Rock stars – to the core

Went to the annual book-sale and bought “I am Ozzy“. I know it’s long overdue but I rarely have the time or energy for reading nowadays.

I love biographies, especially rock-bios. They can shed a new light on the artist’s music and make it even more interesting.
Suddenly, you get those subtle little things, you understand bits and pieces in a song that you only interpreted your own way before. When you get somebody’s background, and a clearer idea of their personality, it just kinda changes the interpretation of their music a bit. Well, that’s the way it works for me anyway.

One of the first rock’n’roll biographies I ever read was “And I Don’t Want to Live This Life“, about Nancy Spungen, Sid Vicious’ girlfriend. I read that book over and over again, it looked like shit after a while, it was all worn out. Not that she had anything to do with the actual music but she is a part of music history in a way, the more tragic part of it.

The second one I think was “No One Here Gets Out Alive“, about Jim Morrison. He was just… crazy. I’m not even sure I liked the person he was described as in that book, but I think I might have been too young when I read it. Some things are easier to understand when you get older and have a bit more experience… I might read that again someday.

The last book I read was Lemmy’s bio “White Line Fever“. It was funny, definitely different from most biographies and just very… Lemmy. He has a kind of arrogant sarcasm that you associate with the person he is known as, that cool rocker who personifies rock’n’roll. It was a lot more interesting to go back to old Motorhead albums after reading that book. Once you think you understand the person better, you also understand his music better.

A biography that really moved me was Nikki Sixx’ “Heroin Diaries“. It was so naked, so stripped down, so dirty and raw. It is extremely touching because you can clearly see the tormented soul behind all that rockstar-drug-addict-crap.

He was hiding nothing in Heroin Diaries. It must have taken a lot of guts to do it, and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have published that book if he hadn’t grown as a person, become more confident and more secure with who he is.

I was bawling my eyes out when I read it, cause a lot of it also reminded me a lot of someone I knew. That book actually helped that friend of mine and I’m eternally grateful to Nikki for writing it.

And now Ozzy. I’ve only just started reading it, but I already get an idea of who he is and the chaos he’s been dealing with his whole life.
He admits to insanity running in the family, but at the same time I can’t help wondering if his insanity is actually more sane in some strange way, than what we call “normal“…

He might be crazy, but there is a lot of logic in his perception of the world and his reality. Most of all, dispite all that madness that he has made his trademark over the years, he comes across as a very warm and caring person, in his own Ozzy-way.

[@ 2:45 approx…]

I immediately thought of a segment in one of the OzTV-episodes when he was praising Gus G for his playing, trying to encourage him to take his rightful place in history as a great guitarplayer in his own right. He is not just Zakk Wylde’s-successor – he is Gus fuckin’ G!

That part moved me to tears. Like a father-figure, Ozzy was trying to teach this young guy how to fly, how to spread his wings and go wherever he wants to go. It was a wonderful moment.

 I can’t wait to finish the book.

I started reading Bruce Dickinson’s bio too but never finished it. Same with Rick Springfield’s “Late, late at night“. I will. I find it inspiring to read those books.

What I’m looking for is never the scandal stories, although you usually get those anyway, it kind of comes with the territory, but I’m looking for a portrait of the person behind the music. The person, when he’s stripped down to just being a PERSON instead of being a “rockstar“. That’s when it gets interesting. That’s when I can connect and relate, and understand. I admire those who have the balls to put themselves out there and open up to the whole world without fear.

I respect and admire those who can express their thoughts and emotions, without restrictions, without limits and most of all those who are brave enough to leave the image and the rockstar pesona that they created – or just somehow became victims of.

I would really like to write Gus G’s bio, because he is an interesting person. He is mysterious in the sense that he never talks about himself on a personal, deeper level, or maybe people are just too afraid to ask.

It feels like such a waste when the only thing people ever want to know when they’re interviewing Gus, is what strings, amps or pedals he uses. Of course they do, he’s a guitar hero. But he is exactly the kind of artist that I would want to know more about as a person.

I was sitting there one day with tons of questions buzzing through my head. I wrote them down and next thing I knew, I had 3 pages with questions. The path from Thessaloniki, Greece to the world arenas with Ozzy... You tell me there’s not a damn interesting story there already!

