yeah, that DT machine. So you know,
I was watching Hustlers the other night, and I know
there is a line in there where Jennifer Lopez says,
I swear to god, Stevie Wonder came into the club.
He's not blind. I mean, why would someone pretend to
(31:08):
be blind? Come on.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Marketing? How many secrets will you carry? Here?
Speaker 4 (31:17):
There are certain people who have passed away that now
I feel like I can say certain things about Okay,
I mean I won't mention all the names. But when
Sign of the Times came out, I went to hear
it at a musician's apartment. He had an advanced pressing
and he kept looking at me to see what I thought,
(31:40):
And of course I was blown away, I mean blown away.
And he said to me about another rock star. He
said to me, this is Mick talking. He the other
rock star said to me, if he was white, we'd
all be in trouble and out of business. Now. I
(32:01):
don't know if that's been printed anywhere, and people know
who said it to your own. I don't know that
I would write that, because those two guys are still alive.
Prince isn't. But I did tell him that, and I
told him that at his house, and I told him
several times that he was an unbelievably underrated guitar player.
(32:23):
And he said, why don't you write that? I said,
why don't you let me interview you with a tape
recorder and I'll write whatever you want. You can take
me taping you. I mean I did that a little
bit with Kendrick. You know, sometimes in order to make
somebody feel comfortable, I would say things like, listen, if
you're really nervous about something and you think I'm going
to misquote you, although I won't because I transcribed every
(32:46):
single one of my interviews myself in Longhand and I
never would missay. I'm the only journalist I trust. Let's
put it that way. I don't like journalists. I don't
trust many of them, if any. And what I went
through in the early seventies with all those guys trying
to blackpool me, I mean the other women that were around.
(33:09):
Lillian Roxon, who wrote the Rock Encyclopedia, was my best
friend at the time. She was a very brilliant Bohemian
Australian woman and she died in nineteen seventy three. Glorias Davers,
who edited sixteen magazine. She also died in nineteen eighty three.
I think she edited sixteen magazine. But before sixteen Magazine
(33:33):
she was a Norman Morel, very high fashion designer model.
In the forties, she dated Lenny Bruce. She dated Jim Morrison.
I'm not sure dated is the right word, but whatever,
those were the only women who were my mentors. The
rest of the women writing about music were critics. There
was Ellen Willison New Yorker. There was Janet Maslim from
(33:55):
the Boston Phoenix. There was Ellen Sander from Life magazine,
and they reviewed things. They were critics. They didn't do interviews,
so I would do interviews with the tape on. Then
I would also hang out with them at after hours clubs,
at parties when they rehearsed in rehearsal studios in people's bedrooms,
(34:19):
like Earl mcgrathe used to have parties in New York,
and the Stones would rehearse with Thereic Claptain and Ronnie Wood.
One night in that room, I remember Annie taking pictures.
I would go out to the Andy Warhol's compound Inhampton's
where they were staying before the seventy five tour. I
would go I took Michael Jackson to the Studio fifty four,
(34:40):
the first time he ever went. I took the Clash
to Studio fifty four. I got the Clash their record deal.
I got Elvis Costello's record deal. I never made a
dime from this. I was so stupid. I never thought
about money. I mean, we didn't think about money. We
were having fun. We were young. It was the seventies
and I was getting to see all these cons so
it's for free, and prior to that I had to
(35:02):
pay to gopha concert. We were get along the albums
for free.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Since you were there when it was rebel music. And
then it's slowly more. I guess one could say that
that seventy five tour of the Stones was sorted them
becoming the seeds of what we now know is the
Rolling Stones more like an institution and less about, you know,
(35:30):
the Hydrid Daughters, rock rebels that are coming to town
to pillage. But when do you consider what was the
year that you saw This is now a business, not
just you know, rock and rolls.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
I saw it. I saw it right from the beginning.
I saw it with led Zeppelin when I went to
see them in Jacksonville in July nineteen seventy three, and
they played to an eighty thousand seat stadium.
Speaker 6 (36:03):
I have a different question, Leicster Bangs. Yeah, can you
tell our audience about Lester Bangs?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
I was going to say, of your contemporaries, I guess
Lester has this.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
You know, the cooler than the our you know, you know,
jaded critic. Was the legend bigger than what? Do you actually?
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yes? Yes, yes, yes, the myth was greater than was
drunk Leicester was okay. Richard, my husband was first working
for Buddhen Records, and then he was working for our
SAA records, so he had expense accounts. So even though
we were living in a rent control department and we
didn't have a lot of money, he had an expense account.
(36:47):
So I would order Chinese food and we would feed
and entertain these unbelievably what's the word I used in
my book, I don't know. It was a thankless test,
let's put it that way. A lot of these guys
would come and sleep on our sofa. I felt like
we were people said we have this salon. We did
(37:10):
not have a salon. We had a homeless shelter. I mean,
Dave marsh would come in from Detroit and sleep on
our sofa. Lenny k lived there for almost a year
on our Florida living room. You know. John Landa would
come in from Boston when he was writing at the
Phoenix before he discovered the future of rock and roll
in his name was Bruce Springsteen. Richard Meltzer and Lester
(37:34):
Bangs were there a lot. Richard Meltzer was the real deal.
He was a better writer, he was smarter, he was crazy.
Lester was drunk. And Lester was also crazy and drunk
and obnoxious. Quite frankly, I mean, the myth in many
(37:56):
of these things was greater than the reality. He has
been lying so much, not in a small part by
Cameron Crowe and that movie. But I only remember the
drunken nights when we had to like whisper, like how
we're going to get Lester out of here, you know?
Or Richard Meltzer would be walking around with his shirt
(38:18):
off in a bottle of scotch. And I don't know
he's still somewhere alive writing and I haven't read him recently,
but to me, he was the real thing. And Lester
got all of the credit and I don't know whether
he emulated Richard, but Richard was much more interesting and
insightful I felt anyway.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
So I have my observations in hip hop journalism when
I saw the shift occur, where like people who I
truly respected for their opinions were writing about music as
opposed to now unknown the intern from four years ago
(39:01):
now getting their cover story, you know, just like you know,
the the level of hip hop journalism has gone to
shit in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
But for you, when when was music or rock journalism
at its at its at its best in your opinion?
And when did you notice that there's a shift? You know,
do you guys?
