Not to spoil too much of the interview, because it part of a work project and will later be released as a podcast series, but I will share a bit of the experience.
I've been pretty lucky over the years to see quite a few shows and meet my fair share of artists over the years, but this was pretty special. I've been invited by a couple of artists to have beers at the bar with them, but never invited to their house to hang out and talk. It's been in the works for a couple of months now and I can say that I was probably more nervous for this than any job interview or other life event I have ever had... Rob quickly settled the mood and was extremely inviting.
We got there early to make sure we found the place and then circled the block a few times but the nerves built up each time. When we finally pulled up and walked up to the house and knocked on the door, it hit us when Rob answered. Even going to Rob's house, as hard as it is to explain, you just don't expect him to answer the door and invite you in. His wife, son, anybody but him... He took us around and we talked a bit and found a nice place to set up the equipment for the interview. I left my camera and phone in the car to respect his privacy. It was kind of him to invite us into his home, so I didn't take any photos of anything inside.
Once we got the equipment set up, we sat down and interviewed for about 40 minutes. Once the podcast is released, I will post it here along with the full audio of the interview. He touches on a bunch of the questions posted here, which I replied to a few simple questions already. We tried to work some in, but had to stay on topic while doing so. Overall, it was really cool. Once we turned the mics off, we kept talking for about another hour and a half. That is when a lot of the coolest part of the conversation began. My girlfriend is working on a blog that we will post here that sums it up much better than I can...my short-term memory is pretty awful...haha
During this time, he took us through the house and into his studio. He has an entire wall of guitars from throughout his life. He did mention that some may make it onto the open market one day...... I'm sure many of you already know this is where he records a lot for Stripper's Union. I asked him about that project and he has been doing some stuff for that. He mentioned that Craig will be in the area soon and they are hoping to nail down some tracks. Hopefully that will be coming our way soon.
After we left the studio, we went upstairs and got on the topic of vinyl. I am a pretty big vinyl enthusiast and being a Jack White fan, have a ton of crazy vinyl from TMR. I also only buy albums on vinyl and have only for a long time now...much before it became this big hipster fad..haha. Anyways, that is when he walked over to his collection and said "Here is a record you have never seen. Not many have ever seen this one" and showed me the Dougie Stardust album and told the story behind it. I posted a bit more on that over in the DS thread. After telling him stories of my collection, I kept thinking in my head, "IS HE GOING TO LET ME KEEP IT?" and then he got to the point of the story where all copies have been destroyed and he made sure to keep one for himself, which broke my heart because something like that is so cool, one for all us big collector fans, and two, that means he had no spares to give away...haha
We were there for a couple of hours before leaving. At the end I grabbed my camera and asked for a photo with him. Also asked for his John Hancock on a few of his albums.
My girlfriend requested that I don't give away too much info, as she wants to write a blog about it, so I will just post that here later today. She is a much better story teller than I..
I am glad I put this shirt on yesterday, as it sparked a pretty funny story about Dave. My girlfriend wrote about it in the blog..
He smeared the one signature, but I let it slide.. haha