 Gus felt it was too soon for a bio, he was “just beginning” to build his career. “Maybe in ten years”.

I will be following his career with great interest, not only because he’s an amazing guitarplayer, but because he sticks out as the down-to-earth guy. I hope someday to be able to find out who the man behind the guitar really is.

 Even if I don’t get the honor to write the story of his life, but someone else does, I hope it will reveal who this guitar-wiz truly is. That’s something that I’ll be looking forward to.

That might be a future project, to write biographies. It takes a lot of time and and patience to do all that background research and then put it together to something that people will enjoy reading – just the way I love to lose myself in these biographies.

But for now, I’ll leave the PC to go enjoy my copy of “I am Ozzy“….

 

The death of the record store

Was reading the morning paper, and it said that one of the last real record stores in town was going out of business.
Record stores everywhere are dying, you couldn’t even keep them alive with an iron lung.
I guess it’s a sign of the times.

Why pay for an overpriced CD because the store needs to pay their rent – when you can buy the same CD online for a fraction of the price? Or, which is more often the case, simply download what you want from iTunes or similar sites?
 
I haven’t bought a CD in a record store since I don’t know when. Last year I think, because I got a gift card for my birthday. 
 
Record stores will remain a nice memory when I feel like getting sentimental.
There was something romantic about going to a record store to pick out That Very Special Record. Especially back in the day when there were vinyls.

I wouldn’t sell or get rid of my vinyl collection for anything. It’s like each one of those records has a story.
Mp3’s are convenient, but I feel a little sorry for this generation for not getting that kick from FINDING something special, owning it as a collector’s item. I loved that.
Music now is just consumption. You get what you want to listen to- period. There’s no challenge, everything is available.

I knew every record store in town when I was a kid. I even still remember what they looked like and the atmosphere in there.

Those that were specialized in a certain genre, would have guys who were like walking reference books. This was way before Google, and it was hard to find information elsewhere.

I remember once hearing a song in an old Gene Kelly-movie and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I didn’t know if it had even ever been released on a record, so I went to this record store that specialized in jazz, classical and film-music and explained what I was looking for. A few lines was all I had to sing to the guy, and he knew immediately what I was talking about.

There was another guy here in town, Casey, who worked at Record Heaven – which became my second home for many years. It was the hard rock/heavy metal record store in town. That’s where I bought my first Judas Priest record ever back in the early 80’s.
Record Heaven had black walls with cool picture vinyls on the walls and stuff. Very metal.

Casey knew everything. I could namedrop some obscure band that nobody had ever heard of, and you could bet your ass he knew who they were and everything they had, or hadn’t released! That’s why you went to those stores. For the info, for the knowledge. They could recommend stuff, based on your taste.
TODAY you Google a band and get the info you need, and then you get recommendations by Amazon or by other people who are into the same music as you.

Back in the day, you had to go to a record store, pick out an LP and go to the counter where you would need to put on huge headphones and listen to a record before you bought it.
NOW you just listen to it online, anywhere. MySpace, clips on Amazon, Spotify…

I collected Judas Priest and Skid Row records. I had to buy magazines like “Record Collector” and check the ads in metal mags and just basically subscribe to actual record catalogs all over the place. Record Heaven had an English guy who would travel all over the globe to buy albums, so I would give him a list of what I was looking for, and he always found it for me. I spent a FORTUNE in there.

Now, I can buy anything on eBay.

I love how easy it is building a music collection with mp3’s or streaming radio nowadays. I love how easy it is to share music (illegal, yes, but so was copying on cassettes and if it hadn’t been for that “illegal activity” I wouldn’t have discovered a bunch of bands, whose records I bought later on).

But I miss the challenge of finding and the feeling of having a REAL RECORD in my hands. I used to sit there and read the lyrics when there were LP’s. The lyrics were way too small on CD’s so I didn’t bother. I guess today I can Google and find any lyric in seconds if I want.

It’s a little sad that record stores are going out of business, but at the same time, who really goes there anymore? Some things are best just remembered…

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Lost and found: DAVID COVERDALE (part 2)

By popular demand – the second part of the David Coverdale 2000-interview. The part where fans had a chance to send in their questions and also the part with the “template”-questions that I used to ask every band I met back then, as a reoccuring part of my artist-interviews.

