Sunday, February 28

just enjoying 'til it's over, it don't need to last forever

kris kristofferson and karen black

neil young

michael lang

jack nicholson, dennis hopper and michelle phillips

kris kristofferson

anita and marianne at a rolling stones concert in hyde park

marianne and mick

marianne faithfull

tom waits

jimmy page backstage

james dean and his porshe

hell's angels

mick

rolling stones fans

Wednesday, February 24

He could be right, he could be wrong. I think he’s wrong but he says it in such a sincere way. You have to think he thinks he’s right.- bob dylan




They’re far from finished. The Rolling Stones are truly the greatest rock and roll band in the world and always will be. The last too. Everything that came after them, metal, rap, punk, new wave, pop-rock, you name it …. you can trace it all back to the Rolling Stones. They were the first and the last and no one’s ever done it better.


 I'm not exactly obsessed with writing songs.


Whatever passes for pop music, I couldn't do it then and I can't do it now.

 Do you think of yourself as a cult figure?

A cult figure, that's got religious connotations. It sounds cliquish and clannish. People have different emotional levels. Especially when you're young. Back then I guess most of my influences could be thought of as eccentric. Mass media had no overwhelming reach so I was drawn to the traveling performers passing through. The side show performers - bluegrass singers, the black cowboy with chaps and a lariat doing rope tricks. Miss Europe, Quasimodo, the Bearded Lady, the half-man half-woman, the deformed and the bent, Atlas the Dwarf, the fire-eaters, the teachers and preachers, the blues singers. I remember it like it was yesterday. I got close to some of these people. I learned about dignity from them. Freedom too. Civil rights, human rights. How to stay within yourself. Most others were into the rides like the tilt-a-whirl and the rollercoaster. To me that was the nightmare. All the giddiness. The artificiality of it. The sledge hammer of life. It didn't make sense or seem real. The stuff off the main road was where force of reality was. At least it struck me that way. When I left home those feelings didn't change.


 As far as songwriting, I wanted to write songs like Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson. Timeless and eternal.

 We shouldn’t confuse singers and performers with actors. Actors will say, “My character this, and my character that.” Like beating a dead horse. Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don’t have to explain it to me.

Funny thing about actors and that identity thing. Every time I run into Val Kilmer, I can’t help myself. I say, “Why, Johnny Ringo - you look like somebody just walked on your grave.” Val always says, “Bob, I’m not Johnny Ringo. That’s just a role I played in a movie.
He could be right, he could be wrong. I think he’s wrong but he says it in such a sincere way. You have to think he thinks he’s right.


Sunday, February 21

a song can do incredible things incredibly fast


I have a few things I think about when I need to get distance again. I think about a surface of a pool, you know, like a tidal pool, or a very still pond with ripples on it, and I try to imagine that. And sometimes I think of a glacial plain, a sort of blue ice color. Sometimes I try to think of my heart or my center becoming hard, cold and hard.

Well, I think "great art" is a pompous phrase. To me, that's a little tough to swallow and it's tough to spit out, too. I think Sam Cooke singing "I Taught My Baby How to Cha Cha Cha" is a terrific song, but you'd have a hard time calling it great art.

I consciously have tried to steal a couple of Ray Charles' phrases. If we listened to a show, I could point out a couple of points where it was like that. I could point out what I consider to be a Jackson Browne phrase without consciously trying to steal . . . Yeah, sure I try to; I consciously try to take a lot of things that I really admire.
And I find it a lot healthier for me to be someplace where I can go outside in my bare feet.


 I'm into the nuclear thing because it's so clearly insane. The problem for me is to become politically active: I'm not a scientist and I'm not a politician and I'm not an economist; I'm not a student of social trends. My credentials are only as a musician who entertains people.

I did a lot of psychoanalysis or psychotherapy, you know. And everybody has the blues -- that's what it comes down to.
 I have a few personal ideas having to do with my family situation and things like that. But in fact I can't really explain it away very well. I'm still subject to it from time to time. Sort of like unexplainable onsets of black moods. But I've grown used to it and know how to deal with them.
It starts with just not feeling terribly well. But there's a type of despair that I experience as being very deep.
As difficult as it is for us both to be in the same business, there's the benefit of our really understanding and being able to support each other. 'Cause we really know about it. When I find her being worried about something that's really bullshit, I can, with real authority, tell her that she's worrying about something that doesn't deserve her attention. And she's the same way, too.
It's hard for me to talk about Joni because I still feel very strongly about her. I saw her recently, and she and I spent a little time talking. Not to get into what our personal relationship was like, but I've never seen anyone create the way she does. An aspect of that leaves another side of her life lacking. She, more than I, I think, has a need for creativity, for her art. More of a need to relieve herself, to satisfy herself, than almost anyone else I've ever met.
If I could get some kind of a hold on myself, I could be able to direct this capacity I have to share my point of view with other people. A song can do incredible things incredibly fast.

