WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Lisa Robinson 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:04.040 Qost Loft Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:12.720 Ladies and Gentlemen. Right now, Lisa Robinson is showing us. 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:14.400 We're on zoom right now. 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:19.880 She showed me her illustrious record collection, and I'm celebating 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:20.360 right now. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.840 Okay, what's behind me is a portion, not all of them, 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:31.200 of my five thousand hours of interviews, all the original cassettes, 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:36.520 plus manic backups. Richard did my husband before he died, 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.360 on CD because he didn't believe in the cloud, the 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:44.760 internet or the computers, so he made backups on two 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.959 or three CDs of every single cassette. Then I had 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:52.479 to hire an IT guy after Richard died, and he 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:58.600 copied it onto two different computers, three external hard drives, 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.200 and three backups of the external hard drugs and secure 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:08.360 undisclosed locations. So what's behind me? All the original interviews 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:09.080 were some of them. 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.800 I have to say that I've known you about twenty years, 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.800 and often I have I haven't stayed up at night, 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:22.920 but I've definitely wondered, are you properly going to archive 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.480 your your collection, your collection of notes in He told 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.600 me that you have like original hotel notes in stationary. 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:36.200 Yeah, I have an original questionnaire Michael Jackson toil that 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:38.800 when he was eleven that I kept in a safety 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.400 deposit box for years where. 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.560 He was Is this the infamous one where he called 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:44.440 himself a nigger? 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:48.960 He wrote? The question was what's your nickname? And he 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:54.400 said the nose and then he wrote ni g one word, 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:57.120 one g er but he crossed that out. 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:01.920 Yeah, that's not I've heard about this or I have 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:03.240 Where did you hear about it? 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:05.720 Other than me? Because I have nobody else. 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:09.600 I know you, so uh okay. 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.919 Letters, yeah, letters from Bowie and John Lennon and everybody 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:17.320 on the planet. And four storage spaces that I spend 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:20.639 fifty thousand dollars a year in addition to this museum 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:24.919 I'm living in, and an office across the street that 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.480 also houses a lot of shit. And in terms of 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:34.200 really properly appraising or archiving it, I've been too busy 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:36.600 trying to earn a living for all these years. I 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:41.639 just haven't had the time. So the audio archives are 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.400 pretty well documented now, they're on a bunch of databases. 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.720 The photos I have trunks and trunks and trunks of 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:54.720 original photos from Bob Grew and Lee Childers, Annie Liebovitz, 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:59.240 Peter Hughes or Maplethorpe. I mean so much stuff that 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:03.240 I never hung any of it up. It's in storage, 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:08.520 It's in my house and boxes and closets. I actually 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.639 have something, maybe you would want it. I was in 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.000 Nashville and I was in a thrift store and there 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:20.200 was one of those huge posters of a black barbershop, 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.920 you know, the drawings with the fabulous kind of old 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:26.000 like some girls kind. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.120 Of wigs it. 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:33.040 I bought it and I shipped it back to New York. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.320 And this was in two thousand and. 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:39.560 Four, maybe okay, And. 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.160 I said to friend, what should I do with this? 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:45.560 I was going to either give it to Tony Morrison 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.240 or that an artisan, because they collect that kind of stuff. 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:52.480 And she said, well, I wouldn't display it. It's really 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.440 not correct for you to display it. So it's hiding 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.480 somewhere in a closet. It's awesome, though, it is so 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:03.200 great anyway. 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.000 Okay, I have to properly introduce you, ladies and gentlemen. 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.760 This is quest lof Supreme. I knew the second that 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.840 her mic was on the stories would come. And of 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.840 course the stories came even before I did the proper introduction, 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:19.440 I will say that our guest, Damn Near is a 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.960 pioneer or invented rock and roll journalism. 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.080 There was a time in your life where. 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:31.320 Making a living writing about the lives of rock stars. 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.960 Was a questionable thing. One couldn't make a living off 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:37.880 of it. So I will say that our. 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:42.359 Guest today is a pioneer in terms of one that 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:47.320 actually made their full time career kind of journaling. 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:48.520 The lives of others. 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:53.760 Name them New Music, Express, Cream Magazine, the New York Post, 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.719 even all the way down to Vanity Fair, if you will. 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.880 She's probably the trusted pla one in the rooms. He's 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:08.280 literally seen everyone and everything. And these types of venterviews 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:12.720 are my favorite because oftentimes I say that you'll learn more. 