Speaker 3 (39:32):
And in terms of no, no, just in terms of
really giving a good story oftentimes like okay, I know
that if like say today Pitchfork, sometimes they'll pan in
an album just to impress their contemporaries to you know,
(39:53):
in that Lester Bangs way where you're not writing your
honest opinion about something you want to do a performative.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
Well it might have been his honest opinion. I mean,
he had very many run ins with you read I
don't really Here's the thing, I never read this. I
don't know I did what I did because I wanted
to read what I wanted to read. I mean, Tony
Morrison always said, write the book you want to read,
it's like, or write the book that you want to write,
or whatever. I don't know. Listen, when the Roots started
(40:23):
playing instruments, why did you do that? Hip hop bands
weren't playing instruments. You did that? Why because you wanted
to hear a band that was doing hip hop play
instruments or doing rap play instruments. I did what I
did because nobody else was doing it, So I mean
I never even thought about it. I just did it.
(40:44):
And I really didn't read a lot of that stuff.
I don't think I've ever looked at Patlarch in my life.
I didn't look complex. I didn't look at I maybe
looked at the Vibe and the Source and Rolling Stone
a little bit, but I never really read Rolling Stone
because I didn't like the person who owned it, and
(41:04):
I didn't like the way women were treated in that office.
And it is really a badge of honor as far
as I'm concerned. And I never wrote for them. And
I'm being really blunt and frank with you. I'll probably
get a lot of haters about a lot of this stuff,
But I just I didn't really read it. I read
Cream Magazine a little bit. I mean I read my
(41:27):
husband's column. He did a Rewire Yourself years before anybody
was writing about technology. He wrote a book called The
Video Primer. Richard said two things that stick out in
my mind that is so brilliant. One was everybody kept
saying in the seventies, who's the ex Beatles? Who's an
ex Beatles? Rich band is going to be the next Beatles?
(41:48):
And Richard said, the next Beatles is going to be
a machine. This was in nineteen seventy one. Okay, so
that's who I was married to. He also said about musicians,
because one minute we were managing some musicians, which really
was not a smart move. But he always said managing
an act is like running backwards holding up a mirror.
(42:11):
So you know, I just didn't read this stuff. So
I can't say when I think it shifted, if it
did shift what I read I read. I don't know
what did I read rock journalism. I'm not really because
nobody was doing what I was interested in. I was
doing what I was interested in, And I'm not saying
(42:32):
that to Sam conceited or anything, because a lot of
people weren't interested in what I was running about. But
I was much more interested in the human side, and
I wasn't seeing that in too many places, certainly not
when I started, and I'm not even sure now.
Speaker 5 (42:47):
I mean, I occasionally read a profile in the New
York Times magazine section about somebody I'm interested in, and
I'll stop halfway through because it just so long.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
I mean, I also feel leave somebody wanting more. You know.
It's like I take it as the biggest compliment when
I've done cover stories and Vanity Fair and people have
said to me, oh my god, I wish it was longer. Job.
That's how I feel.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
My final question to you is with with the life
that you you lived in all of your archives and
memories and whatnot, are you actively trying to seek.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
I feel like the next step for you is is
basically either as a movie or as a series like
a Netflix series.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Yeah, like you're this this is a no brainer. Has
has anyone who approached you about you know?
Speaker 4 (43:49):
The couple of people who have, I wouldn't want to
really work with you, want to do something, I'll do
something with you. I mean I'm serious. I don't know.
I think between now and I don't know what I
want to do. I do want to place all this stuff.
I mean, I want to sell it because I need
the money, but I also want to place all this
(44:11):
stuff with people who love it. That's why I first
talked to you about the albums here, because I don't
want to see these albums go to some record store
in Brooklyn where somebody's going to buy one of this
and three of that and two it. I just want
the collection to be with someone who loves it. You know.
Q Tip actually did make his way over here one
(44:32):
night to look at them, and he started looking up
every album and appraising it and figuring out the prices,
and then he said, I'm sending my assistant back to
see you next week and we're going to do this.
And that was no, that was one, two, three, three
and a half years ago.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I think that's what I said. I'm coming over there
to scoop them.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Okay, after I get my second vaccine shot. I have
never been so happy in my life when I lowered
the age and I'm old enough finally to get this vaccine.
But honestly, I want the archives, the tapes. I do
want it to go, maybe to an institution where people
can listen to it and study it and learn from it,
(45:24):
or do a series of podcasts, or do a series
of documentaries. I don't know. The problem is I always
was too busy just earning a living and getting through
every day. And now starting this serious radio show, which
is just once a week, I'll be able to talk,
which I love in writing. I don't know if I
(45:45):
want to write another book. I don't know. I don't
know who else I want to interview. I mean, you
talk about how did I know the future of rock
and roll with CBGB's I didn't. I just was there
when it happened and it just seemed right. It was fun.
If I had been able to predict the future, first
of all, as Friendly for It says, I would pick
(46:07):
better a lot of tickets. But also I would have
known about hip hop before I did, because that's inexcusable
that I was living in New York City and I
didn't even know that this was going on for quite
a while. Because as I said, it's still the music
that it's on my iPod, that in Frank Sinatra and
(46:28):
some Florio's Mark Andero corner.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Wow, well, thank.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
You, Steve. You wanted to ask me something?
Speaker 6 (46:34):
Yeah, you know, why why aren't you just airing these
these legendary interviews that you have as as complete as
a podcast as a podcast?
Speaker 4 (46:48):
Yeah, well because somebody hasn't made me the right offer yet.
Speaker 6 (46:51):
When they do, I will because that's yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
I mean the show I'm doing for serious is just
a call and show because I wanted to do something
like Steven A.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Smith.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Does you know I wanted people.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Calling in like sports, but for music.
Speaker 4 (47:06):
Well he does that for sports, I'm going to do
it for music. Gla. I could do it for basketball too.
I could name you the starting five on all thirty teams.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
You know what they say, no one loves the Knicks
more than you do.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
And I'm like, I'm one of those long man.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
So I know you're happy about three wins in a
row that they had.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
Come on. At least they're competitive, at least it's watchable.
It's not like it was. Julius Ramball is good. I
love him Manual quickly, and don't even get me started
on the new Jersey nets because that's the whole other thing.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
Well, Lisa, we thank you.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
We've been trying to make this happen for years. I'm
proud that you got your technology set.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
Up on just to be able to do zoom. Yeah,
thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
I have to hire an.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
IT guy to do that.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
I thought, yeah, I thought I was going to look at.