Saturday, February 20

aflame all the time


I remember that sensation ... really special things that have no words to them. I hang on to them, because...so much of the rest of this existence is so fucking obvious, so easy to repeat, so easy to get bored of. But there's this other rhythm that's happening all the time; it's much more vibrant, but it's just harder to share. I imagine that it's in the deepest depths of that rhythm that the Sufis live. They're completely    aflame all the time.

Thursday, February 18

marion raven










helena




It's great to be single, but I never really think of myself as being a girlfriend or a single person, I'm way too independent for that. I don't think I ever really introduced myself as being someone's girlfriend even when I was in a relationship. I guess I just don't define myself like that. I think it's because I've always been on my own and travelling so much, so I can't even say, 'This is my boyfriend,' when I introduce someone. And I've hurt for it, when someone says to me, 'Why do you never introduce me as your boyfriend?'
I'm telling you the most important thing for me every day of my career was, where's my next meal, how much can I eat in the half hour break? And room service, my God, room service was probably the highlight of my career. I could check in to a hotel room and order enough food for six people. They would literally wheel in the tray of food. Those were the days man. I didn't care if I was working the next day for an amazing magazine, doing the cover. That was a nice little perk, but travelling the world and eating all the food of different cultures - that was the greatest advantage of this job for me.




If you walked into the places where I live, you'd think: 'Couldn't she afford something a little better?' I'm still a bit of a gypsy. I thought that when I was doing less modelling, and going into different areas, that I would find myself settled somewhere - but that hasn't happened. And I'm happy with that. What I really enjoy in life is that I'm always travelling and gathering new experiences. Even if you interview me when I'm 70, I think I will still be on the move.

It's usually some emotion that just happens right in front of me and I want to keep that emotion forever.

If I have a camera I can. If I don't have a camera I beat myself up for weeks and weeks about how I missed it.



When I modelled, looking sexy was the last thing on my mind.

I would be thinking about bills to pay, planes to take, how I was going to decorate my flat, people I had to call.

I'm the ultimate hippy photographer. I hate digital photography. I hate its perfection because it removes so much of the atmosphere.

Other photographers stick up light meters everywhere to measure light, whereas I just stick up my hand to see how the light looks against it.

I don't know much about flash, I generally use natural light.

I will give my assistant instructions like, 'I want it to have a French movie atmosphere' or, 'I want to see longer shadows on the face'


I spent all my youth working with the world's best photographers as a model and I think much of their knowledge filtered through to me. Bono is one of my favourite subjects to photograph.

When I was 14 or 15, I used to have his picture on my wall because I was such a huge fan of U2. I always felt his eyes piercing out from the poster with that incredible passion of his.

I first met him when I was in my early twenties and we connected instantly.

He has the most amazing face to capture on film.


 I worry about nearing death more than getting older. It’s always been a huge issue for me, the thought of every hour and every day being one bit closer to death. I’m going to make you very depressed! You’re going to leave this interview and go… But I’m also very easy to make happy! It’s the little things, silly little things - a leaf floating in rain water.
 I was around creative and inspiring personalities every day for 15 years.
My son said to me the other day, "Can you always be the way you are now?" like he always wants to be seven, and I said to him, "You have no idea how much that is a human wish." Of course I would love not to get any older. I'm not thinking about losing my youthful appearance or anything, I just don't want to die. I just want to live and live and live.

You know what, I’m in a very interesting phase of being curious and open about everything and everyone right now. People always feel sorry for you if you’re single, but I think it’s the best time. At this point in my life I see a relationship as I want to die with this person.

I’m way too morbid! But sometimes it pops up in my head - is this the person that I want to be in bed with, holding their hand? And are these the last eyes I’m going to look into? So basically that cuts out a lot of people, because how many people do you want to sit and have that experience with? .. If you don’t want to be in a relationship, just put that thought in your head! 

When I appeared in Chris Isaak's Wicked Game video, I was running around the beach supposedly looking all dreamy and sensual, well, the reality was quite the opposite.

I was exhausted from flying and we were on this volcanic beach where sand was burning my feet.

It's all shot from the waist up because I was bleeding from the knees down.

The finished video looked fantastic, though, so what's a little suffering?





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