This is a list from a separate section on the MBIP blog and one that’s near and dear to my heart. I had cassette tapes of interviews I had done for my magazine, fishwrap and for years they just sat in my closet and I used to look at them and think I needed to find a way to be able to put them on the internet. Then I met Kevin West from KW Digital Media and he solved my problem by digitizing the tapes and turning them into MP3 files that I could put online. Below are links to interviews done in the ‘90’s with people I was thrilled to interview and get to know. I kind of cringe hearing my own voice, but each one is a fun trip back in time! Here’s a list of all of the interviews with links to them.
Ben Fong-Torres was an editor and writer for Rolling Stone from 1968 to 1981. He’s also written several books and hosted radio shows. This interview was conducted in San Francisco in Ben’s office in 1998.
Jane Pratt was the founding editor of Sassy magazine and went on to be the editor of Jane Magazine. She’s also hosted TV and radio shows and she’s currently the editor and head honcho of the website, XOJane. I did this interview in New York in 1997 right before the first issue of Jane magazine hit the newsstands.
This was a real treat for me, because Jayne County is a pivotal figure in the whole New York City punk rock scene in the late ‘70’s. She was the first transgender rock ‘n roller and I conducted this interview at her P.R. office in New York in 1996. She was a real character and a fun interview!
Yet another cool interview for me was Marky Ramone for the same issue of fishwrap as the Jayne County interview. This was a phone interview I did with Marky from some hotel room while The Ramones were on tour. During the interview he dropped the news that The Ramones were going to be calling it quits and I think I got the scoop on everyone with that little tidbit!
David Felton’s not a household name, but it was a real cool interview for me. David was one of the first regular writers at Rolling Stone in the mid ‘60’s and he and David Dalton wrote an award winning piece on Charles Manson and his “family.” David also edited Hunter S. Thompson’s book, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and he helped develop the MTV show, “Beavis and Butthead." Thiis interview took place at his office in the MTV building at 1515 Broadway in New York City back in 1998.
John and Nick were the co-editors of Mad magazine back in the mid ‘90’s. I was able to interview them and some of the staff for the cover story to the winter 1996 issue of fishwrap. I interviewed them in Meglin’s office and It kind of turned into a “free-for-all” interview and was a lot of fun!
This is one of my favorite interviews of all time. Legs was one of the first persons I met when I moved to New York and I wrote a couple of articles for the magazine, Nerve, which he was the editor at the time. Legs is the co-author of the book, “Please Kill Me,” which is the definitive oral history of punk rock. Interviewed Legs in his apartment on St. Marks Place in the East Village in 1996 and it’s really a fun and memorable interview packed with great stories from Legs.
The interview with Legs was so long, I had to cut it into two sections, here’s the second part of that interview!
Sally Timms, who’s a longtime member of the band, The Mekons, was one of the very first people I met when I moved to New York in 1993. I met her at a friends party and we had a nice conversation. Three years later I did this interview with her at a cafe in the East Village for our fishwrap, rock ‘n roll issue.
John Holmstrom was the publisher of High Times in 1997 and Steven Hager was the editor. Previously, John had been the founding editor of Punk magazine along with Legs McNeil and this interview took place in the High Times offices near Union Square, just minutes from where I lived, so that was handy!
Okay, this is just a phone message that E. Jean left for me, but she goes on about how she loves fishwrap and that was thrilling for me because she’s one of my favorite writers and characters!
David Dalton is an author who’s written books about Sid Vicious, James Dean, The Rolling Stones and Janis Joplin. He was one of the first writers for Rolling Stone and wrote the award-winning Manson piece with David Felton. This was a cool interview and David shared memories of being friends with Linda McCartney, interviewing people like Pete Townshend and Steve Winwood for the early days of Rolling Stone and of course there’s great stories about Jann Wenner, the founding editor and publisher of Rolling Stone.
The MP3 files for all of the interviews were digitized from the original cassette tapes by KW Digital Media. Check out all their services by clicking here.
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