The Tapes Archive

A never before heard interview with Dweezil Zappa from 1995.

Transcript for this episode.

In the story I wrote in 1994 based on this interview with Dweezil Zappa, the lead paragraph summed up the conversation pretty well: “His father treated life as if it were a wave of stupidity he could somehow contain. Dweezil Zappa prefers to smirk and ride the tide.”

"There's not much use in being negative 24 hours a day," he said. "I can spend a few minutes of my day being negative, but ultimately I like to enjoy things more than I like to promote my disdain for things.”

Dweezil was 24 at the time. He was touring with his band Z in support of the record Shampoohorn, and he also has been acting, with roles in a sitcom called “Normal Life” and a cartoon called “Duckman.” We talk about those things, as well as his love for terrible TV shows and movies, and the state of the music industry. Of course, there’s also some discussion about his father, Frank, who died in December 1993, a couple of months before this interview was recorded.

"You had to be on your toes to talk to him,” Dweezil said. “You didn't want to just talk to him about something unless it was goofy and guaranteed for a laugh. He wanted to learn something every time you talked to him. He was great for that."

More about Dweezil is at https://www.dweezilzappa.com/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A never before heard interview with Shannon Hoon of the band Blind Melon from 1995 one month before he died.

Shannon Hoon transcript can be found here.

When I spoke to Shannon Hoon in September 1995, he and his band, Blind Melon, were on the verge of stardom. Their first album yielded the massive hit single “No Rain,” they had played Woodstock ’94, and they were excited about their new album, “Soup.”

We talked about the new album and how different it was from the band’s debut, about his growing up in Lafayette, Indiana, and about parenthood. His girlfriend Lisa Crouse had just given birth to their daughter, Nico Blue, two months earlier. 

About a month after this interview, Hoon was dead, victim of a cocaine overdose. He was 28.

It was hard to understand his death then, and it’s still difficult today—especially after listening to this conversation again. In 1995, Hoon had a great life to look forward to. He was upbeat, funny, and enjoying his family life.

Now it’s 2019, and he’s been dead almost as long as he was alive.

A few notes:

-We discuss Hoon’s friend and fellow musician Mike Kelsey, a great guitarist whose work has long deserved a much wider audience. Check him out at https://www.michaelkelsey.com/

-At one point, Hoon brings up a negative review of Soup that appeared in the Indianapolis Star. The reviewer wrote: “With a better singer, this band could have some staying power.”

-Hoon references the morning radio team Bob & Tom, which at the time were heard only in the Indianapolis area. Since then, the show has expanded nationally to more than 100 stations.

-Blind Melon continued on without Hoon until 1999, when the group disbanded. After an eight-year hiatus, it teamed up with singer Travis Warren for the album “For My Friends.” Over the next 10 years, the band performed occasionally, and in 2018 they decided to get back together permanently.  

More about Blind Melon is at blindmelon.com.

For more info please visit our [website.](https://www.thetapesarchive.com/)

The Tapes Archive is part of the Osiris network. For more podcasts and experiences, please visit [Osiris](https://www.osirispod.com).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A never before heard interview with comedian Bill Maher from 1994

Bill Maher transcript can be found here.

Bill Maher is a huge part of the comedy and talk-show landscape, thanks to his HBO show Real Time, which is now in its 17th season.

But in 1994, when this interview was recorded, Maher, then 38, really was just taking off. His Comedy Central show “Politically Incorrect” was about to start its third season, he was an occasional correspondent on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and he had just released a comic novel called “True Story.”

In this interview, we talked a lot about those subjects, as well as politics. In listening to the tape, what’s striking is how we’re still debating the same political issues we were in 1994—especially healthcare and gun control.

One thing I particularly like about this interview is Maher himself. It’s generally hard to make a comedian laugh. But if Maher thinks something is funny, he laughs. I was happy to make him laugh a couple of times.

