Quoteworthy
JAY-Z on Dave Chappelle: “Great Art is Divisive”
JAY-Z weighed in on the controversy surrounding Dave Chappelle’s latest special, The Closer, arguing that “great art is divisive.” During a Twitter Spaces Q&A promoting new Netflix movie The Harder They Fall (of which JAY-Z is a producer), New York’s Craig Jenkins asked the hip-hop mogul if he had seen The Closer. (The question was especially relevant given that Chappelle helped induct JAY-Z into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week.) JAY-Z acknowledged that he had seen it and proceeded to call Chappelle “super brave and super genius. If you spend time with him, he’s brilliant.” Advertisement Related Video “I think he pushed a lot of buttons,” JAY acknowledged, adding that he himself felt uncomfortable at times watching The Closer. “But I think what happens with true art is that it...
Dave Grohl on Nevermind Baby Lawsuit: “He’s Got a Nevermind Tattoo. I Don’t.”
Dave Grohl hasn’t “spent too much time thinking about” the child exploitation lawsuit filed by Spencer Elden, who was famously photographed as a baby for Nirvana’s iconic Nevermind album cover. However, Grohl would like to point out that he’s not the one with the Nevermind tattoo. The former Nirvana drummer was asked about the lawsuit in a new interview with Craig Jenkins of New York. Seemingly heeding the advice of his attorneys, Grohl sidestepped the question as best he could, saying, “I don’t know that I can speak on it because I haven’t spent too much time thinking about it. I feel the same way most people do in that I have to disagree. That’s all I’ll say.” But when Jenkins pointed out that Elden has re-created the photo several times as an adult, Grohl couldn’t help but respond, “Lis...
Young Thug Recorded “Day Before” with Mac Miller One Day Before the Rapper’s Death
Young Thug has opened up in a new interview about coincidentally recording his Mac Miller collaboration “Day Before” just one day before the latter rapper’s tragic 2018 death. The aptly titled track appears on Thug’s newly released album Punk. Speaking to The Breakfast Club, Thugger revealed that he recorded the LP’s powerful closer with Miller one day before the Pittsburgh rapper passed away from an accidental overdose. Thug recalled: “I was with Mac the day before he died. He was at my studio and we did the song on my album. This shit is so crazy but it’s coincidental. He came to the studio and did the song, and the next day he died. And the song that we did at the studio, the name of the song is ‘Day Before.’ But the song is about like women… It was, like, flamboyant.” He continued, “I ...
Morrissey Who? Johnny Marr Says “Isaac Brock Is the Greatest Lyricist I’ve Ever Worked With”
Johnny Marr has named “the greatest lyricist I’ve ever worked with,” and wouldn’t you know it, Morrissey’s name didn’t come up. In a new interview with Stereogum, the former The Smiths guitarist sang the praises of Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock, saying, “I’ve seen him write an amazing song, and then make it better, and then make it better again.” Marr joined Modest Mouse from 2006 to 2008, touring with the Portland rockers and contributing to the 2007 studio album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. He said he was already a fan when “I got a message from management, the record company, that Isaac Brock wanted to give me a call. So Isaac called me up and, being the devil he is, said, ‘Why don’t you come and join my band?’ I was like, ‘Uh, thanks, who is this?’” Marr said h...
Julian Casablancas: “I Always Wanted to Be in the Arctic Monkeys”
In the Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino song “The Star Treatment,” Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner famously sings, “I just wanted to be one of The Strokes.” Well, it seems The Strokes’ own Julian Casablancas might be willing to switch places with Turner. “Lolll – I always wanted to be in the Arctic Monkeys,” The Strokes frontman captioned an Instagram post on Sunday in which he effortlessly recreated the cover art for his contemporaries’ 2006 album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. (In the grayscale photo, Casablancas smokes a cigarette while glancing thoughtfully off-camera, mimicking the iconic shot of The Violet May’s Chris McClure from the original LP. Of course, he’s also replaced “Arctic Monkeys” on the sticker in the top left-hand corner with “The Strokes.”) McCl...
The Rolling Stones Remove “Brown Sugar” from Setlist: “I Don’t Want to Get Into Conflicts”
Despite the tragic recent passing of their longtime drummer Charlie Watts, The Rolling Stones are carrying on with their US tour, which commenced in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 26th. However, fans who were lucky enough to catch the band’s first few dates have noticed that one very popular Stones hit, “Brown Sugar,” hasn’t made the cut in the setlist so far. If you’ll recall, the opening line to “Brown Sugar” goes: “Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields.” While the lyric has widely been interpreted as a critique of slavery, a recent interview with The Los Angeles Times indicates that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards feared the line would be misconstrued in 2021. “I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is,” Richards said. “Didn’t they understand ...
