Everyone Loves You When You're Dead. Neil Strauss
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So what was your stock answer to the Nigel Godrich question?
CASABLANCAS: Yeah, it makes me nauseous explaining. It’s not even good. It’s like a run-on sentence, with little reference parts to lead to the next part. So . . . yeah, we just work differently. We got along great. All our parts need, you know, specific personalities, and the band comes in, plays live, and then he does his thing. And so we try to do it more hands off, blah, blah, blah, and that kind of thing.
That’s it?
CASABLANCAS: I said it in the wrong order. I started with the working differently thing and I should have ended with it. And the whole thing is just a run-on sentence.
Do you mind if I go outside for two seconds to smoke a cigarette?
A few minutes later, he stumbles back. The conversation turns to his drinking problem . . . 4
When your girlfriend left you and people didn’t want to be around you anymore because of the drinking, did it affect you at all?
CASABLANCAS: Yeah, definitely, especially when you are hungover. It’s just weird, because you get this built-up stuff and it comes out when you’re drunk. And you think afterward, “Yeah, maybe I was an asshole, but I said what was on my mind and that’s what they hated about it.” I would like my friends to be happy, but then, obviously, I’m like drunk and being very aggressive, so it probably makes them feel that . . . Yeah, it’s not cool. You can’t act like that on a consistent basis.
When was the first time you got fucked up?
CASABLANCAS: The first time was probably when I was ten and there was a dinner party. There were drinks on the table and I think I just downed all the drinks, and I was like, “Whoa. What the hell is this? This is great.” My body immediately enjoyed it. It was like, “Life is actually fucking amazing in every single way.”
After nearly three hours of talking . . .
If you had kids, would you want them to be musicians?
CASABLANCAS: If you’re a musician, probably the fear is that your kid is going to be a shitty musician. Like if you’re Bob Dylan: I can imagine him coming in and saying, “Turn that music down.” And his son says, “No, you don’t understand my music, Dad.” And he says, “Yeah, I do. I’m Bob Dylan, and it’s shitty.”
My phone rings.
Hello?
ALBERT HAMMOND [Strokes guitarist]: It’s Albert. Is Julian there?
Yeah. He doesn’t have his own phone?
HAMMOND: No. I’m at the video store. Can you just ask him if he wants to watch Fletch tonight?
Here’s a simple law of pop physics: An interview with Pink is as good as the number of Corona Lights she drinks.
PINK AFTER BEER ONE: “I always get nervous before interviews, because I don’t think you should have to be interesting to make music.”
PINK AFTER BEER TWO: “I used to think that they should pass out ecstasy in school lunchrooms so we’d actually learn some useful things. President Bush should try some ecstasy, that’s for damn sure.”
PINK AFTER BEER THREE: “[Producer] Linda Perry had heard of me, but she didn’t get me. Of course, I didn’t really get me either. Nobody does.” (She drops a piece of popcorn she’s eating on her thigh. Then she bends down, positions her lips over her thigh, and sucks the stray piece of popcorn into her mouth like a vacuum cleaner.)
PINK AFTER BEER FOUR: “I change my mind so much I need two boyfriends and a girl. I need an East Coast guy, a West Coast guy, and a girl.”
PINK AFTER BEER FIVE: “Take your shoes off!” she orders me. “I want to lick your toes!”
PINK AFTER BEER SIX: “I realize that you can do a lot more on drugs than you can do sober.” (Janis Joplin’s version of “Me and Bobby McGee” comes on the jukebox and she leaps up, strikes a rock pose on the sawdust-covered floor, and struts across the bar, belting the entire tune at the top of her lungs in front of a dozen befuddled patrons.)
The month our interview appeared on the cover of The Source magazine, Snoop Dogg emerged onstage during a concert by the rapper Master P, wearing the uniform and shouting the slogans of Master P’s Louisiana record label No Limit. Evidently, he’d found a new home for his music—and a new mentor.
When I returned to his house for a follow-up article, a completely different Snoop greeted me at the door, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a gold No Limit medallion studded with diamonds.
SNOOP DOGG: It’s li’l head Neil! You wanna beer, Neil?
Sure, thanks.
SNOOP DOGG: They was tripping off that interview we did in The Source. Motherfuckers be tripping off that shit.
Oh shit, did you get in trouble over it?
SNOOP DOGG: I got a good response, but motherfuckers was tripping off why I was so mad. They had never seen me so mad before. The shit you brought across was good because you had me explain the ins and outs as to why the nigga was mad and whatnot. Some motherfuckers were mad and didn’t like what I said, but they’ll learn, they’ll live, they’ll forget. It’s all part of life.
You seem like yourself again. What made you go from being angry to being at peace?
SNOOP DOGG: It’s a part of growing up, getting strong mentally and physically, and getting my shit all the way together with where I have a faith in God and God makes everything happen. He put me in that situation with Death Row and he took me out of it. All I gotta say is that it was fun. It was all love. I enjoyed it and I wouldn’t trade it for nothing in the world. It’s like a marriage. When the divorce comes, you’re mad. But after the divorce, you still love them. You can’t stand to see anybody else with them, but you gotta accept it.
So you’re cool with it now that you’re in a new relationship?
SNOOP DOGG: That’s what it’s like.
The phone rings. Shante, his wife of one year, answers it and speaks to two No Limit rappers, who tell her they’re flying in from Oakland that night to crash at Snoop’s house.
So did you go to No Limit or did they approach you?
SNOOP DOGG: I did. Wanna go in the studio? Bring that beer with you. (Walks in the studio, where four producers are smoking a blunt and playing a Madden football video game.) Man, that shit smells good. Can I hit that shit? Goddamn, let me hit some. (Sings:) Let me hit some.
Come on over here, li’l head Neil. Whose drink was that, Goldie’s? You want some chicken I made?
Sure.
SNOOP DOGG: My studio done got fresh. (Walks out and brings back a drumstick.)
Can I get another hit off that blunt?
Last time we talked, you said you’d release your music independently unless a label was willing to give you fifty percent of everything