Also, it’s great to see how consistent he’s been over the years. In the interview, I asked him if it’s accurate to describe him as a disillusioned Democrat who liked Ross Perot’s ideas but knew he could never carry them out, who thinks government is too intrusive and that people are much too dependent on government, who thinks people have gotten fat, lazy and unwilling to accept responsibility.

He liked that description.

I’d say it’s still entirely apt today.

For more info please visit our website.

The Tapes Archive is part of the Osiris network. For more podcasts and experiences, please visit Osiris.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A never before heard interview with Jeff Tweedy of the band Wilco from 1997

Jeff Tweedy transcript can be found here.

Jeff Tweedy is often described as a reticent interview subject, but I found him to be relaxed and easygoing when we spoke in 1997.

At the time, Tweedy and his band Wilco were touring behind their second record, “Being There,” and he was learning to balance the responsibilities of career and fatherhood. 

Our talk is largely about music and musical influences, and about Wilco getting away from the “alt-country” label. The funniest part of the conversation is near the end, where Tweedy tells stories about weird interactions with fans.

As fans know, Tweedy wrote a memoir, “Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back),” that came out in 2018, and Wilco’s 11th album, “Ode to Joy,” is scheduled for release on October 4.

More about Wilco is at wilcoworld.net.

For more info please visit our [website.](https://www.thetapesarchive.com/)

The Tapes Archive is part of the Osiris network. For more podcasts and experiences, please visit [Osiris](https://www.osirispod.com).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A never before heard interview with Neil Peart of Rush from 1990.

Neil Peart transcript can be found here.

I interviewed Neil Peart several times over the years and thoroughly enjoyed every conversation. In addition to being a great drummer, he’s a smart, thoughtful, articulate gentleman whose worldview extends well beyond rock ‘n’ roll.

This interview, recorded in 1990, was the first of our talks. Nearly 30 years later, I’m still amazed by his interest in visiting art museums and bicycling around the United States, his desire to become a prose writer, and his simple explanation for why Rush had been able to stay together for so long. (“We’ve retained not only respect but also affection for each other over the years.”) When we talked, Rush was touring behind Presto, its 13th studio album, so there’s also a lot of conversation about songs on that album.

A bit of context:

-Early on, we talk about—but don’t name—Rush’s first drummer. He was John Howard Rutsey, who left the group in 1974. He died in 2008.

-We also discuss the Meech Lake Accord, which would have recognized Quebec as a ''distinct society'' in the body of the Canadian constitution. The accord ultimately failed.

For more about Rush, visit rush.com/band/, where the group’s credentials are laid out nicely: “More than 40 million records sold worldwide. Countless sold-out tours. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Officers of the Order of Canada. And that's all very nice. But for these three guys, it's all about the music, their friendship, and the fans.”

For more info please visit our website.

The Tapes Archive is part of the Osiris network. For more podcasts and experiences, please visit Osiris.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A never before heard interview with Rick James from 1997.

Rick James transcript can be found here.

When I spoke to Rick James in 1997, he had already been a megastar, a prisoner, and a recipient of royalties for the use of his “Super Freak” bassline in MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.”

At the time, he was about to start a tour to promote his first album in nine years, “Urban Rhapsody,” and was in the midst of writing his autobiography, “The Confessions of Rick James: Memoirs of a Super Freak,” which eventually came out in 2007—three years after his death.

In this interview, James, then 49, talked freely about his drug use, how prison turned out to be a good thing for him, what he thought of rap (not much), and his friendships with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. You’ve gotta like someone who says, “A lot of things I had done over the years, I can't remember if I did 'em or not. But they sort of sound great."

I think you’ll enjoy this interview.

As for the concert, it was OK. My review started like this:

"This is not a concert tonight; this is a reunion," Rick James announced early in his set Friday night at the Indiana Convention Center. Actually, it was both a concert and a reunion, as well as a throwback to an era when performers favored sexual innuendo (rather than outright vulgarity) and identified people by their Zodiac signs. James led his Stone City Band through an imbalanced, sporadically invigorating set in his return to action after two years in prison on a drug and assault conviction, plus years of inactivity due to drug addiction.