David smoking...
[All photos by Staffan Eriksson]

Many rock-magazines back in the day used to have a section with this type of questions. Guess it was just a way to ease things up a bit and not always be so overly serious. Fans can appreciate something different than the usual “who-produced-your-album”-sort of questions too on occasion. :)

I wasn’t sure how David would react, which is why I saved these questions for the second part of the interview. As it turns out, he enjoyed it, maybe because it was a little bit different from what he would normally have to answer in his regular interviews.

I hope that Micke Eriksson (Deep Purple Forever magazine), who helped out with the dialog with the record company, and photographer Staffan Eriksson, read this, because this is a message for you guys:

I promised you a copy each of this interview as a thank you for all your help.

That was eleven years ago and none of you ever got it, which was simply because when my computer broke down I lost all addresses, e-mails and everything. I couldn’t get in touch and I’ve felt bad about that ever since.

I take pride in keeping my promises so I hope that I’ll find them sooner or later.

And with names like “Eriksson”…. If you live in Sweden, forget it, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.

If anyone knows these two super-nice gentlemen, please give them the link to this blog. :)

As for David Coverdale, I think he is a true artist in every sense of the word, not only as a performer, but he understands the business part of things better than anyone.

Cheers!

He remembers people, something that is so important in this business. He always remembers my name no matter where he sees me or when. It could be in a Whitesnake-crowd or at a press-conference. He won’t hesitate, he just knows. I appreciate and respect that

David Coverdale Stockholm

I think this interview got so popular because he was so open to it and didn’t think of himself as being above “stupid questions”. On the contrary, he enjoyed them and it was a true pleasure for me as a journalist and a fan, to have this conversation with him.

There is still a lot more Whitesnake-material that I will be sharing with you all, so please feel free to check back, or add me on Twitter where I will be posting all my updates: www.twitter.com/lita77777

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Lost and found: DAVID COVERDALE

01_Interview_2000.mp3
Listen on Posterous

Found my DAVID COVERDALE-interview from August 14, 2000.

Apologies for the first 2 minutes of this recording that, unfortunately, have been ruined after 11 years kicking around various drawers and boxes around the house.

The sound quality gets better after a few minutes. I’ve got the original recording somewhere….

It will be a nice surprise for me when I find it – someday…!

[David Coverdale and me in his suite at Sheraton Hotel, Stockholm, August 2000]

There was a transcript of it on my first website, but not this particular part of it.
The interview was divided in two parts – one for radio and the other one, which was a more relaxed version where there were no rules for what I could ask him, was for a website.

As it turned out, the “relaxed” version of the interview became very popular.

It was still the early days of Internet, as you can hear David mentioning in the beginning of this interview, that “Internet is becoming huge“. It still wasn’t back in those days.

So, when I published that online, every single Whitesnake-fan that had a modem, knew about it. I think it was actually linked from the official Whitesnake-site.

THIS part of the interview (the first one) was only aired once on the radio, no re-runs or anything.

So, here it is, back for Whitesnake-fans to enjoy – eleven years later! :)

I hesitated when I thought I should include David Coverdale and Whitesnake in this blog, because there is just way too much to look back on and remember. Tour-stories, interviews, David’s birthday-greeting, the Sweden Rock-kickoff press conference…

I love Whitesnake and David Coverdale is way up there on my list of heroes, alongside Judas Priest/Rob Halford and The Beatles.

There will be more – of everything Whitesnake-related! The second part of this interview for instance, with the “crazy questions”.

Bookmark this page or subscribe to it if you don’t want to miss it!

 

 More to come….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original diary-notes from that day, August 14, 2000

I checked my tape recorder and the microphone probably twenty times, went through the questions over and over again, tried to organize myself. I saw some people who looked like record-company people, but I didn’t approach them. You can tell which ones are record company people, managers, roadies – all that, it’s just written all over them for some reason. I could pick them out of a crowd anytime. Well, after all these years of doing this, I’d better…! :) 

It was 4 pm and my interview was 4.05! I called the record-company girl from the hotel phone and she went:

“I’m downstairs with your photographer, are you coming?”.

I took the elevator and went downstairs. She looked at her watch and said:

“Well okay…! Let’s go!”

Before I knew it, we were in the elevator on our way up to David Coverdale’s room.

