The Joe Jackson Interviews

Richard Harris: Raising Hell and Reaching for Heaven. Irish actor Richard Harris as you have never heard him before.

Let me clarify the claim in the title of this podcast. If you live in Ireland, you may have heard my 2015 two-part radio documentary, Richard Harris Revisited, based on interviews I did with Harris over the last fifteen years of his life. Or, if you live in Limerick, you may have seen my one-person show of the same name a year later. More recently, in 2022, in fact, you may have seen in a cinema the feature-length film The Ghost of Richard Harris. My tapes voice the 'ghost'. His son, Jared, said,  "Joe's tapes allow my father to tell his story in his own voice." Now, to mark the 20th anniversary of Richard's death, and my association with that film, I have finally written the biography he asked me to write. This podcast is the back story of the book. Richard Harris Raising Hell and Reaching for Heaven will be published on November 17th and is available from Amazon etc. 

Richard Harris 1987 rips into psychoanalysis and his future biographer, Joe Jackson. A clip from Richard Harris Hell Raising and Reaching for Heaven

This is an extended, contentious, hilarious, and revealing clip from a longer podcast I am making called Richard Harris: Raising Hell and Reaching for Heaven - the title of my long overdue Richard Harris biography.  How long overdue? Thirty-three years! Richard appointed me to write this book in 1989 but died before we could finish it. I've now written it to mark the 20th anniversary of his death and because my audio tapes with the man voice the 'ghost' in the Sky Arts documentary The Ghost of Richard Harris. But it uses only sound bites. This is one exchange uncensored and as it needs to be heard - in full. 

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, talks about being part of the British Royal Family 2004. Repost.

The Crown has returned for a new season on Netflix. That fact reminds me of a brutally honest interview Sarah Ferguson gave me in 2004. The most telling part, besides the comments about herself, and Prince Andrew, is her suggestion that the Royal Family damaged her marriage from the start. Listen, between the lines. 

Jerry Lee Lewis. The night ’the killer’ threatened to have me killed. A Joe Jackson ’Single’ repost.k

Jerry Lee Lewis died today. He was a great rocker and a great country singer and a great pianist. I loved his music all my life. Then I met him...

Did the Kennedys, CIA and Mafia have Marilyn Monroe murdered?

This podcast was inspired, if that is the right word, by my seeing the detestable 'Blonde' movie on Netflix this week. A disgustingly reductive travesty of Marilyn Monroe's life, talent and legacy, it omitted more about Marilyn than it included. And it reminded me of a brief chat Anthony Summers and I had in 1990 about Marilyn's death. This is that chat. 

A phone chat with Garth Brooks in 1991 (Repost).

This was an Irish Times interview I did with Garth Brooks in 1991. We did three major interviews at the time. It was said in public by Dave Pennyfeather, Garth's European representative at the time, that I "helped break Garth Brooks in Ireland." How do I feel about that, now that Garth is King of Country in Ireland again? Strange!

How Baz Luhrmann betrayed Elvis’s music, culture, and most of all, the soul of the man. Part 1. (Repost, edited)

This is a repost and heavily edited version of my 'Elvis Fan responds to Baz Luhrmann's movie' podcast. I have cut out the twelve-minute section about my history as an Elvis fan which led to the powerful feelings I have about what to me are the lies Luhrmann tells in his all-flash-and-no-substance movie. The film has received enough praise, excessively so, globally, but, happily, at least some critics and many fans have not been blinded by the hype. This is the first of three podcasts on the subject. 

Baz Luhrmann’s movie ’Elvis.’ A lifelong Elvis fan reacts. Includes Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records

I love the fact that Baz Luhrmann's movie Elvis has brought the King of Pop, as we called him when I was a child, back into public consciousness globally.  And that Elvis's music is getting 67% more streaming than before the movie was released. Luhrmann must receive the highest praise for all that. But, as a so-called "Elvis expert" and someone who has written countless articles about Presley since 1977 and made fifteen one-hour radio documentaries about the man and his music, including Conversations about the King, which was nominated for a Best Music Documentary award in 2018, I now hope to highlight the aspects of Elvis's art and life, that Baz has excluded from his movie. And in some cases, sadly, misrepresented, such as denying or belittling Elvis's roots in white gospel and country music, and, above all, the "never-ending spiritual search" his daughter Lisa says he was always on. This is the first of 3 podcasts. 

 

 

The Real Elvis 7. The real BB King Talks about himself and the real Elvis

Elvis is back in the building becuase of the Baz Luhrmann movie. But I believe that where he should have probed he skims over the soul of Elvis in so many ways. So, I'm reposting some of my in-depth conversations about the King. Here BB King, with whim Elvis did not have a friendship, despite what Luhrmann suggests in his move, talks about his own career and about Elvis

The Real Elvis 6. Sam Phillips, of Sun Records comments on sexual rumours abut Elvis

Elvis is back in the building becuase of the Baz Luhrmann movie. But I believe that where he should have probed he skims over the soul of Elvis in so many ways. So, I'm reposting some of my in-depth conversations about the King.