For more info please visit our website.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A never before heard interview with Joan Rivers from 1990.

Joan Rivers transcript can be found here.

Joan Rivers was a great interview, and quotes like this are the reason why: “I think one of the

reasons (people) do like me, those that like me, is because I really never bullshit them. I always say exactly what I truly think and believe, including when Elizabeth Taylor was fat. She was fat!”

At the time of this interview, Rivers, then 57, was hosting her own daytime talk show, “The Joan Rivers Show,” and was on the road doing standup comedy. She was a few years removed from “The Late Show with Joan Rivers,” a nighttime talk show the Fox network created to try to compete with “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” as well as her husband’s suicide. 

But she was already a legend—a pioneering female comic (when there were few) who rose to become the permanent guest host of “The Tonight Show” in 1983. And she was fearless. 

A couple of notes about this interview:

-Our exchange about Angie Bowie and Howard Stern requires some context. Both Bowie and Stern were guests on the same episode of "The Joan Rivers Show." When Bowie started acting coy, Stern jumped in and got her to talk about her husband's relationship with Mick Jagger.

-It’s surprising that she names the person who served as her go-between with Elizabeth Taylor. (Actor Roddy McDowall.) Unlike most celebrities, she was unafraid to name names.

-“The Joan Rivers Show” ended in 1993. In 1990, she won a Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Talk Show Host.

-At the end of the interview, she invites me backstage to say hello. I don’t remember why, but I didn’t end up meeting her. I wish I had. 

For more about Joan Rivers: http://www.joanrivers.com/all-about-joan/

    For more info please visit our website.

The Tapes Archive is part of the Osiris network. For more podcasts and experiences, please visit Osiris.

Intro music by the Budos Band

For more info please visit our website.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A never before heard interview with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull from 1993.

Ian Anderson transcript can be found here.

For more info please visit our website.

The Tapes Archive is part of the Osiris network. For more podcasts and experiences, please visit Osiris.

Intro music by the Budos Band

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A never before heard interview with Trey Anastasio from 1993.

Trey Anastasio transcript can be found here.

I have a long, strange history with Phish. I’m an admirer—nobody dares do what Phish does routinely, which is to play a completely different show and challenge its audience—and a skeptic, because sometimes, they step on their dicks.

In 1997, after the August 10 Phish concert at Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana, I wrote one of the most negative reviews I ever wrote about anyone. The oft-quoted line is this: “To be blunt (and paraphrase the title of a popular book), Phish could urinate in its fans' ears and tell them it's music. The fans, in turn, would be there with tape recorders to capture the moment.”

There was not much Internet to speak of at the time, so the review made its way around the Phish world slowly. Angry letters trickled in for the next year or so.

But to his everlasting credit—and one of the reasons I’ll always be a Phish fan—Trey Anastasio responded like this.[See link below]

At the time of this interview, in 1993, I was strictly an admirer, and Trey and I had a great conversation. The band had put out “A Picture of Nectar,” its third studio album, the previous year, and was about to play in Indianapolis at the 2,400-seat Murat Theatre. But most of our talk was about jamming and taping and the phenomenon that Phish was about to become. 

In rereading the transcript after all these years, it’s funny to think that Phish was, at the time, being compared with the Spin Doctors, a band that bit the dust (commercially) not long after. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that no one compares with Phish.

Trey's response to Marc Allan's review

For more info please visit our website.

The Tapes Archive is part of the Osiris network. For more podcasts and experiences, please visit Osiris.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A never before heard interview with Billy Joel from 1994.

Billy Joel transcript can be found here.

For more info please visit our website.

The Tapes Archive is part of the Osiris network. For more podcasts and experiences, please visit Osiris.

Intro music by the Budos Band

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.