The Joe Jackson Interviews

"Sinatra thought Elvis was a hick. I was there!" Gordon Stoker Remembers. From the Joe Jackson Archive

Great exchange with the late Gordon Stoker, one of the Jordanaires who tells it like it really was and not as you will read it in books about Elvis and that Sinatra show! 

The Beach Boys. Mike Love Remembers Pet Sounds and so on. From the Joe Jackson Archive

Mike Love and I backstage at a Beach Boys gig in America in 1989, reflecting on classic albums such as Pet Sounds, and more. 

President Michael D Higgins 1993 Revisited. The Joe Jackson Interview

This was originally a radio show, and it became one of my first podcasts in 2020. Time for a repost, of this revealing encounter with the man who has since become President of Ireland. 

Nanci Griffith and her biographer Joe Jackson in conversation in 1993.

The rapport I had with Nanci, apparent in this 1993 interview, led to her asking me in 1998 to co-write her book Nanci Griffith's Other Voices. I'm told, from Texas, there is a resurgence of interest in her work. That thought delights me. I dedicate this podcast to anyone discovering Nanci!

Joan Rivers. "The Night I Didn't Kill Myself.' Joe Jackson Archive

Joan was a joy to interview, and even meet. Her story is hugely inspiring for those of us who sometimes yield to dark feelings

 

Neil Diamond "My Battle with the Mafia." Joe Jackson archive

I am posting this again because I have learned that I was one of the few journalists to ask Neil about his ties to the Mob, who backed, he says, the Bang record label - with its logo, a smoking gun!!!

Dory Previn on Mia Farrow and Andre Previn, Valley of the Dolls and her addiction to pills

Dory Previn said to me in 1986, "I hope that someday you write about my songs and life the kind of 

psychosexual study you did of Sinatra's work." We made tapes, starting that year, and recorded up to 2000, with this in mind or me writing a one-woman show about her. Now, my hopes are set more on me and someone who is equally passionate about Dory, making a film. 

Here she talks about the background of her songs Theme from Valley of the Dolls,  Leomon Haired Ladies and Beware of Young Girlks. The latter two were directed at Mia Farrow. 

 

Tapes copyright: Joe Jackson, not to be used commercially without my permission in writing. 

Joni Mitchell 1998 backstage chat about her song, The Magdalene Laundries.

This clip was recorded backstage in Madison Square Garden at a Bob Dylan/Joni Mitchell gig, and the sound is not great. Be warned!

But it is a historic clip, of Joni chatting about the song she wrote, The Magdalene Laundries, that was soon to be released on a Chieftains album, Tears of Stone. 

 

And it will give you a flavour of being backstage 

Cillian Murphy 2004 Like You Never Heard Him Before. The Joe Jackson Interview

I previously posted parts of this as podcasts, but after some listeners pointed out that Cillian rarely is as open during interviews, particularly when it comes to his private life and deepest feelings, I decided to post the full exchange. 

Discover Dory Previn. Joe Jackson one of rock's most neglected singer-songwriters.

I was a fan of Dory Previn, who became her close friend and the person she asked to chronicle her life and songs. We never finished that work, but I have 20 hours of audio and some video and feel duty-bound to spread the word about Dory, one of the most groundbreaking singer-songwriters in rock .