Speaker 4 (47:54):
Those albums and seriously, yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
I just want to say I'm proud of you getting
over your technology fears and doing that because you know,
you and I often had the flintstone bird writing a message,
sending pigeons to our windows kind of relationships. So one
day I'm gonna get you use an iPhone for real.
Speaker 4 (48:13):
I have an iPhone.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
I just.
Speaker 4 (48:17):
I listen to music on it. I go to YouTube,
and I Google, and I make phone calls. I'm going
when I traveled, when I used to travel.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
You up to two thousand. Okay, please Robinson, Ladies and
Joe in Quest left Supreme. We thank you so much.
Fan Takeelo and Shuka Steve, thank you. We will see
you on the next program. Thank you ladies and Joe.
Speaker 4 (48:39):
Okay, thanks guys, Yo, what's up?
Speaker 2 (48:42):
It's Fonte. Make sure you keep up with us on
Instagram at quels and let us know what you think.
Who should be next to sit down with us, don't
forget to subscribe to our podcast, all Right Peace.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
West Left Supreme is a production of ihearten Rating. For
moreodcast from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Qost Loft Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Ladies and Gentlemen. Right now, Lisa Robinson is showing us.
We're on zoom right now.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
She showed me her illustrious record collection, and I'm celebating
right now.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Okay, what's behind me is a portion, not all of them,
of my five thousand hours of interviews, all the original cassettes,
plus manic backups. Richard did my husband before he died,
on CD because he didn't believe in the cloud, the
internet or the computers, so he made backups on two
(00:44):
or three CDs of every single cassette. Then I had
to hire an IT guy after Richard died, and he
copied it onto two different computers, three external hard drives,
and three backups of the external hard drugs and secure
undisclosed locations. So what's behind me? All the original interviews
(01:08):
were some of them.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I have to say that I've known you about twenty years,
and often I have I haven't stayed up at night,
but I've definitely wondered, are you properly going to archive
your your collection, your collection of notes in He told
me that you have like original hotel notes in stationary.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Yeah, I have an original questionnaire Michael Jackson toil that
when he was eleven that I kept in a safety
deposit box for years where.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
He was Is this the infamous one where he called
himself a nigger?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
He wrote? The question was what's your nickname? And he
said the nose and then he wrote ni g one word,
one g er but he crossed that out.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, that's not I've heard about this or I have
Where did you hear about it?
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Other than me? Because I have nobody else.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I know you, so uh okay.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Letters, yeah, letters from Bowie and John Lennon and everybody
on the planet. And four storage spaces that I spend
fifty thousand dollars a year in addition to this museum
I'm living in, and an office across the street that
also houses a lot of shit. And in terms of
really properly appraising or archiving it, I've been too busy
(02:34):
trying to earn a living for all these years. I
just haven't had the time. So the audio archives are
pretty well documented now, they're on a bunch of databases.
The photos I have trunks and trunks and trunks of
original photos from Bob Grew and Lee Childers, Annie Liebovitz,
(02:54):
Peter Hughes or Maplethorpe. I mean so much stuff that
I never hung any of it up. It's in storage,
It's in my house and boxes and closets. I actually
have something, maybe you would want it. I was in
Nashville and I was in a thrift store and there
(03:15):
was one of those huge posters of a black barbershop,
you know, the drawings with the fabulous kind of old
like some girls kind.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Of wigs it.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
I bought it and I shipped it back to New York.
And this was in two thousand and.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Four, maybe okay, And.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
I said to friend, what should I do with this?
I was going to either give it to Tony Morrison
or that an artisan, because they collect that kind of stuff.
And she said, well, I wouldn't display it. It's really
not correct for you to display it. So it's hiding
somewhere in a closet. It's awesome, though, it is so
great anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, I have to properly introduce you, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
This is quest lof Supreme. I knew the second that
her mic was on the stories would come. And of
course the stories came even before I did the proper introduction,
I will say that our guest, Damn Near is a
pioneer or invented rock and roll journalism.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
There was a time in your life where.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Making a living writing about the lives of rock stars.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Was a questionable thing. One couldn't make a living off
of it. So I will say that our.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Guest today is a pioneer in terms of one that
actually made their full time career kind of journaling.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
The lives of others.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Name them New Music, Express, Cream Magazine, the New York Post,
even all the way down to Vanity Fair, if you will.
She's probably the trusted pla one in the rooms. He's
literally seen everyone and everything. And these types of venterviews
are my favorite because oftentimes I say that you'll learn more.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
About a subject based on the extra eyes.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
In the room, not necessarily the subject themselves.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So name them from Jagger to Richards to Paige and
Plant to Bowie, Read Lennon, Ono, Jackson, Bono. I forgot
what Bono's I forgot what Bono's last name is.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's a that's right, Houston.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Paul Houston. That's right. It's like an uncle of my
I don't recognize any of those names. Did you ever
meet anybody famous?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I will say that I highly recommend as far as
memoirs are concerned, both both of her books, uh No.
One never asked me about the girls and There Goes Gravity.
Those are probably two my favorite memoirs.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I don't know like I. Journalists to me are like
just as equal rock stars as the actual rock stars himself.
So please welcome two quest left Supreme Lisa Robinson. Okay,
what were you saying, Steve? No no, I made my joke.
Now you made.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Anyone famous?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Just for me? All out out out the gate, Lisa.
