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Interviewing bassist stories
- Thread starter Arthritic_Tom
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I love Ray and GG...
Some of the latest issues aren't really terrible. Although Tom is definitely correct re: only interviewing when they have crap to sell.
Although - maybe TW can put some pics up so we don't have to guess who some of these bass players are...
I'm sure there's something of interest once in a while.
And I'll confess to looking at a copy when I'm at a book store but I'll always flip through & put it back in the rack, generally disappointed.
Your right about the pics, for the most part I'm not coming up with any names. Though that could be the medication or the senility.
I subscribe, but that's because the wife and her family keep re-upping the subscription. Gotta be honest though - I read it once and then into the milk crate it goes. I spend more time reading old (nothing before 1990) Guitar Player and Guitar World articles than new BP mags. What I like about those is that even though they were guitar centered (duh), almost always they had a feature article about a bass player, or an insert into a cover story.
I had no idea who you were until today. I love this thread, and you sir, have just gotten yourself a new fan.
Also, I love the way you portray the animalistic gruesomeness of the entertainment industry and Hollywood. It does in fact make me feel like a superior human being, even though most people will say I'm probably not.
Btw, keep posting, I love your sh*t.
Also, I love the way you portray the animalistic gruesomeness of the entertainment industry and Hollywood. It does in fact make me feel like a superior human being, even though most people will say I'm probably not.
Btw, keep posting, I love your sh*t.
I can neither confirm nor deny. However, Rogers Waters does play the bass in his show The Wall:Man,I wanna say the bassist is Roger Waters,and the guitarist you interviewed was David Gilmour. But, Roger was playing(?) on a recent tour of The Wall. Again! So,that's kinda throwing me off. Seems like I've read statements about Gilmour specifically talking about Waters NOT PLAYING fretless bass on some tracks. Am I correct?!?!
Roger Waters - Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 (live) - YouTube
This thread is simply epic. Best read I've ever had on TB. Hell, better than most magazine articles- it's honest and uncut. Superb, Tom. I'd buy your book.
The height of my time at Bass Player coincided with the height of my collaboration with the now-defunct publicists' firm. They were representing so many new artists that I was inundated with invitations to CD launches and parties.
I don't look it, but I'm part Mexican. My surname is Luxembourger, because my father is a lily-white Midwesterner whose hardy genes wiped out my mother's Latina contribution to me in terms of skin tone (I'm pink). Those Luxembourg-German chromosomes couldn't hide my Jewish ancestry; I've got a big, hooked nose and hazel eyes, while three of my siblings are blonde or red headed and blue eyed, with proper little honkers.
At these parties, everyone was white, and after they got drunk enough, they told three types of jokes: anti-Semitic jokes, anti-black jokes, and anti-gay jokes.
And the jokes used all the K-words, N-words, F-words, Q-words--every foul pejorative you can imagine. They're obsessed with what they call "f*ggots." Always that word, not f*g. They talk endlessly about who's a closeted gay or who might be. At one party, I met a TV producer who was an amateur bassist. He had read my stuff and wanted to shake my hand. He was effeminate, yes, but he was also very nice and took the time out to praise my work, even though he was vastly more successful than I was. As soon as he left, my companion said, "How'd you like our f*ggy little k*ke producer?" Just two seconds earlier she was smiling and acting all friendly to him.
Sure, most of us have told off-color jokes. But these are people who present themselves publicly with such puke-inducing levels of sanctimony, enlightenment, and tolerance that you find yourself boiling with outrage at the hypocrisy when they think they're among friends.
At one party at a music producer's home I heard a truly horrific observation made about an alleged physical sexual trait of black women. You'd expect that the person who said such a thing was a 75-year-old member of the Ku Klux Klan, but it was some youngish hipster with millions in the bank, casually repeating an absurd folk tale that probably originated with the slave traders of the 18th century. Everybody--even the women present--just nodded sagely, like, "I thought there was something about them." I wanted to ask them, "Is this how you people talk to each other all the time? Really?"
The Mexican band Molotov (has two bassists, by the way; I wrote an article about them in Bass Player) came here on a big tour, and you wouldn't believe the stuff people in the VIP room were saying to me, not knowing I'm part Mexican.
That happened a lot. People would slag Mexicans to me, without even considering the possibility that a partial Mexican was standing right in front of them. And don't even mention the Jew stuff; that goes without saying in the entertainment industry. Nothing but raving about Jews, all the time.
Going back through my tapes, I found another bassist whose interview they killed. I'd completely forgotten about this one, probably because it was so egregious that I blocked it out from rage and shame. I apologize to her once again.
She's a terrific player and an extremely nice person, a veteran of decades of performing. The article was killed because she said something uncomplimentary about Bass Player killing the article on female bassists I'd written! I mentioned it to the editor just as an aside, because I was still angry that they'd killed the article and I wanted to let him know that it would've had an audience. I didn't put this bassist's comment in the article I'd done about her, but the editor killed it out of spite and gave me some totally bogus reason about not having enough space. She's another one I had to call and tell what happened. As can be imagined, she didn't take it well, especially since she's paid all her dues and shouldn't have been treated with such contempt. She was humiliated.
