The Joe Jackson Interviews

The day Christy died, I decided not to repost this podcast. I went for a podcast based on a celebratory chat we had about music. But things have changed. I am now reposting this podcast because Dave Fanning, an Irish DJ, seems to have suggested on RTE radio that Christy may have been lying about the link between rape at a young age and drug addiction later in life. It would have been better had Fa...

I am truly saddened to read about the death of Christy Dignam today, June 13th. I met the guy only a few times, but whenever we did interviews, Christy spoke his truths fearlessly and was mercilessly honest in the hope that by doing so, he might help other people. Too many rock stars I interviewed were full of bullshit or full of themselves. He was neither. I send my deepest condolences to his fam...

In 1993, I had a weekly. music slot for The Irish Times and, frankly, there were few musicians who didn't want a three-quarter page spread in that newspaper. Amid the hundreds I interviewed, there were those, such as Joan Baez, who I admired deeply, in her case politically as well as musically, and it was a joy to talk with her. 

A re-post to mark the thirtieth anniversary of this interview I did with Michael D, which was hugely controversial at the time. More recently, in 2016, I tapped into the tapes for an edition of my radio show The Joe Jackson Tapes Revisited. This is it. Higgins unleashed ina way that, as President, he can't be today.  

I fought on the side of Elvis against the Beatles during the 1960s as a child, but who couldn't love the music of the Beatles? It was an absolute joy for me to sit and chat with their producer, George Martin. 

Since I made this podcast, Baz Luhrmann has released his version of Elvis's story, which is mostly lies! Elvis himself  once said, "I never sang a rhythm tune until I went to Sun Records." I'd read that line as a kid but forgot it when I finally got to interview Sam in 1989. Yet, I still believe Elvis set out to be a singer in a gospel quartet or a pop singer. All his early demos were ballads! But...

I am reposting this podcast because people have reminded me that the film, The Ghost of Richard Harris, is screened on almost a weekly basis on Sky Arts in the UK. I did a two-hour interview for the film, of which I am an associate producer, and that is based on my interviews with Harris, but the best parts of this interview were cut from the film, I believe! As Richard Harris so often told me abo...

I interviewed Pamela in 1989, and we discussed aspects of her book, and life, that maybe not many male journalists discussed with her. I sure as hell didn't ask her who had the biggest .... and she loved the fact that I didn't care about such trivia! 

I have written two Ebooks about Scott, but I am re-posting this podcast because it seems that many people agree with his assertion that The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore, as recorded by the Walker Brothers, is one of the best pop singles ever made. I bought it as a kid; I never thought I'd get to meet its lead singer and talk with him about it. Join us and enjoy! 

"So, are you Joe Jackson, the singer?" I admit I have been asked that question so often - usually outside my homeland of Ireland, where it's widely known which Joe Jackson I am! - that I may start to say, "Yeah, I am!"  More seriously, to clarify that I am not Joe Jackson, the singer, and can't even sing, but I love doing interviews; here I am with the other JJ back in 2001. 

It was thirty years ago I got my "world exclusive" interview with Bon about U2's yet-to-be-titled next album, which turned out to be called Zooropa. This podcast is one of two parts based on my 2018 radio show The Joe Jackson Tapes Revisited: Bono. The full interview is in my ebook, Bono: Soul Searching and Uncensored. 

Patrick Kielty will be the next host of The Late Late Show; it was announced this weekend. A quarter century ago, we sat down and did an in-depth interview, upon which I base this, the first of perhaps three podcasts. I haven't heard the tapes myself since 1998, and boy, is it wonderfully irreverent, funny and revealing.  Enjopy.

Sean Keane died yesterday. This is my tribute to the man, his memory and the music of the Chieftains. it is a short clip from a one-hour show I did with the Chieftains

I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of Sean Keane. I got really close to all the members of the Chieftains because I championed their work in the same way that most of my fellow music critics in Ireland choose to champion U2. I prefer the Chieftains. Their music is the soil and soul of Ireland, but it also is timeless and transcendent and universal. It was a total joy for me to have this cha...

Bruce is back in my home city of Dublin. I have great memories of this interview in 2009 when Nils called to my home, and we did this interview for a radio show of mine. I'll never forget him holding a toy Elvis guitar I had since I was a child and saying, 'Bruce would love this." Listen to a great chat between two music nuts!!!

The Ghost of Richard Harris, a documentary based on my interviews with Richard Harris, which also sit at the soul of my recent book Richard Harris: Raising Hell and Reaching for Heaven, may win an Irish Film and Televison award on May 7th. I was an associate producer of the movie and argued that the section I include in this podcast should have been in the movie. It isn't. But this was a seminal e...

A repost because this weekend in Ireland, the film The Ghost of Richard Harris, inspired by and based on my interviews with Richard over a fourteen-year period, may win a BAFTA award in Ireland. I am in the movie and was an associate producer of it. I did a two-hour interview - maybe the best I ever gave about Richard - and only fragments were used. This is part one of three podcasts that will mak...

I included the full text of this interview in my 1996 book, Troubadours and Troublemakers. I uploaded the podcast in 2021, before my podcasts had as many listeners, as it now has, thankfully.  So I am posing it again as my way of marking the recent anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. 

You have to laugh at the fact that in his teens, Tommy Tiernan saw himself as a "dour, bearded, penitent, Russian monk," and he has now adopted that look in middle age. More seriously, I hope this is a helpful chat about dealing with teenage depression, which Tommy had, I had, and millions of teenagers have. 

The U2 media machine is going full tilt re The Sphere and will involve countless media folks who will go along with telling their story as U2 want it told. But what if, after they go to back Elvis and shuffle off their totally mortal coils, we find that they were living a lie, all of them? Eamon Dunphy and I pondered that question nearly thirty years ago. A timely re-post I hope. 

Who doesn't love the classic pop song Hello Mary Lou? I am reposting this podcast to bring the song back to the attention of people. 

One thing Roseanne Cash and I had in common was that we didn't like the movie I Walk the Line. She was Johnny's daughter, and I interviewed him three times. The movie presented him as little more than a lovesick fool. But here is Roseanne reminiscing about her dad and talking about that "revolutionary" recording, You Don't Know Me, by Ray Charles. 

Since I made this podcast, Baz Luhrmann's ludicrous tissue of lies, the movie Elvis, has been released. Happily, as an Elvis fan on a mission to tell the true story of El, ever since my heart was broken the day he died, I was able to get to the source, and here I push Sam re that's All Right. Even so, after the interview, we became friends, and he said, "I think you really understand what me and E...

Others have copied this concept of 'The Music That Made Me' but this is now a legacy interview - I did 1,400 interviews in all! - recorded in Weller's studio nearly a quarter century ago. I loved interviewing people who were as passionate about music as I have been since I was a child. Weller was, and remains, cool. 

I recently saw the Sinead O'Connor documentary, which I loved, even if it was a bit too hagiographic and programmatic for my tastes. It reminded me of this chat Sinead and I had in 2000, or thereabouts, and that includes,m arguably, a deeper look at the music that made her and why. So I am re-posting this.