For our guests that might not be familiar with your
your pedigree and your history, could you please give me
three random historical I was there moments that that come
come to mind? You know this gives you a.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Chance Led Zeppelin when it to a manager pulled out
a gun.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Oh, I was on the other end of the Peter
Grant he pulled out a gun.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
It was Richard Cole. Anyway, I was.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well, wait, wait, you can't just glide by that.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
You just asked the three random You want me to
tell you the whole story?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
We'd be on for that's what we know.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
No hold on a second. Let me just say something. Yes,
I'm doing a serious radio show by the way, Serious
XM starting tomorrow night from seven to eight pm. And
it's called Call Me with Lisa Robinson. Because, as you know,
I'm still in an old BlackBerry. I only know how
to text on it.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yes, and I.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Like people to actually call me at any rate. Okay,
so that's one.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
The Texas instruments in business. That's that much, I'll.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Say the second, I am worldwide West. Who's with the
Knicks now? My favorite team? Are the only people I
know who still use a BlackBerry? Anyway, back to the
three random incidents, let me think I can't think of
just three out of thousands. But okay, the LED's up
room of the gun, Michael Jackson calling me on the
(07:59):
phone crying that he did not want to tour with
his brothers in nineteen eighty on that victory tour, I
eighty four CE. You're the scholar. I don't remember all
the dates, okay, So oh man, I don't want to
talk about the time Mick Jagger had to borrow my
underpants because he lost his jockstrap. But I guess backwards, right,
(08:23):
that's been well documented. Here's the point, I just want
to say two things. You said all the people that
I had interviewed, and or you started to talk about Bowie,
Lou Reed, the stone Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, et cetera. You
mentioned one woman, Yoko Ono. The reason I wrote nobody
ever asked me about the girls is because I had
(08:45):
interviewed Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell, Mary j Blige, Linda Ronstadt,
I mean, everybody after Jennie Stoplin. Thank god it was
someone before my time. And the point is I always
had to answer questions like what's Eminem really like? What's
cunning like? I mean, you know you probably get the
(09:06):
same thing, or what was John Lennon really like? Or
what was David Bowie really like? And I finally got
to the point after having written There Goes Gravity, which
was mostly all about guys except for one chapter on
Lady Garda, I thought it's about time I started dealing
with the women. So that was one thing I just
wanted to clarify. And the other thing is when you
said that I was a pioneer at a time when
(09:29):
no one was making a living writing about rock and
roll musicians or a popular culture. We still don't make
a living and do it matter? So I just like
to clarify that, for the record, we were having too
much fun. Nobody was talking about money. Nobody was thinking
about that. In the seventies, I would make like forty
(09:50):
dollars a week from a syndicated column or editing Hip
Parado with my husband, or going on tour with Zeppelin,
and the Stones are hanging out and CBGB's every night,
and I thought this was great. I mean, we were
in a rent control department. I'm still in a rent
stabilized apartment, same one. We moved into a nineteen seventy
(10:10):
six and it's like a museum. I never decorated it.
It's just full of books and records and interviews and
some memorabilia that I don't trust to leave in Manhattan
mini storage. But it just was different time. It was like, also, Amir,
you know you grew up in this business. I mean,
(10:33):
I even think I saw as a kid Lee Andrews
and the Hearts. I don't know, maybe at the Brooklyn
Fox or one of those places I snuck out of
my house as a teenager to go see Thelonious Monk
of the five Spot or on Coltrane or Anito O'Day
and Stan Getz at the Village Vanguard, but also to
(10:54):
go to those early rock and roll shows at the
Brooklyn Fox Theater. I don't remember going to the Apollo,
but I do remember going to the Apollo much later
when I was teaching school in Harlem in the sixties.
But I grew up with all this music. I used
to listen to it under the covers with the transistor radio,
(11:16):
you know that old cliche, And it just made me
feel like there was a great, sexy, interesting world out there,
and I was a fan. And I grew up in
a left wing household that played Led Belly and Woody Gothrie.
And I knew about Mama Mae Thornton and sister I
was Ota Thorpe, and you know a lot of stuff
(11:37):
that no other journalists. When I was starting out, knew
about extept From my husband, who was on WAWFM when
it was nineteen sixty nine free form music. And I
heard his voice in the middle of the night. He
was on the graveyard shift, and I thought, A he
(11:58):
had a very sexy voice, and B he played unbelievable music.
And he got fired five times. The first time was
they're playing music what they called unfamiliar music, which was
can Tina Turner, Tina Turner and Vanetta Field's doing a
battle on something got a hold on me. I'll never
forget it. Pp Arnold doing first cut is the deepest
(12:22):
Curtis Mayfield and the impressions because he also worked at Buddha.
So so yeah. So Richard got fired for playing unfamiliar music,
which was black music. Then they hired him back again
because he was like the house tippy, and he got
fired for playing Jimmy Hendrickson's star spangled banner because they
(12:42):
told him it was unpatriotic. Then they hired him again,
and I think he played the stooges and the velvets,
but like really, you know, some of the sicker stuff
like I want to be your dog, or Heroin or
white light, white heat, or just kind of noise stuff.
They fired him again, and I think the last time
(13:03):
they hired him he just went on the air, flush
the toilet and walked off. And so this was my
introduction to the music business. I went to work for
him doing his smiling. Five months later we got married.
He turned one of his columns over to me in England.
And that's kind of how it started. He opened a
(13:23):
door and I barged through.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
What I'll say is based on.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
You know, I've collected a lot of old periodicals and
all those things, so I've seen your work, you know.
I'll say that the difference between your brand of documenting
a moment was way different than say, you know, the
Beatles with land in America in the sixties and have
a press conference like at the airport or at the hotel,
(13:55):
people have random questions. It's like audio CrowdWork whatever. But
your brand work, how did you know that? I mean,
it's somewhere between like page you know, I know that
you've done in depth Q and A interviews as well,
but you know, you doing quick takes like you know,
(14:17):
Bowie hung out at Maxis Kansas City and he wore
a leopard T shirt. Like people weren't describing like what
people were wearing or any of those things.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Like you you were like the precursor at like page six.
So how did you even know?
Speaker 4 (14:34):
I don't know about page six, but maybe MTV and
fashion and style.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, the idea of it right, Well.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
First of all, thank god, the Beatles were before my time.
Something else before my time, but I never asked a
question at a press conference because I always ask more
interesting questions and I didn't want anybody else getting the
answers all the quo Kanye. Kanye had a listening party
once for which is the album is a late Graduation
(15:02):
that John Bryan produced with WE Major and gold Digger
on it.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The second one.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Anyway, you had a listening party for that with a
whole bunch of press in the room, and Jay was there,
and I'm friendly with John Brian and I knew he
produced the record, and I had met Conye several times
through John, and when they played WE Major, I went
ballistic because to his day, I still think it's the
best thing he's ever done. But it was like a
(15:31):
Phil Specter symphony, and I just went crazy. So I
had to ask a question, and I raised my hand
and Jay went on, he has a question. He says
a question, and I said, how many tracks are on
WE Major? And they had no idea, They didn't know,
they didn't know the answer, and so they started calling
me the stumper. For a long time. Actually, Jay started
(15:53):
calling me. He kept calling me Stumper, and I went
home and called John Brian, who told me that he
got it from some kidne Agar Archer made a loop
of it. At any rate, what I did as a
journalist from the jump was I was interested in their lives,
their music. I mean, when I met Jimmy Page, I
(16:15):
would talk to him about Muddy Waters and Holm Wolf
and Elmore James and Willie Dixon, who they ripped off allegedly,
although I think they had to pay. Well. I get
very nervous about that. So you know, it's like a
deesu is a maryle thing allegedly allegedly allegedly anyway, So
(16:36):
so and I. But I'd also talked to Robert Plant
about Fairport Convention and Kaleidoscope and Incredible String Band and
Jenny Mitchell because I grew up the same loving the
same music they did, and I I didn't love a
lot of the folks stuff so much then I grew
to I did like the Incredible String Band, but on Kaleidoscope.