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:17.280 About a subject based on the extra eyes. 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.919 In the room, not necessarily the subject themselves. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.880 So name them from Jagger to Richards to Paige and 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:33.440 Plant to Bowie, Read Lennon, Ono, Jackson, Bono. I forgot 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.760 what Bono's I forgot what Bono's last name is. 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:43.640 It's a that's right, Houston. 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:43.840 Paul Houston. That's right. It's like an uncle of my 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:47.440 I don't recognize any of those names. Did you ever 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:48.600 meet anybody famous? 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:54.680 I will say that I highly recommend as far as 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:59.760 memoirs are concerned, both both of her books, uh No. 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:03.360 One never asked me about the girls and There Goes Gravity. 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.120 Those are probably two my favorite memoirs. 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.960 I don't know like I. Journalists to me are like 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.960 just as equal rock stars as the actual rock stars himself. 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:18.480 So please welcome two quest left Supreme Lisa Robinson. Okay, 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:23.159 what were you saying, Steve? No no, I made my joke. 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:24.200 Now you made. 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:27.880 Anyone famous? 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.840 Just for me? All out out out the gate, Lisa. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.640 For our guests that might not be familiar with your 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.479 your pedigree and your history, could you please give me 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:46.920 three random historical I was there moments that that come 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.600 come to mind? You know this gives you a. 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.240 Chance Led Zeppelin when it to a manager pulled out 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:53.719 a gun. 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.320 Oh, I was on the other end of the Peter 0:06:58.400 --> 0:06:59.320 Grant he pulled out a gun. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.960 It was Richard Cole. Anyway, I was. 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:05.560 Well, wait, wait, you can't just glide by that. 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:09.280 You just asked the three random You want me to 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:10.160 tell you the whole story? 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:12.400 We'd be on for that's what we know. 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.200 No hold on a second. Let me just say something. Yes, 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:17.680 I'm doing a serious radio show by the way, Serious 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:21.400 XM starting tomorrow night from seven to eight pm. And 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.920 it's called Call Me with Lisa Robinson. Because, as you know, 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:27.760 I'm still in an old BlackBerry. I only know how 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:28.560 to text on it. 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:29.280 Yes, and I. 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:34.400 Like people to actually call me at any rate. Okay, 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:35.160 so that's one. 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.400 The Texas instruments in business. That's that much, I'll. 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:44.320 Say the second, I am worldwide West. Who's with the 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:48.040 Knicks now? My favorite team? Are the only people I 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.840 know who still use a BlackBerry? Anyway, back to the 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.600 three random incidents, let me think I can't think of 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.360 just three out of thousands. But okay, the LED's up 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.760 room of the gun, Michael Jackson calling me on the 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.520 phone crying that he did not want to tour with 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:07.720 his brothers in nineteen eighty on that victory tour, I 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:10.760 eighty four CE. You're the scholar. I don't remember all 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:15.480 the dates, okay, So oh man, I don't want to 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:17.840 talk about the time Mick Jagger had to borrow my 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:23.000 underpants because he lost his jockstrap. But I guess backwards, right, 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.800 that's been well documented. Here's the point, I just want 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.320 to say two things. You said all the people that 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.959 I had interviewed, and or you started to talk about Bowie, 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:39.040 Lou Reed, the stone Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, et cetera. You 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.319 mentioned one woman, Yoko Ono. The reason I wrote nobody 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.040 ever asked me about the girls is because I had 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:49.880 interviewed Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell, Mary j Blige, Linda Ronstadt, 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:55.040 I mean, everybody after Jennie Stoplin. Thank god it was 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:59.320 someone before my time. And the point is I always 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:03.920 had to answer questions like what's Eminem really like? What's 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.560 cunning like? I mean, you know you probably get the 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.120 same thing, or what was John Lennon really like? Or 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.640 what was David Bowie really like? And I finally got 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.440 to the point after having written There Goes Gravity, which 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.480 was mostly all about guys except for one chapter on 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:21.600 Lady Garda, I thought it's about time I started dealing 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:23.960 with the women. So that was one thing I just 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.480 wanted to clarify. And the other thing is when you 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.360 said that I was a pioneer at a time when 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:33.520 no one was making a living writing about rock and 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:37.000 roll musicians or a popular culture. We still don't make 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.640 a living and do it matter? So I just like 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:43.839 to clarify that, for the record, we were having too 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.640 much fun. Nobody was talking about money. Nobody was thinking 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:49.960 about that. In the seventies, I would make like forty 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:53.880 dollars a week from a syndicated column or editing Hip 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.440 Parado with my husband, or going on tour with Zeppelin, 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.200 and the Stones are hanging out and CBGB's every night, 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.679 and I thought this was great. I mean, we were 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:06.800 in a rent control department. I'm still in a rent 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.480 stabilized apartment, same one. We moved into a nineteen seventy 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:15.160 six and it's like a museum. I never decorated it. 