The Joe Jackson Interviews

Frank Zappa. A Conversation With Zappa in his Home In LA. 1992

"Which would you rather have? Mediocre innovation or a direct descent from Celtic culture?" Frank Zappa, commenting on what he saw as the difference between U2 and The Chieftains in 1992. This is less of an interview than a world exclusive chat I had with Zappa in his home in the Hollywood Hills in 1992. I was attending the Chieftains recording session with Tom Jones, in Zappa's studio, and covering the Chieftains' time in LA, which included a visit, the night before, to the Grammy Awards show, at which they won a Grammy for the album, Another Country.  During the session someone mentioned that U2 were more highly rated in Ireland than the Chieftains and this chat - recorded on a cheap cassette because I wasn't meant to be working as a journalist at the session - arose when Paddy Moloney, of the Chieftains, asked Frank to give me a quote elaborating on Zappa's claim that "there is no comparison" between U2 and the Chieftains. We also discussed Zappa's music, and in the end, his health. He died a year or so later. 

Jimmy Savile: Attempting to Unmask A Monster in 2001

From the intro to the podcast: " 

As I say at the end of the show, I said to my girlfriend at the time, within minutes of walking away from Savile, “I feel spiritually polluted having been in his presence, though I don’t know why.” I now know why. In fact, listening nineteen years later to my nervous laughter throughout the interview, I suspect that a part of me sensed instinctively something of all we have since come to learn about that abomination called Jimmy Savile.

I also say in the original show that I felt morally torn when it came to the question of giving Savile airtime again – in any sense. The same applies to my now deciding to make the show available as a Podcast. But I made the original decision to turn the original tapes into a broadcast for my radio series The Joe Jackson Tapes Revisited because I did at least try, to explore the psychology of an interviewee, as has always been my tendency. Did I succeed in doing so? You decide. The most I will claim for this 2001 interview is that it can be seen as a snapshot of the psycho-pathology of a sociopathic monster called Jimmy Savile."

 

 

Joan Rivers. From Darkness to Light. An Inspirational Interview

Given that this is the tale of a celebrity moving from darkness to light, even in the sense of feeling suicidal at one point, to then reasserting life, it is an interview I include in my Ebook, At The End of A Storm Is A Golden Sky. It is available from Amazon and from my website joejacksoninterviewer.com

 

The Daily Mail picked this programme as a Radio Highlight of the Week August 2018. 

 ‘Joe Jackson interview Joan in 2004 ahead of her first Irish gig. He told her that the Irish were bound to love her sense of humor, given that the put-downs come as easy to us as raising a pint. She then went on to tell Jackson her life story, which involved in a near suicide attempt, a tail she told the punchline rooted in the kind of black humor we Irish also love. She also discussed the influence of Lenny Bruce, her early career in Greenwich Village getting alongside the likes of Dylan and Richard Pryor, how her family rejected her choice of career the suicide of our husband Edgar and ageism in the media.’

Please note that the sound of the original cassette tapes improves eight or so minutes into the interview.  

 

The Joe Jackson Interview. James Taylor. 1988.

Like millions of people of my generation, I loved the music of James Tayor from the time I heard singles such as Fire and Rain, and albums like, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. However, as I say at the start of this radio program - pulled from broadcast by RTE Radio 1 because of, let's say artistic differences! - I never thought that he would turn out to be such a difficult, at first, interviewee, then, in the end, so utterly fascinating. In fact, this may be the single most provocative interview you have ever heard, or ever will hear, with James Taylor. It remains one of my personal favourites. 

Glen Campbell Recalls working with Elvis, Sinatra, Jim Webb, his ill-fated marriage to Tanya Tucker, Drugs and God.1990

I became an interviewer to meet my pop heroes, starting with Leonard Cohen. So, sitting with Glen Campbell and listening to him recall working with Elvis, Sinatra, The Beach Boys, plus his solo work with the likes of Jim Webb and talked about his cocaine abuse, hear him say the “devil” he had by the tail, was Tanya Tucker, and tell me how he found God was well... rock and roll heaven!!!

Eamon Dunphy Unleashed. 1996. Part 1.

As I say at the start of this radio programme - pulled from broadcasting by RTE - "Eamon Dunphy never did an interview like the one he did with me in 1996. Neither did I.' For one thing, it is rated as one of the best interviews I ever did and it was done over a two-day period, and we put on tape eleven hours of conversations. It was hugely controversial at the time and later used against Eamon during a court case. This is the first time I have made available the uncensored tapes - though they do form the backbone of my Ebook, Eamon Dunphy Unleashed, which is available from Amazon, etc.  I will be released the audio material in a series of podcasts.

Dolores O Riordan. Young and Innocent. 1993

Sunday Times Radio Pick of the Day 2018. 'The focus of this edition is Jackson's 1993 interview with the late Cranberries singer Dolores O Riordan. The 22-year-old was "so full of life, with obnly hints of the shadows...that would engulf her," says the presenter at the start of the programme.The two go on to talk about songwriting, her anger at men when she was a teenager and the alienating effects of fame.' Mel Clarke

Eartha Kitt. A Remarkably Revealing Conversation with the Fascinating Ms. Kitt. 1987.

 

The Irish Times said: 'Kitt was one of Jackson's first interviewees, so he looks back fondly at their 1987 chat. It's an extraordinary hour, involving Kitt opening up about her childhood, during which she was abused for being of mixed race. She also discusses the suspected murder of her mother.'

Leonard Cohen. In Conversation With a Lifelong Fan, Joe Jackson. 1985

Leonard Cohen is a lifelong hero of mine. This conversation with the man came about purely because I wanted to meet and talk with Cohen. After doing so, for roughly an hour, I felt so transcendent, that I decided I must go out in search of more of my heroes to talk with. That's how I became an interviewer. This is an edited version of a radio program I did called The Joe Jackson Tapes Revisited. The print interviews are available at joejacksoninterviewer.com

Bono. Talks about Sex, Religion, Ego, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll. An Improvised Conversation with Joe Jackson. 1993

In 1993 I was offered a "world exclusive" interview with Bono, who apparently had said he wanted to be interviewed by me, about what would turn out to be the new U2 album Zooropa. This Podcast is a 45-minute edit of the two-and-a-half hours we put on tape. The full tapes are available at joejacksoninterviewer.com