(Rock 'n) Roll Wit' It
Context switching live like a heart attack
I used to do interviews for the NAMM Oral Archive. During the annual convention in Anaheim, we would set up in a hotel meeting room with lights, cameras the whole deal. The purpose was to talk to people in the music industry about how they got into music. We’d ask about first influences, first instruments, music stores they used to go to.
Often times it would be a full day of back-to-back interviews and I wouldn’t really know exactly who was going to be coming in next. This is a photo of me with Kerry King, the guitarist from the metal band Slayer. I think just before this I was interviewing an older gentleman who had been a vice president at a saxophone company. I think this is a good example of “context switching.”
When Mr. King walked in the room, my palms started to sweat. I think it the first time was scared of an interviewee. He was a heavy dude, well known as being an aggressive, no BS maniac. He never took his sunglasses off. We sat down for the interview and I stuttered through the first few questions . I think he sensed my tension so he took a moment to crack a joke. I had asked him about the first song he ever learned how to play. He answered Cat Scratch Fever. And then he said, “Fuck. Not that that’s any big deal. Anybody can play Cat Scratch Fever. Shit, my dick can play Cat Scratch Fever.” Everybody in the room lost it, including me.
A lot of the interview got edited for, ahem, family viewing. Not one to mince words, Kerry told some insanely funny, highly profane stories of life in metal. But he was a really smart guy, thoughtful, and an eye on teh business end of things. It was a great fifteen minutes.
The next interview was with Vic Flick, who played the guitar riff on the James Bond theme. Nice old english guy whose wife accompanied him and was off to see Disneyland after. Kerry Ling was definitely not headed to Disneyland.