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.960 It's just full of books and records and interviews and 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:22.079 some memorabilia that I don't trust to leave in Manhattan 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:29.960 mini storage. But it just was different time. It was like, also, Amir, 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.160 you know you grew up in this business. I mean, 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.640 I even think I saw as a kid Lee Andrews 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:38.920 and the Hearts. I don't know, maybe at the Brooklyn 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.360 Fox or one of those places I snuck out of 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:46.160 my house as a teenager to go see Thelonious Monk 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:50.439 of the five Spot or on Coltrane or Anito O'Day 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:54.240 and Stan Getz at the Village Vanguard, but also to 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.640 go to those early rock and roll shows at the 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.920 Brooklyn Fox Theater. I don't remember going to the Apollo, 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.320 but I do remember going to the Apollo much later 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:08.960 when I was teaching school in Harlem in the sixties. 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.680 But I grew up with all this music. I used 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:16.199 to listen to it under the covers with the transistor radio, 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.560 you know that old cliche, And it just made me 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.040 feel like there was a great, sexy, interesting world out there, 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.160 and I was a fan. And I grew up in 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:31.480 a left wing household that played Led Belly and Woody Gothrie. 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.120 And I knew about Mama Mae Thornton and sister I 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.960 was Ota Thorpe, and you know a lot of stuff 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.920 that no other journalists. When I was starting out, knew 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:47.800 about extept From my husband, who was on WAWFM when 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:53.440 it was nineteen sixty nine free form music. And I 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:55.240 heard his voice in the middle of the night. He 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.440 was on the graveyard shift, and I thought, A he 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:03.160 had a very sexy voice, and B he played unbelievable music. 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.200 And he got fired five times. The first time was 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:10.960 they're playing music what they called unfamiliar music, which was 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.000 can Tina Turner, Tina Turner and Vanetta Field's doing a 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.640 battle on something got a hold on me. I'll never 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.040 forget it. Pp Arnold doing first cut is the deepest 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:25.120 Curtis Mayfield and the impressions because he also worked at Buddha. 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:33.320 So so yeah. So Richard got fired for playing unfamiliar music, 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.520 which was black music. Then they hired him back again 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.480 because he was like the house tippy, and he got 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.800 fired for playing Jimmy Hendrickson's star spangled banner because they 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.600 told him it was unpatriotic. Then they hired him again, 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.200 and I think he played the stooges and the velvets, 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.240 but like really, you know, some of the sicker stuff 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:57.520 like I want to be your dog, or Heroin or 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:00.520 white light, white heat, or just kind of noise stuff. 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.040 They fired him again, and I think the last time 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:05.240 they hired him he just went on the air, flush 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:09.000 the toilet and walked off. And so this was my 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:13.720 introduction to the music business. I went to work for 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.640 him doing his smiling. Five months later we got married. 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.079 He turned one of his columns over to me in England. 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:23.880 And that's kind of how it started. He opened a 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:24.959 door and I barged through. 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:32.719 What I'll say is based on. 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:38.760 You know, I've collected a lot of old periodicals and 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.280 all those things, so I've seen your work, you know. 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:45.239 I'll say that the difference between your brand of documenting 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:49.200 a moment was way different than say, you know, the 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:52.040 Beatles with land in America in the sixties and have 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.800 a press conference like at the airport or at the hotel, 0:13:55.920 --> 0:14:01.000 people have random questions. It's like audio CrowdWork whatever. But 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.760 your brand work, how did you know that? I mean, 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.920 it's somewhere between like page you know, I know that 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:11.600 you've done in depth Q and A interviews as well, 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:17.600 but you know, you doing quick takes like you know, 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:22.000 Bowie hung out at Maxis Kansas City and he wore 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:26.560 a leopard T shirt. Like people weren't describing like what 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:29.120 people were wearing or any of those things. 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:31.560 Like you you were like the precursor at like page six. 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:33.320 So how did you even know? 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.200 I don't know about page six, but maybe MTV and 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:38.240 fashion and style. 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.600 Yeah, the idea of it right, Well. 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.080 First of all, thank god, the Beatles were before my time. 