(16:58):
But I would talk to them about their musical taste.
I would write about their clothes. I mean, I'll never
forget when I was in New Orleans with those guys
the first time I ever interviewed them lengthily. Robert was
wearing a red Nilon speedo bikini parading around the pool.
(17:18):
Parading is the only word I could use for it.
And Jimmy Page was wearing a maroon velvet jacket in
eighty three degree weather, and I remember writing that it
was sweltering at eighty three degree weather, so some of
the climate change that was nineteen seventy three. Anyway, I
just started talking to them about music. I started talking
(17:40):
about their clothes. And this was a time that people
don't know they were written about as a heavy, cheesy,
heavy metal band. Every male journalist, every one of my
so called colleagues who threatened to quit Cream magazine when
I started to do a column called Elaganza, which was
(18:02):
named after a black pimp catalog, and it was all
about clothes, and all these guys threatened to leave the
magazine because they said it was decadent. I shouldn't be
writing about clothes. This was the alternative culture. This was
the revolution. I mean, this is in Detroit, by the way,
where the White Panthers and John Sinclair were sitting around
(18:24):
a table plotting revolution while the women were in the
kitchen cooking. So I would just love to make that
point about the MC five even though they were a
great band. However, I would always talk to these guys
just on a level of mutual musician fandom and asked
(18:46):
them about their lives. I didn't review their records, I
didn't review their concerts. I didn't do any boring analysis
shit about their lyrics. And I just think they were relieved.
I mean again, this was at a time when John
Mendelssohn wrote in Rolling Stone about the lemon song that
was on a Zeppelin I think the first album, maybe
(19:07):
the second, and he said Robert Plant sings notes only
a dog come here. And if I remember that from
nineteen seventy three, you can be certain that Robert Plant
remembers it. And Jimmy would bitch about the reviews all
the time, and I would just say, I don't give
a shit about reviews. You don't understand. Your music is majestic.
You combine the hard knocking of folk music and Eastern
(19:29):
stuff and all the scort and years from now your
music will be remembered, and those magazines and newspapers will
wrap fish. And sure enough, now Red Zepplin is considered
one of the greatest. I means eggs All on Main
Street was panned. It was my favorite Rolling Stones record
(19:50):
panned when it first came out. So I think part
of the reason that I have the access to these
bands was a I was a woman, but I was
not sleeping with them, and I was not taking drugs
with them. I was newly married. Richard was much cuter
than any of them were anyway, and smarter. And when
(20:12):
I first met Mick Jagger, the first thing I said
to him was those of the tackiest shoes I've ever seen,
because he was wearing some sort of sequin Papagallo encrusted shoes.
It was backstage at an Ever Captain concert, and you
know that was refreshing to them. People would meet McJagger
and they'd be like intimidated. I was from New York.
(20:33):
I wasn't intimidated.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Well, okay, so what I want to know is, obviously
you're from even though you're of the time, you were
clearly thinking future generation. Case in point, like prints opening
for the Stones in La even though he himself is
a baby boomer, his music and his presentations for Generation Next,
(20:58):
it's for what's next. So obviously you know you you
were for thinking who were the other women in that era?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
That was documenting. I know that.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
You know, you spoke of a time where you and
and fran Leewoods came up together on that the Stones tour,
But like, were there you.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Mean the photographer not friend? Was not?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Not?
Speaker 3 (21:27):
No, I said, I said, friend, forgive me Annie boy,
I know corrected an.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
Annie had already been a rolling Stone. So Annie had
already established her reputation as a photographer when she was
a rolling Stone. We started working together on the nineteen
seventy five Stones tour.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Before cocks Sucker Blues or that was during.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
That tour where or was that the big fallas coming
up from the Butterfly stage. Yeah. And also we kept
thinking every city we went to that they were going
to get arrested for singing starfucker. Imagine. I'm trying to
remember other things that, Oh god, there's so much that
went on on that tour. I remember mixing to me
(22:15):
at the time that he couldn't get a pill. This
is a little gross, but he said, you can't get
a pill for diarrhea, but you can walk into any
store and buy a gun. And this was in nineteen
seventy five, and I had no idea that you could
walk into a store in the South and buy a gun.
I'm from New York City. I'm from the Upper West
(22:35):
Side of Manhattan. I'd never seen a gun until I
saw it on that plane with Zeppelin. But it was
I mean, we weren't pour underground. Atlanta had a Less
Dramatics store where they sold less dramatics memorabilia. I mean,
it just was such a different time. It was like,
for those who don't know, Lester Matos was the racist governor,
(22:59):
governor or Georgia or something, or mayor of Atlanta or
some political person very much like Lindsey Graham or somebody today,
only worse, I mean, more, well more whatever. I'm not
going to say it, that would be an allegedly defamator.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
We found anything out else about.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
No, I know, I know, but I'm not going to
say it. Anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The bottom line is I yeah, he was the governor.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Uh yeah. So I was sort of a conduit between
a lot of these guys, like Richard was at RCAA
records and convinced them to sign David Bowie, Lou Reid
and the Kinks. So I introduced David Bowie when he
came to America to Lou Reed and to Iggy Pop,
both of whom he was very inspired by. Let's put
(23:48):
it that way, I am, I came to my house.