Well, she's had the last laugh, because she's still going strong, while Bass Player is swirling the drain. Not too bright a series of decisions, was it, guys?
I put in the tape just now to refresh my memory, and here's a partial transcript of what happened as we were sitting outside at a coffee shop, talking:
Bassist: He'd bring a bass to the rehearsal, and I picked it up once and never put it down. It was 1976, so by the time-- [laughs]. Oh, no!
Me: Perfect.
B: Oh. Uh, should we find you a napkin?
Me: Yeah, I need one. Oh, I've got one here.
B: Wow.
Me: Hey, as long as it doesn't happen on my head, I'm okay.
B: Wow. I can't believe that. I've never seen that happen, like, in person.
Me: In real life, yeah.
B: No!
Me: And now it's on tape, too.
B: [Laughs, but with sympathy.]
Me: For the benefit of the tape, I just got crapped on by a pigeon.
B: Gotta love that.
Me: Okay. So, in 1976, you started playing bass...
She's a terrific player and an extremely nice person, a veteran of decades of performing. The article was killed because she said something uncomplimentary about Bass Player killing the article on female bassists I'd written! I mentioned it to the editor just as an aside, because I was still angry that they'd killed the article and I wanted to let him know that it would've had an audience. I didn't put this bassist's comment in the article I'd done about her, but the editor killed it out of spite and gave me some totally bogus reason about not having enough space. She's another one I had to call and tell what happened. As can be imagined, she didn't take it well, especially since she's paid all her dues and shouldn't have been treated with such contempt. She was humiliated.
Well, she's had the last laugh, because she's still going strong, while Bass Player is swirling the drain. Not too bright a series of decisions, was it, guys?
I put in the tape just now to refresh my memory, and here's a partial transcript of what happened as we were sitting outside at a coffee shop, talking:
Bassist: He'd bring a bass to the rehearsal, and I picked it up once and never put it down. It was 1976, so by the time-- [laughs]. Oh, no!
Me: Perfect.
B: Oh. Uh, should we find you a napkin?
Me: Yeah, I need one. Oh, I've got one here.
B: Wow.
Me: Hey, as long as it doesn't happen on my head, I'm okay.
B: Wow. I can't believe that. I've never seen that happen, like, in person.
Me: In real life, yeah.
B: No!
Me: And now it's on tape, too.
B: [Laughs, but with sympathy.]
Me: For the benefit of the tape, I just got crapped on by a pigeon.
B: Gotta love that.
Me: Okay. So, in 1976, you started playing bass...
I was thinking this too. You have a wonderful graphic to which you write. Im adding you to my friends list on here; thats for sure.
Your Brilliant.
(On a side note I think you have an interesting and unique way of viewing people). I think its a shame that you're not writing for that mag anymore. If you were to I'd actually pick up a copy; which would be a first for me.)
One of the things I did as an interviewer came perfectly natural to me, but I soon found out it was pretty much unheard of in the field of journalism: I always offered the bassist the opportunity to read the article before I submitted it. If they had any problems, we could talk about it. The article was about that person, after all.
For the vast majority of the bassists I interviewed, this rarely resulted in anything noteworthy. Their people would contact me and say that everything was fine, and I'd turn in the article.
As I mentioned earlier, an Aussie band went ape-poo on me when they got what I had written, and the drummer started yelling instantly, as though we were an old married couple. That's the only time I ever had to shout someone down. We ironed out our differences (they were really dumb objections, I thought, but since the article was about them, not me, whatever) and the the article went to press, by which time the band had broken up. A total exercise in futility. Too bad, because their one and only CD is great.
Two more examples are noteworthy: John Taylor called me personally and said, "It's perfect. Don't change a word. It's the best article ever written about me." Since he's a bass hero of mine (Try and exactly duplicate the bass line of "Girls on Film." It's impossible.) that was one of the great moments of my writing career. He's an extremely original player with one of the genuinely unique voices on the instrument, and he was a true class act with me.
The second is Gene Simmons. When I asked him if he'd like to see the article before I submitted it, he closed his eyes, made the corners of his mouth go down in this expression of colossal indifference, slowly shook his head, and went, "Naaaaaaaaah."
I thought, "Why you--" But years later, I realized that he knew it was going to be great, so he didn't have to worry. After the two hours he'd given me, in which we yelled at each other and argued incessantly, he got very serious and said, "Tom, all kidding aside: Am I going to get the cover?" So I went and called my boss and told him Gene Simmons had just given me the most exceptional interview I'd ever heard him give, and it would blow everybody's socks off, but he wanted to know if he'd get the cover.
To show you the measure of the man who is Jim Roberts, the original editor of Bass Player, to demonstrate a supreme example of his skill, savvy, courage, and perception, as well as his trust in me, the insignificant insect, he said, "If the interview is as good as you say it is, then yes, he'll get the cover."
