The Joe Jackson Interviews

Gene Pitney looks back at his song, the much-loved, Hello Mary Lou. Re-post

Who doesn't love the classic pop song Hello Mary Lou? I am reposting this podcast to bring the song back to the attention of people. 

Roseanne Cash remembers her father, Johnny Cash and talks about Ray Charles.

One thing Roseanne Cash and I had in common was that we didn't like the movie I Walk the Line. She was Johnny's daughter, and I interviewed him three times. The movie presented him as little more than a lovesick fool. But here is Roseanne reminiscing about her dad and talking about that "revolutionary" recording, You Don't Know Me, by Ray Charles. 

’So, Sam Phillips, did you force Elvis to sing black music and record That’s All Right, Mama?” Re-post

Since I made this podcast, Baz Luhrmann's ludicrous tissue of lies, the movie Elvis, has been released. Happily, as an Elvis fan on a mission to tell the true story of El, ever since my heart was broken the day he died, I was able to get to the source, and here I push Sam re that's All Right. Even so, after the interview, we became friends, and he said, "I think you really understand what me and Elvis and Sun Records were all about. I thank you for your in dept, investigative approach." 

Paul Weller 2000. The Music That Made Me. Re-post

Others have copied this concept of 'The Music That Made Me' but this is now a legacy interview - I did 1,400 interviews in all! - recorded in Weller's studio nearly a quarter century ago. I loved interviewing people who were as passionate about music as I have been since I was a child. Weller was, and remains, cool. 

Sinead O Connor 2000. The Music That Made Me. Sinead and Elvis sing Wooden Heart.

I recently saw the Sinead O'Connor documentary, which I loved, even if it was a bit too hagiographic and programmatic for my tastes. It reminded me of this chat Sinead and I had in 2000, or thereabouts, and that includes,m arguably, a deeper look at the music that made her and why. So I am re-posting this. 

Francis Rossi 2001. The Music That Made Me. Re-post.

Since I posted this podcast in 2021, many people are using the title 'The Music That Made Me.' Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Francis and I had great fun during this interview. I hope it makes you smile. 

”She has a misplaced pussy!” said Tori Amos in 1994 about the female editor who spiked her interview in The Irish Times

This is a phone chat I had with Tori - it's quoted in part in my Ebook Tori Amos: Soul Searching and Uncensored - after I was told that an interview we did, during which Tori revealed for the first time the full details of the rape experience that led to her song Me and A Gun, was not suitable for the newspaper we di dit for - The Irish Times. It's a re-post from three years ago. 

Dave Fanning and Joe Jackson discuss dealing with the death of a mother and father.

Dave Fanning and I do not like each other. We never have. But during the one interview we did when we both were working for RTE, we had an exchange about dealing with the death of loved ones, such as a mother and father. The fact that Fanning and I dislike each other is irrelevant. I hope this conversation heps listeners. 

Joe Jackson on Jerry Lee Lewis. The night the Killer threatened to Have Me Killed. Re-post

Jerry Leww Lewis has died since I posted this podcast a few years back. I became an interviewer to track down and talk with my music heroes. As a kid during the 1960s, I adored the music of Sun Records, including everything recorded by Jerry Lee. During the 1970s, I loved his country music. But he and PJ Proby are the two of the music heroes I wish I had never met. This podcast may explain those who say 'you should never meet your heroes' are sometimes right. 

June Juanico. ”Elvis broke my heart. He could never be faithful to any one woman. He had to make a conquest of all.”

There are more lies than truths about Elvis's love life, in Baz Luhrmann's movie. And June Juanico is one of the many women Elvis loved, whom Baz deemed to be unworthy of even a mention, even though Unchained Melody was "their song," and June wondered if, in the end, he sang it to her. She's a wonderful, feisty, forceful woman and maybe if Elvis wasn't such a 'Hound Dog' to women, she might have become his wife.