They hung out and reduced to come to my house
because Richard produced his first album, although it really he
did not do well because Lou was a mess at
the time and it was a very checkered situation. But
then Low and Richard didn't talk for years, but then
(24:10):
Luke called him back and asked him to co produce
Street Castle with him, which is a great record. And
so because of our friendship with Lou, or my friendship
with Patti Smith, or my going on the Stones tour,
or John Lennon and Yoko letting me in their house
from nineteen seventy five to eighty to do interviews, Bowie
would say to me, what's Mick Jagger doing? And Nick
(24:32):
Jagger would say to me, don't tell that idea to
Bowie because he'll steal it. Or John Lennon would say
to me, I just turned stairway to Heaven. Tell Robert
Plant it's great. And then I would tell that to
Robert Plant and he'd say he only heard it now.
I mean, it was like I was friends with Brian Ferry,
when he was living with Jerry Hall and she was
dating and I put quotes around that Mick Jagger, and
(24:56):
I never said a word about it. Because here's the
other thing. I was like a fly on the wall.
I would not take note in front of people. If
we were doing a real interview, i'd have my tape
recorders on. You've seen them, the analog tape recorders. Yes, machine,
I have three of them right behind.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Have I ever producted an interview like digitally? Or they all.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Hold on, this is really actually, We'll do this tangent
for a second. Then I'll get back to the why
these guys and these women trusted me. When I first
interviewed John Mann and I went with one analog tape
recorder sony cassette, and the tape fucked up. So he
let me go back the next day and do it again.
So from that day on in nineteen seventy whenever it was,
(25:47):
when did they first move to New York, I don't know.
It was around seventy two, seventy three. Yeah, From that
day on, I always took three tape recorders, and one
of them I would have an external mic, two of them,
not inevitably one of the three would screw up, but
at least I had two, so I had a backup.
(26:07):
Right when I first interviewed Beyonce in two thousand and
four or five, when was the last Destiny show, I
think it was two thousand and five, when she was
on Cover Fair. Yeah, So she looked at my setup
and she just, very politely, because she's very charming, said
did you ever think of moving up to digital? And
(26:29):
I wasn't even embarrassed. I just thought, oh, digital, I
don't know, probably now. And then I went home and
I said, Richard, maybe I should get a digital tape
recorder because people are making fun of me, and so
a lot of digital tape. He got a digital tape recorder.
He made a diagram for me that was literally like
in crayons, as if it were for a five year old,
(26:53):
with like step one, step two, do this, do that,
press play color coded on the god damn thing. And
when I first interviewed Lady Gaga and Ten at the
Beverly Hills Hotel, I very proudly brought out the digital
tape recorder along with my free analog cassette and guess
which one didn't work?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
The digital digital?
Speaker 4 (27:13):
You know, somebody says, sit with what you know. I've
stuck with what I know. But back to being a
fly on the wall with these guys and these women
and whoever I interviewed, and much later on, I always
respected people's private lives. You have to remember there were
no there was no cell phones, no Internet, no Instagram,
(27:36):
no everybody with a telephone with a picture with a camera.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Right.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
So these guys, especially the Zeppelin, who had wives and
children back in England, had us girlfriends, let's put it
that way. These were groupees, and some of them were
really their girlfriends. Yes, And I thought, I'm not going
to write about this. They've got wives and kids back
in England and it's really none of my fucking business,
(28:00):
and it's nobody else's business either. And I think in
that way I was trusted, not because I was writing
like puff pieces about them or anything. I just was
respectful and not invasive. To the point I may add
where I was so respectful and not invasive that I
(28:22):
toured a lot with Elton John. Of course I knew
he was gay. He was showing me his handbag collection,
for God's sakes, and I mean we were friends, but
he wasn't out, and I was not about to out him,
whereas somebody else might have done that, but then they
never would have seen him again.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
So then during his prime that he was out or
it was just like no, no, this.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Was way before and before he even married that woman Renato,
who was his engineer. This was in the early seventies,
and I'd be on the plane with him and we'd
be screaming and having found instrig and I, you know,
we just talked very comfortably with each other. I mean,
I can't explain it. I think in one way this
(29:11):
is going to sound braggy, but it's not that I
think I was more sophisticated than a lot of the
rock journalists. I was from New York. None of them
had gone to see Pilonius Monk at the Vice, but
I can assure you not at the age I anyway.
And I just had a different kind of confidence and
(29:33):
I wasn't cowed by any of this, and I just
respected people's private lives. And if somebody told me something
is off the record, it was off the record to
this day.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
And can I ask you something, Yeah, you don't have
to tell a story. You don't have to tell a name,
But I'm just curious how many secrets will go to
your grave that you like will never admit to the world. Well,
(30:05):
I know in general you won't admit it because you
just said, well.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
Here's the thing. Now, I'll tell you here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
How many? How many secrets? The finish? We know that
Stevie Wonder is not blind? Like how many secrets?
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Although when I did talk to Stevie Wonder and we
were in the studio and I told him I had
an analog cassette recorders.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
He said, now I was still a good like he
knew what side one inside two was at the cassette Nobody.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
Took me into his kitchen, opened the cabinet, pulled out
from the top shelf a DT recorder and gave it
to me. I still have it in the packaging in
one of my storage spaces because Stevie Wonder gave it
to me.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I'm not going to muse it.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
And then I ran into him and mister Charles last
year and I went up to him and I said,
I'm Lisa Robinson from Vanity Fair. Do you remember when
Annie and I came to photography and you gave me
that machine? He went, yeah, that DT machine. So you know,
I was watching Hustlers the other night, and I know
there is a line in there where Jennifer Lopez says,
I swear to god, Stevie Wonder came into the club.
He's not blind. I mean, why would someone pretend to
(31:08):
be blind? Come on.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Marketing? How many secrets will you carry? Here?
Speaker 4 (31:17):
There are certain people who have passed away that now
I feel like I can say certain things about Okay,
I mean I won't mention all the names. But when
Sign of the Times came out, I went to hear
it at a musician's apartment. He had an advanced pressing
and he kept looking at me to see what I thought,
(31:40):
And of course I was blown away, I mean blown away.
And he said to me about another rock star. He
said to me, this is Mick talking. He the other
rock star said to me, if he was white, we'd
all be in trouble and out of business. Now. I
(32:01):
don't know if that's been printed anywhere, and people know
who said it to your own. I don't know that
I would write that, because those two guys are still alive.
Prince isn't. But I did tell him that, and I
told him that at his house, and I told him
several times that he was an unbelievably underrated guitar player.