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.440 Something else before my time, but I never asked a 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.240 question at a press conference because I always ask more 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:54.200 interesting questions and I didn't want anybody else getting the 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:59.160 answers all the quo Kanye. Kanye had a listening party 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.680 once for which is the album is a late Graduation 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.720 that John Bryan produced with WE Major and gold Digger 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:06.160 on it. 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.160 The second one. 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.080 Anyway, you had a listening party for that with a 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.680 whole bunch of press in the room, and Jay was there, 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.240 and I'm friendly with John Brian and I knew he 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:21.400 produced the record, and I had met Conye several times 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.560 through John, and when they played WE Major, I went 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:29.040 ballistic because to his day, I still think it's the 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:31.800 best thing he's ever done. But it was like a 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.400 Phil Specter symphony, and I just went crazy. So I 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.040 had to ask a question, and I raised my hand 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.480 and Jay went on, he has a question. He says 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.840 a question, and I said, how many tracks are on 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:47.440 WE Major? And they had no idea, They didn't know, 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.680 they didn't know the answer, and so they started calling 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.760 me the stumper. For a long time. Actually, Jay started 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.080 calling me. He kept calling me Stumper, and I went 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.640 home and called John Brian, who told me that he 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:00.880 got it from some kidne Agar Archer made a loop 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.560 of it. At any rate, what I did as a 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:11.640 journalist from the jump was I was interested in their lives, 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.760 their music. I mean, when I met Jimmy Page, I 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.120 would talk to him about Muddy Waters and Holm Wolf 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:22.080 and Elmore James and Willie Dixon, who they ripped off allegedly, 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:30.000 although I think they had to pay. Well. I get 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.360 very nervous about that. So you know, it's like a 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:36.400 deesu is a maryle thing allegedly allegedly allegedly anyway, So 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.560 so and I. But I'd also talked to Robert Plant 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:43.120 about Fairport Convention and Kaleidoscope and Incredible String Band and 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:47.440 Jenny Mitchell because I grew up the same loving the 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:51.840 same music they did, and I I didn't love a 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:54.720 lot of the folks stuff so much then I grew 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:58.040 to I did like the Incredible String Band, but on Kaleidoscope. 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:02.400 But I would talk to them about their musical taste. 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:04.960 I would write about their clothes. I mean, I'll never 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.280 forget when I was in New Orleans with those guys 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:13.359 the first time I ever interviewed them lengthily. Robert was 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:18.399 wearing a red Nilon speedo bikini parading around the pool. 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:21.199 Parading is the only word I could use for it. 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:25.560 And Jimmy Page was wearing a maroon velvet jacket in 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:29.080 eighty three degree weather, and I remember writing that it 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.960 was sweltering at eighty three degree weather, so some of 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:37.960 the climate change that was nineteen seventy three. Anyway, I 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:40.320 just started talking to them about music. I started talking 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:44.760 about their clothes. And this was a time that people 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:49.960 don't know they were written about as a heavy, cheesy, 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:55.080 heavy metal band. Every male journalist, every one of my 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:59.639 so called colleagues who threatened to quit Cream magazine when 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:02.800 I started to do a column called Elaganza, which was 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.760 named after a black pimp catalog, and it was all 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.760 about clothes, and all these guys threatened to leave the 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.240 magazine because they said it was decadent. I shouldn't be 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.960 writing about clothes. This was the alternative culture. This was 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:20.720 the revolution. I mean, this is in Detroit, by the way, 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.960 where the White Panthers and John Sinclair were sitting around 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:27.280 a table plotting revolution while the women were in the 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.920 kitchen cooking. So I would just love to make that 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.159 point about the MC five even though they were a 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:38.040 great band. However, I would always talk to these guys 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:46.120 just on a level of mutual musician fandom and asked 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.800 them about their lives. I didn't review their records, I 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:53.520 didn't review their concerts. I didn't do any boring analysis 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:57.600 shit about their lyrics. And I just think they were relieved. 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.400 I mean again, this was at a time when John 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.439 Mendelssohn wrote in Rolling Stone about the lemon song that 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.119 was on a Zeppelin I think the first album, maybe 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.120 the second, and he said Robert Plant sings notes only 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.040 a dog come here. And if I remember that from 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.600 nineteen seventy three, you can be certain that Robert Plant 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:19.960 remembers it. And Jimmy would bitch about the reviews all 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.320 the time, and I would just say, I don't give 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:26.240 a shit about reviews. You don't understand. Your music is majestic. 