The Joe Jackson Interviews

This podcast made quickly while I was still telling from there news of Paddy Moloney's death, today October 12th 2021, is a reminder to people of how highly even music greats, such as Frank Zappa, rated Paddy Moloney and the Chieftains. He laughed at the idea that U2 were more highly rated in Ireland in 2000. I laugh at that idea, today, but I laugh ironically. Paddy Moloney R.I.P. He was a friend...

It is very sad to see the latest news clips of Tony Bennett, who has Alzheimer's disease, but who still becomes as sharp as a knife when he sings. Singing is a redemptive art, for him and for those of us blessed to love the man's music. Here,  by way of a tribute to Tony, is the second clip for one hour interview we did in 1995. I asked Tony to tell me how he originally defined his style and boy w...

I am preparing Part Two of this sub-series in The Joe Jackson Interviews Podcasts, so I am posting again, this podcast from mid-2020, not long after I started podcasting and before I had so many listeners. Btw, I thank you all, and welcome my new listeners in Russia! 

Many Scott Walker fans have bought my two Scott Ebookks during this year. So I am re=posting this chate we had about the magnificent singe, The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore

This is a cllip I separated from my Podcast 'Joe Jackson Celebrates the music of...Neil Diamond,' because it is a bit of a laugh! 

Neil Diamond is too often stupidly dismissed by rock snobs, witness his treatment in The Last Waltz. I've loved his music since I was a child, especially songs such as Shiloh. In 1996 I was proud to celebrate his music in Irish radio and to talk about the interviews we did. 

I bought my first Aznavour album when everyone else was buying  Ziggy Stardust by Bowie.  his songs have become an intrinsic part of my life. I soon realised why Dylan, on the back of his album Another Side of Bob Dylan, a decade earlier had written of 'listening to Aznavour in the Village.' In 1996, I write about Aznavour for The Irish Times and did this radio slot that followed the article. I ho...

Today, September 30th 2021, I learned that Bob Geldof is to be honoured tomorrow night by The Late Late Show, in Ireland. It will look back on his life and achievements. Some staggering, others less than impress, I believe.  But the news prompted me to make this tongue-in-cheek podcast. 

This podcast, as with Brendan O' Carroll's distinctive sense of humour, may offend some listeners. So if you are of a delicately sensitive nature - rugby players, politicians and so on - feck off! I'm kidding. But do tread carefully. The clip is from my Kindle ebook, Brendan O' Carroll: Soul Searching and Uncensored. Btw, sorry about the sound but the tape s 30 years old and the interview was reco...

A review I did if Vauxhall and I, short as a single, meaning it suits my "podcast singles ' concept to a T, lasting roughly three minutes! Will I be "crucified" by Morrissey fans, as I say during the review. Maybe!

Dancing with Michael D Higgins, my former co-worker in an Irish magazine and now the much-loved President of Ireland. This is from a long interview - maybe the most extensive ever done by President Higgins - we did in 1993 and should not be taken seriously. It was just us having a bit of fun, man!

Mike Murphy and myself on Irish radio in 1999 singing the praises of The Carpenters music and casting a critical eye over their career. Has their music lasted he asked me nearly a quarter-century ago? Time has proven that it has. 

As part of my "Singles" series of podcasts, running roughly five minutes, this is Mary Black talking with me about discovering Joni Mitchell, specifically her song, Big Yellow Taxi. If, like me, a song ever similarly rerouted your life, this may fire some old memories. Enjoy

Bob Geldof, who I knew, albeit only socially since we were kids growing up in Dun Laoghaire, described this 2000 interview as a "f*****g tennis match of an interview." To continue his analogy, some will say Bob won the match, some may say I did. Some may say no one did. Either way this fifteen-minute clip comes from my eBook anthology 'Bob Geldof: The Joe Jackson Interviews Plus.'

This is me having a bit of fun, fun, fun with Mike Love. I love the beach Boys, have all my life, since I first heard, I Get Around, as a child. So meeting Mike was a joy, even if at first he was a tad condescending! But we got over that, and after this gig at which the interview was recorded, I rode in his limo back to New York City where we talked some more. But that will be another podcast, thi...

This is a short exchange - fifteen minutes - from a ninety-five-minute interview, I did with Dave in 2002 for the Irish newspaper, the Sunday Independent. I did nearly 400 such interviews and in all, I set out to find people who had travelled through dark times, endured and in some cases had epiphanies. I hope that might help readers. I have put the best in an eBook called From Darkness to Light,...

Despite the relatively light-hearted title of this podcast, neither Irish stand-up comic Tommy Tiernan nor myself, treat teenage depression with anything with the utmost seriousness. Here, in this fragment from an interview, we did nearly twenty years ago, Tommy talks about how the "shadow was born" in his own psyche. 

This day last week, Friday, August 13th 2021, I posted on Twitter a picture of the cover of a book I co-write, Nanci Griffith's Other Voices, along with the following message, which was posted while I was still in a state of shock only minutes after hearing that Nanci Griffith was dead. ‘In 1998 I was immensely proud when Nanci asked me to co-write this book. I am deeply saddened to hear that she...