(32:23):
And he said, why don't you write that? I said,
why don't you let me interview you with a tape
recorder and I'll write whatever you want. You can take
me taping you. I mean I did that a little
bit with Kendrick. You know, sometimes in order to make
somebody feel comfortable, I would say things like, listen, if
you're really nervous about something and you think I'm going
to misquote you, although I won't because I transcribed every
(32:46):
single one of my interviews myself in Longhand and I
never would missay. I'm the only journalist I trust. Let's
put it that way. I don't like journalists. I don't
trust many of them, if any. And what I went
through in the early seventies with all those guys trying
to blackpool me, I mean the other women that were around.
(33:09):
Lillian Roxon, who wrote the Rock Encyclopedia, was my best
friend at the time. She was a very brilliant Bohemian
Australian woman and she died in nineteen seventy three. Glorias Davers,
who edited sixteen magazine. She also died in nineteen eighty three.
I think she edited sixteen magazine. But before sixteen Magazine
(33:33):
she was a Norman Morel, very high fashion designer model.
In the forties, she dated Lenny Bruce. She dated Jim Morrison.
I'm not sure dated is the right word, but whatever,
those were the only women who were my mentors. The
rest of the women writing about music were critics. There
was Ellen Willison New Yorker. There was Janet Maslim from
(33:55):
the Boston Phoenix. There was Ellen Sander from Life magazine,
and they reviewed things. They were critics. They didn't do interviews,
so I would do interviews with the tape on. Then
I would also hang out with them at after hours clubs,
at parties when they rehearsed in rehearsal studios in people's bedrooms,
(34:19):
like Earl mcgrathe used to have parties in New York,
and the Stones would rehearse with Thereic Claptain and Ronnie Wood.
One night in that room, I remember Annie taking pictures.
I would go out to the Andy Warhol's compound Inhampton's
where they were staying before the seventy five tour. I
would go I took Michael Jackson to the Studio fifty four,
(34:40):
the first time he ever went. I took the Clash
to Studio fifty four. I got the Clash their record deal.
I got Elvis Costello's record deal. I never made a
dime from this. I was so stupid. I never thought
about money. I mean, we didn't think about money. We
were having fun. We were young. It was the seventies
and I was getting to see all these cons so
it's for free, and prior to that I had to
(35:02):
pay to gopha concert. We were get along the albums
for free.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Since you were there when it was rebel music. And
then it's slowly more. I guess one could say that
that seventy five tour of the Stones was sorted them
becoming the seeds of what we now know is the
Rolling Stones more like an institution and less about, you know,
(35:30):
the Hydrid Daughters, rock rebels that are coming to town
to pillage. But when do you consider what was the
year that you saw This is now a business, not
just you know, rock and rolls.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
I saw it. I saw it right from the beginning.
I saw it with led Zeppelin when I went to
see them in Jacksonville in July nineteen seventy three, and
they played to an eighty thousand seat stadium.
Speaker 6 (36:03):
I have a different question, Leicster Bangs. Yeah, can you
tell our audience about Lester Bangs?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
I was going to say, of your contemporaries, I guess
Lester has this.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
You know, the cooler than the our you know, you know,
jaded critic. Was the legend bigger than what? Do you actually?
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yes? Yes, yes, yes, the myth was greater than was
drunk Leicester was okay. Richard, my husband was first working
for Buddhen Records, and then he was working for our
SAA records, so he had expense accounts. So even though
we were living in a rent control department and we
didn't have a lot of money, he had an expense account.
(36:47):
So I would order Chinese food and we would feed
and entertain these unbelievably what's the word I used in
my book, I don't know. It was a thankless test,
let's put it that way. A lot of these guys
would come and sleep on our sofa. I felt like
we were people said we have this salon. We did
(37:10):
not have a salon. We had a homeless shelter. I mean,
Dave marsh would come in from Detroit and sleep on
our sofa. Lenny k lived there for almost a year
on our Florida living room. You know. John Landa would
come in from Boston when he was writing at the
Phoenix before he discovered the future of rock and roll
in his name was Bruce Springsteen. Richard Meltzer and Lester
(37:34):
Bangs were there a lot. Richard Meltzer was the real deal.
He was a better writer, he was smarter, he was crazy.
Lester was drunk. And Lester was also crazy and drunk
and obnoxious. Quite frankly, I mean, the myth in many
(37:56):
of these things was greater than the reality. He has
been lying so much, not in a small part by
Cameron Crowe and that movie. But I only remember the
drunken nights when we had to like whisper, like how
we're going to get Lester out of here, you know?
Or Richard Meltzer would be walking around with his shirt
(38:18):
off in a bottle of scotch. And I don't know
he's still somewhere alive writing and I haven't read him recently,
but to me, he was the real thing. And Lester
got all of the credit and I don't know whether
he emulated Richard, but Richard was much more interesting and
insightful I felt anyway.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
So I have my observations in hip hop journalism when
I saw the shift occur, where like people who I
truly respected for their opinions were writing about music as
opposed to now unknown the intern from four years ago
(39:01):
now getting their cover story, you know, just like you know,
the the level of hip hop journalism has gone to
shit in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
But for you, when when was music or rock journalism
at its at its at its best in your opinion?
And when did you notice that there's a shift? You know,
do you guys?
Speaker 3 (39:32):
And in terms of no, no, just in terms of
really giving a good story oftentimes like okay, I know
that if like say today Pitchfork, sometimes they'll pan in
an album just to impress their contemporaries to you know,
(39:53):
in that Lester Bangs way where you're not writing your
honest opinion about something you want to do a performative.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
Well it might have been his honest opinion. I mean,
he had very many run ins with you read I
don't really Here's the thing, I never read this. I
don't know I did what I did because I wanted
to read what I wanted to read. I mean, Tony
Morrison always said, write the book you want to read,
it's like, or write the book that you want to write,
or whatever. I don't know. Listen, when the Roots started
(40:23):
playing instruments, why did you do that? Hip hop bands
weren't playing instruments. You did that? Why because you wanted
to hear a band that was doing hip hop play
instruments or doing rap play instruments. I did what I
did because nobody else was doing it, So I mean
I never even thought about it. I just did it.
(40:44):
And I really didn't read a lot of that stuff.
I don't think I've ever looked at Patlarch in my life.
I didn't look complex. I didn't look at I maybe
looked at the Vibe and the Source and Rolling Stone
a little bit, but I never really read Rolling Stone
because I didn't like the person who owned it, and
(41:04):
I didn't like the way women were treated in that office.