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.560 You combine the hard knocking of folk music and Eastern 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.760 stuff and all the scort and years from now your 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:37.440 music will be remembered, and those magazines and newspapers will 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:42.240 wrap fish. And sure enough, now Red Zepplin is considered 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.680 one of the greatest. I means eggs All on Main 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.719 Street was panned. It was my favorite Rolling Stones record 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.359 panned when it first came out. So I think part 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.400 of the reason that I have the access to these 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:02.320 bands was a I was a woman, but I was 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:04.640 not sleeping with them, and I was not taking drugs 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.840 with them. I was newly married. Richard was much cuter 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:12.880 than any of them were anyway, and smarter. And when 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:15.040 I first met Mick Jagger, the first thing I said 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:17.520 to him was those of the tackiest shoes I've ever seen, 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:23.280 because he was wearing some sort of sequin Papagallo encrusted shoes. 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.560 It was backstage at an Ever Captain concert, and you 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:30.240 know that was refreshing to them. People would meet McJagger 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.320 and they'd be like intimidated. I was from New York. 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:34.680 I wasn't intimidated. 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.879 Well, okay, so what I want to know is, obviously 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:43.359 you're from even though you're of the time, you were 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:49.640 clearly thinking future generation. Case in point, like prints opening 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:53.840 for the Stones in La even though he himself is 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:58.880 a baby boomer, his music and his presentations for Generation Next, 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:03.080 it's for what's next. So obviously you know you you 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:08.240 were for thinking who were the other women in that era? 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.520 That was documenting. I know that. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:14.600 You know, you spoke of a time where you and 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:21.040 and fran Leewoods came up together on that the Stones tour, 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:22.800 But like, were there you. 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:26.800 Mean the photographer not friend? Was not? 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:26.879 Not? 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:31.880 No, I said, I said, friend, forgive me Annie boy, 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:33.840 I know corrected an. 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:38.600 Annie had already been a rolling Stone. So Annie had 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:42.240 already established her reputation as a photographer when she was 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:46.119 a rolling Stone. We started working together on the nineteen 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:47.919 seventy five Stones tour. 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:52.840 Before cocks Sucker Blues or that was during. 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:57.720 That tour where or was that the big fallas coming 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:01.840 up from the Butterfly stage. Yeah. And also we kept 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:05.040 thinking every city we went to that they were going 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:10.000 to get arrested for singing starfucker. Imagine. I'm trying to 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:12.439 remember other things that, Oh god, there's so much that 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:15.159 went on on that tour. I remember mixing to me 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:18.680 at the time that he couldn't get a pill. This 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:20.600 is a little gross, but he said, you can't get 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:23.760 a pill for diarrhea, but you can walk into any 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:26.320 store and buy a gun. And this was in nineteen 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:29.960 seventy five, and I had no idea that you could 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.040 walk into a store in the South and buy a gun. 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:35.320 I'm from New York City. I'm from the Upper West 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:37.840 Side of Manhattan. I'd never seen a gun until I 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:41.760 saw it on that plane with Zeppelin. But it was 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:46.280 I mean, we weren't pour underground. Atlanta had a Less 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:51.240 Dramatics store where they sold less dramatics memorabilia. I mean, 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:54.919 it just was such a different time. It was like, 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:59.520 for those who don't know, Lester Matos was the racist governor, 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:02.520 governor or Georgia or something, or mayor of Atlanta or 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:07.720 some political person very much like Lindsey Graham or somebody today, 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:11.720 only worse, I mean, more, well more whatever. I'm not 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:15.040 going to say it, that would be an allegedly defamator. 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:19.840 We found anything out else about. 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:22.200 No, I know, I know, but I'm not going to 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:23.040 say it. Anyway. 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:27.040 The bottom line is I yeah, he was the governor. 0:23:27.880 --> 0:23:30.720 Uh yeah. So I was sort of a conduit between 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:33.720 a lot of these guys, like Richard was at RCAA 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.000 records and convinced them to sign David Bowie, Lou Reid 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:40.520 and the Kinks. So I introduced David Bowie when he 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:44.159 came to America to Lou Reed and to Iggy Pop, 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:48.160 both of whom he was very inspired by. Let's put 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:53.320 it that way, I am, I came to my house. 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:55.760 They hung out and reduced to come to my house 0:23:55.960 --> 0:24:00.119 because Richard produced his first album, although it really he 0:24:00.920 --> 0:24:03.239 did not do well because Lou was a mess at 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:07.439 the time and it was a very checkered situation. But 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:10.520 then Low and Richard didn't talk for years, but then 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:12.600 Luke called him back and asked him to co produce 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.600 Street Castle with him, which is a great record. And 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:19.000 so because of our friendship with Lou, or my friendship 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:22.000 with Patti Smith, or my going on the Stones tour, 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:24.919