Next thing I know, we’re outside room 520. She knocked and we went in. There were three people in the room, a girl and a guy, and a man sitting next to the door who turned around when we came in.


He looked at me and went:

-I know you from somewhere, don’t I?
– Yes you do – you put me on the guestlist in Southhampton!
– Oh, is that where it was? he said and smiled.

That’s when I recognized him – it was David’s manager, I remember seeing him a few times during the last tour. A very nice man back then, still a very nice man.

– You have a very good memory! I said.
– Weeell, it wasn’t THAT long ago... he answered and smiled. Man, three years IS a long time for ME! I don’t even remember people I met last week!

We started talking about David’s new website, and he mentioned how they had met Kino* in Japan recently and how they wanted to collaborate with all the people who’ve had the “unofficial” sites up until now. [*Kino runs one of the unofficial Whitesnake sites]

He gave me his business card with the “www.davidcoverdale.com” and I thought “finally!” there will FINALLY be an official site! We talked a bit about the people in the band, about Earl Slick about this and that.. He started to laugh, cause if we had continued, there wouldn’t have been anything left for David to talk about!

Everybody left and went into the room next door. It was only me and the photographer left, and I told him in a quiet voice that I was dead nervous…

– You’re smart, I’m sure this will go just fine… he replied.

I didn’t feel the least “smart” or cool, only extremely nervous…!!
I was the last one to enter the room. I went in there as quietly and discreetly as I could, stared down on my boots and tried to make myself invisible by standing behind everbody as far back in the room as I could possibly get.
Then I saw how David stretched his neck to see who just came in and said in a loud voice:

– Hey, I know you!

The guys who had just finished their interview with him looked at me, the record company people looked at me, I felt like some sort of celebrity or something.

He wanted me to step forward, and when I did, I took his hand to introduce myself politely, the “journalist-way”, but he kissed me on my left, then my right cheek like “Uncle David kissing his niece“-kind of way! :)

– Nice to see you again!

 The people left the room and I was left alone in the room with David.

He was very relaxed, leaned back and told me to have a seat.

– So what’s new then? he asked while I was preparing my taperecorder.

It sounded just as if we were old pals who hadn’t met in a few years.

 

The first part of the interview was for a Swedish radio station, so we just talked about his CD and what he had been up to the part three years, also a few questions about the Van Halen rumors and things like that.

 The second part was a bunch of funny, stupid, unusual questions that I brought with me just in CASE I felt he was in a mood to answer them…! And he was. Not once was it even close that he’d look at me with a “are you totally out of your mind?“-glance. On the contrary.

It was one of the best interviews I’ve ever made.

The original 30 minutes that I had for my interview turned into more than an hour, and I wish I could have stayed there all day.

When the interview was done, he even thanked me and said:

– Thank you Daniela, this was some interesting stuff…

That really warmed my heart. He had enjoyed the interview… And I got it confirmed a few days later too when I received an email from EMI that said “David was very happy with the interview…“. I don’t think I could have gotten a better compliment!

After the interview was officially over, we talked a little bit more about this and that, and suddenly he asked if I had seen the CD-cover.

– Wait, I’ll show you! he said and got up from the couch.

– Hey Mikey, do you have the CD artwork here somewhere, I want to show her.

Then he came back with a few stapled A4-sheets with the idea for the cover printed on them.
His wife was the centerfold in the booklet and I spontaneously said:

– Wow! She’s beautiful! (where the hell does he FIND all those unreal women?? *lol!*)
– Thank you, he said and sounded proud.

She was blonde, curly long hair – well you get the picture. Well anyway, he had been involved with the cover and said that there was no bullshit anymore, only class and style. We’ll all get to see it very soon!

 

He signed a few things for me and before I left he said in his “bedroom voice” (well, that deep voice of his always sounds like that…!)

 

– You look very glamourous in that picture, baby!

What…? Baby? Lol. Ler med tungan

[The “glamourous” photo from Southhampton]

He did the “Uncle David kisses his niece“-routine again and said:

– A pleasure… as always! with a smile.

I gave his manager my business card, and left.

I played my journalist-role until the elevator doors closed, THAT’s when I relaxed and allowed myself to just be the Whitesnake-fan that I am.

 

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