Musicians and journalists: both can be unbearable sods, can’t they? Which is why interviews don’t always go exactly to plan. Pointless questions. Rude answers. Interviewers who haven’t done their research properly. Bands who have such disdain for the media that they just huff off halfway through. Disaster can and often does strike, resulting in the most brutally awkward and cringey viewing. Just try these seventeen nail-biting encounters on for size…
Nick Cave vs Billy Corgan
No-one is spared Nick Cave’s legendary withering disdain – not even fellow musicians. Here, Billy Corgan steps in on behalf of MTV to ask the Bad Seeds singer some cookie-cutter questions about playing at Lollapoloolza. “I’ve done this same interview before,” complains Nick. “Are these your questions? I’ve already done this with MTV.” Billy responds by going off-script and fails miserably, dubbing the Bad Seeds an “English band”. It goes down predictably badly. “We’re not English,” snaps Cave, later telling Corgan: “You have the mentality of a teenager.”
Blur vs Nardwuar
When you have to issue a public apology for your behaviour in an interview, you know you’ve fucked up. When Blur were interviewed with the most bizarre and brilliantly goofy interviewer in the game, Nardwuar, drummer Dave Rowntree proceeded to call him “dozy bollocks”, squaring up to the Canadian and at points in the interview throwing his hat and his glasses across the room. Rowntree later issued a statement on how ashamed he was of bullying the journalist, blaming it on cocaine addiction.
Sinead O’Conner vs the BBC
“Well that was the greatest interview I’ve ever done,” says O’Conner. Sarcasm, thy name is Sinead: her appearance here is the stuff of toe-curling legend and barely concealed hostility.
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