Books like The Rolling Stone Interviews

*Back-dating reviews based on snips I find*I openly have a penchant for books of interviews. I just love them. My favourite to date would be Mick Wall’s ‘Appetite For Destruction’, helped mainly because he interviews many if not most of my favourite classic bands back in their early years. So, on a wider scale this interested me just as much with the likes of Eric Clapton to Bruce Springsteen, Robin Williams to Hunter S. Thompson. Basically, I really enjoyed this book – proven by the fact I read it in the space of two days.An unsurprising highlight would be Axl Rose. I’m a big Guns N’ Roses fan, yet the last album of interest they released came out the same year I was born. I’d be interested to read interviews by him nowadays, because I think he’s quite off-balance over certain things. I had read Mick Wall’s biography of him, so had heard about the interview where he spoke callously about his regression therapy and what occurred in his childhood, but had never read the interview itself. Needless to say, I found it interesting.Another interesting duo were the back to back interviews with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. I like Nirvana and love Hole, but I’ve always found uncertainty with how to take the people themselves. While Kurt said he’d never been happier, it was just before his death. It begs the question as to whether his interviews I’d previously read were often packed with lies. On the contrary, Courtney is rather abrasive. I like her music – oh boy, do I like her music – but I find each interview she does paints herself badly, and I really wish it didn’t (the latest, of course, is her unprovoked lash-out at Dave Grohl). I did quite like her interview with Rolling Stone; it was relatively emotional, touching on how selfish she found Kurt for his suicide, but at the same time I couldn’t shake the notion of how she is now.Patti Smith’s interview had more impact than it probably would have, courtesy of the last book I read. I liked hearing about her husband, who was rarely touched on in detail in ‘Just Kids’. On the contrary, she briefly touched on Robert; each comment she said was elevated knowing the entire story of the duo. I also found her note on Kurt Cobain very powerful, saying ‘You think you’ve got it bad? This is bad’ referring to Robert’s struggle.I knew John Lennon was a bit of an egotist, something I never doubted. I always hear the good side of the Beatles but I was pretty impressed to see him speak so openly about the flaws and disruption in the works. The only thing I’d have preferred – two things if you include Yoko not interrupting him – would be a Paul McCartney interview to follow.Robin Williams was just plain funny for the most part; I’d expect nothing less. Spike Lee was rather aggressive. I’m not sure how I felt about his interview. I think I frowned a lot as I read it. Hunter S. Thompson was probably my favourite excluding one other. I have a tattoo based on one of this works, so this isn’t surprising… George Lucas was pretty great – ‘How do you explain a wookie?’ I’ll try stop listing names and poor summaries; essentially, I liked most of them. The likes of Johnny Cash and others have always interested me, but I’ve never read much from them personally.My favourite interview – and indisputably the most impacting for me – was Oriana Fallaci’s. Admittedly, I had to Google who she was before reading but as I read the rest of the book I kept wanting to go back and re-read hers. I love writing, I love interviewing people and I want to get so much better at it. Her attitude has given me a new view on things; I want to have her unshakable confidence. She doesn’t feel inferior, she doesn’t feel like she’s intruding; she is an equal and will argue her point. I’m notably quiet, which is odd considering how comfortable I feel interviewing people. I want to be more than comfortable, I want to be confident and challenging; I thank this interview for it. Whether it works out that way is yet to be seen, but I will definitely make a point of reading as much of her work as I can from now on.I’ve only been working properly for a year, so there’s plenty of time for me to push to be better. I’ve already got countless plans and ideas for 2012 that I’m eager to work on, but reading this one interview has made me more determined than ever. I’m not exactly the most powerful force there is, I doubt I’ve had the balls to turn around and counter something I disagreed with in an interview yet, but I really want to be.Long story short: The book is a fantastic read. It covers so many people I hold a high interest in and the interviews themselves are good. Oriana Fallaci is now going to be the focus of much research from me. I also dread reading this back and seeing how many times I said ‘interesting’.