I put him on the spot, and he came through for me, just like that. Imagine.
Gene Simmons was the only bassist I ever interviewed who didn't ask to see the article before I submitted it. In its own way, it's a huge compliment.
For the vast majority of the bassists I interviewed, this rarely resulted in anything noteworthy. Their people would contact me and say that everything was fine, and I'd turn in the article.
As I mentioned earlier, an Aussie band went ape-poo on me when they got what I had written, and the drummer started yelling instantly, as though we were an old married couple. That's the only time I ever had to shout someone down. We ironed out our differences (they were really dumb objections, I thought, but since the article was about them, not me, whatever) and the the article went to press, by which time the band had broken up. A total exercise in futility. Too bad, because their one and only CD is great.
Two more examples are noteworthy: John Taylor called me personally and said, "It's perfect. Don't change a word. It's the best article ever written about me." Since he's a bass hero of mine (Try and exactly duplicate the bass line of "Girls on Film." It's impossible.) that was one of the great moments of my writing career. He's an extremely original player with one of the genuinely unique voices on the instrument, and he was a true class act with me.
The second is Gene Simmons. When I asked him if he'd like to see the article before I submitted it, he closed his eyes, made the corners of his mouth go down in this expression of colossal indifference, slowly shook his head, and went, "Naaaaaaaaah."
I thought, "Why you--" But years later, I realized that he knew it was going to be great, so he didn't have to worry. After the two hours he'd given me, in which we yelled at each other and argued incessantly, he got very serious and said, "Tom, all kidding aside: Am I going to get the cover?" So I went and called my boss and told him Gene Simmons had just given me the most exceptional interview I'd ever heard him give, and it would blow everybody's socks off, but he wanted to know if he'd get the cover.
To show you the measure of the man who is Jim Roberts, the original editor of Bass Player, to demonstrate a supreme example of his skill, savvy, courage, and perception, as well as his trust in me, the insignificant insect, he said, "If the interview is as good as you say it is, then yes, he'll get the cover."
I put him on the spot, and he came through for me, just like that. Imagine.
Gene Simmons was the only bassist I ever interviewed who didn't ask to see the article before I submitted it. In its own way, it's a huge compliment.
Wow, glad I stumbled on to this. I still have that issue of BP with Scott Thunes interview. That to me, seemed like it would have been an intense few days.
Thanks very much. I was too angry and sad to write about music for a long time, so I got into the field of military history. My next goal is fiction.
I think, though, we can all agree that I've pretty thoroughly burned my bridges with Bass Player here anyway. Oh, well.
Here's what I've decided, after the last 11 years of war, financial collapse, crippling political correctness, corruption, global incompetence, etc: Always tell the truth, and let the cards fall where they may.
The only thing I'm leaving out is names, because not only would that cause trouble for me, it would cause trouble for this great forum. I'm not about to jeopardize the people who run this place. I've been asked several times in private messages to identify the bassists involved, but I can't. Information has a way of getting out. We're a small community, we bassists.
I was at a party in West Hollywood for a new band, and a woman started talking to me. She heard from someone else that I wrote for Bass Player.
"My boyfriend is a bassist," she shouted over the music. "By the way, what's your name?"
"Tom!" I yelled.
"________?" she yelled back, using a different name.
"No! Tom!"
"Oh. I thought that was funny, because my boyfriend's name is ________."
I yelled, "________ ________, I suppose," naming a really well-known bassist just to be silly, and because she was really annoying and I hate yelled conversations over loud music.
Her face fell. "How'd you know?" she shouted.
He was married at the time, with little kids, and this certainly wasn't his wife. It was a real "oops" moment.
So no names. Besides, what fun would that be, really?
It was. He is a large, powerful man of superhuman intelligence and volcanic emotions, and the one thing he will not do, under any circumstances, is suffer fools gladly. However, he also has an incredible sense of humor and is unflinchingly honest about himself. He's clinically aware of his own motivations, shortcomings, and strengths. I would say he's the only person I've ever met who seemed to have absolutely no trace of self-delusion.
It took me several hours to convince him that I would convey exactly what he wanted me to convey, without adding my interpretations or my biases. That was the only reason he consented to the interview in the first place. When I gave him the article before I submitted it, he actually caught a couple of spots where I'd misheard the word he used.
That means he remembered every single, solitary word of the gargantuan torrent he unleashed over those several days.
Terrifying.
Thanks for sharing these stories Tom. FWIW, I actually think they are more entertaining without the names..... kinda like watching a magic show where the mechanics behind the illusion aren't revealed.
It's been ages since I've picked up a Bass Player mag. I believe the departure of people like yourself and Jim Roberts have a lot to do with that.
It's been ages since I've picked up a Bass Player mag. I believe the departure of people like yourself and Jim Roberts have a lot to do with that.
Well, it's a shame that I can't find music by the people you describe as being so gifted.
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