Quentin Tarantino on Filming Women’s Feet: “That’s Just Good Direction”
Quentin Tarantino puts his interests on screen — a man of heart and sole, you might say. His predilection for feet is so famous that Brad Pitt joked about it at the SAG Awards, saying the filmmaker “has separated more women from their shoes than the TSA.” When he was asked about it in a new interview with GQ, the filmmaker reportedly sighed and said, “That’s just good direction.” As Tarantino explained, he shrugs off the criticism. “I don’t take it seriously. There’s a lot of feet in a lot of good directors’ movies.” Ever the historian, he also gave a brief discourse on directors going toe-to-toe with their interests. “Like, before me, the person foot fetishism was defined by was Luis Buñuel, another film director. And Hitchcock was accused of it and Sofia Coppola has been accuse...
Brandi Carlile Offers to Front Soundgarden on Tour
Brandi Carlile has made it known she would love to tour as the singer of Soundgarden should the opportunity arise. During an appearance on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast to promote her new album In These Silent Days, Carlile said she “would make the time” to serve as the grunge band’s singer. “I am such a Chris Cornell fan,” the singer-songwriter said about Soundgarden’s late frontman. “I loved him so much. I was so devastated when he left us.” Carlile has collaborated with the remaining members of Soundgarden on several occasions. In January 2019, she joined Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd, and Matt Cameron on stage for “Black Hole Sun” during a massive tribute to Cornell. She also teamed up with the trio to record new versions of “Black Hole Sun” and “Searching with My Good Eye Closed...
The Rolling Stones on Loss of Charlie Watts: “He Held the Band Together for So Long”
One month after the death of longtime drummer Charlie Watts, the remaining members of The Rolling Stones have opened up about their tremendous loss. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood shared their memories of Watts and described his impact on the band. “He held the band together for so long, musically, because he was the rock the rest of it was built around,” Jagger explained. “The thing he brought was this beautiful sense of swing and swerve that most bands wish they could have. We had some really nice conversations in the last couple of years about how all this happened with the band. It’s a huge loss to us all. It’s very, very hard.” The lead singer also broke down how Watts brought his eclectic musical background to the Stones. “He wasn’...
Michael Stipe Says R.E.M. “Will Never Reunite”
In the decade since R.E.M.’s split in 2011, the alternative rockers have shown no intention of ever getting back together. Exactly 10 years to the day of their break-up, lead singer Michael Stipe dispelled any notions of a reunion during an appearance on WNYC’s All Of It. “That’s wishful thinking. We will never reunite,” Stipe plainly told host Alison Stewart after she brought up a Rolling Stone article that gave 30% odds to a R.E.M. reunion. “We decided when we split up that that would just be really tacky and probably money-grabbing, which might be the impetus for a lot of bands to get back together.” Hear Stipe’s full quote below at the 24:25 mark. Back in 2014, Stipe expressed a similar sentiment during an interview with CBS This Morning. “I love those guys very much and I respect...
Dune Director Denis Villeneuve Claims Marvel Movies “Have Turned Us into Zombies”
Denis Villeneuve has started promoting his new film Dune, and he has thoughts on the impact the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had on audiences over the last 13 years. Speaking with the Spanish-language outlet El Mundo, Villeneuve noted that big budget blockbuster filmmaking can retain artistic merit, citing filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Alfonso Curaon. “Perhaps the problem is that we are in front of too many Marvel movies that are nothing more than a ‘cut and paste’ of others,” the director said. “Perhaps these types of movies have turned us into zombies a bit… But big and expensive movies of great value there are many today. I don’t feel capable of being pessimistic at all.” (English translation courtesy of Indiewire.) Villeneuve continued, “Just think of the golden age of Hollywo...
John Lydon: “I’m Seriously in a State of Financial Ruin”
John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon is never so eloquent as when throwing himself a pity party. Now that his legally tenuous efforts to wring more money out of Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols miniseries has failed, the onetime frontman is, “scuppered,” “brassic,” plain old “fucked,” and “seriously in a state of financial ruin,” according to his new interview with The Telegraph (via Louder). The limited series is called Pistol, and is based on the book Lonely Boy: Tales From a Sex Pistol by the band’s former guitarist Steve Jones. Lydon’s been making a stink about it since at least April, when he threatened to sue because of the “disrespectful” decision not to hire him as a consultant. When that didn’t work, he attempted to block Sex Pistols’ music from appearing in...