And it is really a badge of honor as far
as I'm concerned. And I never wrote for them. And
I'm being really blunt and frank with you. I'll probably
get a lot of haters about a lot of this stuff,
But I just I didn't really read it. I read
Cream Magazine a little bit. I mean I read my
(41:27):
husband's column. He did a Rewire Yourself years before anybody
was writing about technology. He wrote a book called The
Video Primer. Richard said two things that stick out in
my mind that is so brilliant. One was everybody kept
saying in the seventies, who's the ex Beatles? Who's an
ex Beatles? Rich band is going to be the next Beatles?
(41:48):
And Richard said, the next Beatles is going to be
a machine. This was in nineteen seventy one. Okay, so
that's who I was married to. He also said about musicians,
because one minute we were managing some musicians, which really
was not a smart move. But he always said managing
an act is like running backwards holding up a mirror.
(42:11):
So you know, I just didn't read this stuff. So
I can't say when I think it shifted, if it
did shift what I read I read. I don't know
what did I read rock journalism. I'm not really because
nobody was doing what I was interested in. I was
doing what I was interested in, And I'm not saying
(42:32):
that to Sam conceited or anything, because a lot of
people weren't interested in what I was running about. But
I was much more interested in the human side, and
I wasn't seeing that in too many places, certainly not
when I started, and I'm not even sure now.
Speaker 5 (42:47):
I mean, I occasionally read a profile in the New
York Times magazine section about somebody I'm interested in, and
I'll stop halfway through because it just so long.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
I mean, I also feel leave somebody wanting more. You know.
It's like I take it as the biggest compliment when
I've done cover stories and Vanity Fair and people have
said to me, oh my god, I wish it was longer. Job.
That's how I feel.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
My final question to you is with with the life
that you you lived in all of your archives and
memories and whatnot, are you actively trying to seek.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
I feel like the next step for you is is
basically either as a movie or as a series like
a Netflix series.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Yeah, like you're this this is a no brainer. Has
has anyone who approached you about you know?
Speaker 4 (43:49):
The couple of people who have, I wouldn't want to
really work with you, want to do something, I'll do
something with you. I mean I'm serious. I don't know.
I think between now and I don't know what I
want to do. I do want to place all this stuff.
I mean, I want to sell it because I need
the money, but I also want to place all this
(44:11):
stuff with people who love it. That's why I first
talked to you about the albums here, because I don't
want to see these albums go to some record store
in Brooklyn where somebody's going to buy one of this
and three of that and two it. I just want
the collection to be with someone who loves it. You know.
Q Tip actually did make his way over here one
(44:32):
night to look at them, and he started looking up
every album and appraising it and figuring out the prices,
and then he said, I'm sending my assistant back to
see you next week and we're going to do this.
And that was no, that was one, two, three, three
and a half years ago.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I think that's what I said. I'm coming over there
to scoop them.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Okay, after I get my second vaccine shot. I have
never been so happy in my life when I lowered
the age and I'm old enough finally to get this vaccine.
But honestly, I want the archives, the tapes. I do
want it to go, maybe to an institution where people
can listen to it and study it and learn from it,
(45:24):
or do a series of podcasts, or do a series
of documentaries. I don't know. The problem is I always
was too busy just earning a living and getting through
every day. And now starting this serious radio show, which
is just once a week, I'll be able to talk,
which I love in writing. I don't know if I
(45:45):
want to write another book. I don't know. I don't
know who else I want to interview. I mean, you
talk about how did I know the future of rock
and roll with CBGB's I didn't. I just was there
when it happened and it just seemed right. It was fun.
If I had been able to predict the future, first
of all, as Friendly for It says, I would pick
(46:07):
better a lot of tickets. But also I would have
known about hip hop before I did, because that's inexcusable
that I was living in New York City and I
didn't even know that this was going on for quite
a while. Because as I said, it's still the music
that it's on my iPod, that in Frank Sinatra and
(46:28):
some Florio's Mark Andero corner.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Wow, well, thank.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
You, Steve. You wanted to ask me something?
Speaker 6 (46:34):
Yeah, you know, why why aren't you just airing these
these legendary interviews that you have as as complete as
a podcast as a podcast?
Speaker 4 (46:48):
Yeah, well because somebody hasn't made me the right offer yet.
Speaker 6 (46:51):
When they do, I will because that's yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
I mean the show I'm doing for serious is just
a call and show because I wanted to do something
like Steven A.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Smith.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Does you know I wanted people.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Calling in like sports, but for music.
Speaker 4 (47:06):
Well he does that for sports, I'm going to do
it for music. Gla. I could do it for basketball too.
I could name you the starting five on all thirty teams.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
You know what they say, no one loves the Knicks
more than you do.
Speaker 4 (47:17):
And I'm like, I'm one of those long man.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
So I know you're happy about three wins in a
row that they had.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
Come on. At least they're competitive, at least it's watchable.
It's not like it was. Julius Ramball is good. I
love him Manual quickly, and don't even get me started
on the new Jersey nets because that's the whole other thing.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
Well, Lisa, we thank you.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
We've been trying to make this happen for years. I'm
proud that you got your technology set.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
Up on just to be able to do zoom. Yeah,
thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
I have to hire an.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
IT guy to do that.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
I thought, yeah, I thought I was going to look at.
Speaker 4 (47:54):
Those albums and seriously, yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
I just want to say I'm proud of you getting
over your technology fears and doing that because you know,
you and I often had the flintstone bird writing a message,
sending pigeons to our windows kind of relationships. So one
day I'm gonna get you use an iPhone for real.
Speaker 4 (48:13):
I have an iPhone.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
I just.
Speaker 4 (48:17):
I listen to music on it. I go to YouTube,
and I Google, and I make phone calls. I'm going
when I traveled, when I used to travel.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
You up to two thousand. Okay, please Robinson, Ladies and
Joe in Quest left Supreme. We thank you so much.
Fan Takeelo and Shuka Steve, thank you. We will see
you on the next program. Thank you ladies and Joe.
Speaker 4 (48:39):
Okay, thanks guys, Yo, what's up?
Speaker 2 (48:42):
It's Fonte. Make sure you keep up with us on
Instagram at quels and let us know what you think.
Who should be next to sit down with us, don't
forget to subscribe to our podcast, all Right Peace.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
West Left Supreme is a production of ihearten Rating. For
moreodcast from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Laiya St. Clair
Questlove
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