Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, a smart-ass almost teenager sat cross legged in front of a television, her head-banging friends beside her. The room was filled with the nervous smoke of Marlboro's burning in the ashtrays and the tinny smell of empty beer cans that sometimes clattered to the floor like rocks in an hourglass.
It was 1989, and the Grammy board decided it was finally time that Heavy Metal be recognized as the passionate, serious form of music that it is. Among a handful of albums up for the Grammy was And Justice for All, one of Metallica's darkest and best albums and, for many of us, the gateway album into the world of Metal.
Alice Cooper and Lita Ford took the stage and opened the envelope.
Our stereo was cued up to play "And Justice for All" in an acoustic alleluia when the album was announced on television.
We held hands and looked at each other, nervously. The pink feather from the leather clip in my hair was caught in my eyelashes, but I dare not brush it away and lose this moment in time.
"And the winner is...."
"Crest of A Knave" by Jethro Tull.
Silence.
Did Alice just say Jethro Tull?
It was hard to tell, like one of those things you thought you heard but maybe you didn't. Alice said it so quickly and he and Lita exited the stage with such haste that you weren't quite just what had happened.
But it was true.
The silence among the group gathered 'round the television was followed by astonishment, then curses, the boasts and bursts of indignation and anger fueled by too much alcohol in bodies too young to handle it. Against whom or what this rage was aimed at wasn't clear.
It is not that we didn't love Jethro Tull. We did. Having a copy of Aqualung in your record collection (and yes, I do mean record collection) was just like having a dictionary on your bookshelf--you simply had to have it, because when you needed it, nothing else would do, and you found yourself coming back to it over and over again like an old friend who always had the right answer. It was among his many classics, and Ian Anderson was, and still is, a lyrical and musical genius, in his own right and at the helm of Jethro Tull, now for some 40-plus years.
But Heavy Metal he is not.
Between themselves, the two bands seemed to have a good laugh over it. Jethro Tull's record company took out an infamous ad in a famous rock magazine that proclaimed the flute a heavy metal instrument. Metallica would later go on to win and publicly 'thank' Jethro Tull for not putting out an album that year.
But among Metal Heads, Headbangers, and Old School Rockers, it would be yet another pull on the rack of an already strained relationship.
So, when I had the absolute luck to interview Ian Anderson today, 20 years later, I just had to ask about that night. I wasn't going to go there, but I did.
I've interviewed a few of what some would call 'celebrities' in my day, Russel Simmons, Bob Barker, Martha Stewart and other familiar faces, and I must say all have thus far been patient with my nanecent and sometimes fumbling attempts at interviewing them. I'm more of a research-and-write type of reporter. But I have to admit this was the first time that, while I was interviewing Ian, I was keenly aware of two very different people in my head.The woman in the front room was professional, polished, well-prepared, relaxed. The girl locked up in the back room, however, was jumping up and down, screaming "I'm interviewing Ian Anderson! I'm interviewing Ian Anderson! I can't believe I'm talking to Ian Anderson!"
Does such a dynamic go on in the heads of regular entertainment reporters, or, like working in the Godiva chocolate factory, is a candy bar just a candy bar after awhile?
Well, let me know how I did when you listen to it next week. It will be on "Pets in the City" on Pet Life Radio. In the meantime, you can listen to a great interview my colleague and friend Victoria Wells and I did with an up-and-coming new band, Mad Juana. You'll know Victoria's distinctive voice immediately from having seen and heard her on Animal Precinct, Dogs 101 and a number of other projects when her superb training skills and unique insights have been in order. She's also a very talented musician in her own right.
If you've gotten this far you're doubtless wondering what the hell any of this has to do with cats. Turns out Ian Anderson LOVES cats. He calls them by their proper Latin names. He knows their breeds, blood lines, and pivotal places in history. He knows which ones are on the endangered species list. He devotes large sections of his website to talking about them in great detail. And he and his wife have had many a fortunate feline reside at their farm in the United Kingdom over their many years together. The resident favorite right now is a Bengal called 'Rupi' who has her own song.
It was 1989, and the Grammy board decided it was finally time that Heavy Metal be recognized as the passionate, serious form of music that it is. Among a handful of albums up for the Grammy was And Justice for All, one of Metallica's darkest and best albums and, for many of us, the gateway album into the world of Metal.
Alice Cooper and Lita Ford took the stage and opened the envelope.
Our stereo was cued up to play "And Justice for All" in an acoustic alleluia when the album was announced on television.
We held hands and looked at each other, nervously. The pink feather from the leather clip in my hair was caught in my eyelashes, but I dare not brush it away and lose this moment in time.
"And the winner is...."
"Crest of A Knave" by Jethro Tull.
Silence.
Did Alice just say Jethro Tull?
It was hard to tell, like one of those things you thought you heard but maybe you didn't. Alice said it so quickly and he and Lita exited the stage with such haste that you weren't quite just what had happened.
But it was true.
The silence among the group gathered 'round the television was followed by astonishment, then curses, the boasts and bursts of indignation and anger fueled by too much alcohol in bodies too young to handle it. Against whom or what this rage was aimed at wasn't clear.
It is not that we didn't love Jethro Tull. We did. Having a copy of Aqualung in your record collection (and yes, I do mean record collection) was just like having a dictionary on your bookshelf--you simply had to have it, because when you needed it, nothing else would do, and you found yourself coming back to it over and over again like an old friend who always had the right answer. It was among his many classics, and Ian Anderson was, and still is, a lyrical and musical genius, in his own right and at the helm of Jethro Tull, now for some 40-plus years.
But Heavy Metal he is not.
Between themselves, the two bands seemed to have a good laugh over it. Jethro Tull's record company took out an infamous ad in a famous rock magazine that proclaimed the flute a heavy metal instrument. Metallica would later go on to win and publicly 'thank' Jethro Tull for not putting out an album that year.
But among Metal Heads, Headbangers, and Old School Rockers, it would be yet another pull on the rack of an already strained relationship.
So, when I had the absolute luck to interview Ian Anderson today, 20 years later, I just had to ask about that night. I wasn't going to go there, but I did.
I've interviewed a few of what some would call 'celebrities' in my day, Russel Simmons, Bob Barker, Martha Stewart and other familiar faces, and I must say all have thus far been patient with my nanecent and sometimes fumbling attempts at interviewing them. I'm more of a research-and-write type of reporter. But I have to admit this was the first time that, while I was interviewing Ian, I was keenly aware of two very different people in my head.The woman in the front room was professional, polished, well-prepared, relaxed. The girl locked up in the back room, however, was jumping up and down, screaming "I'm interviewing Ian Anderson! I'm interviewing Ian Anderson! I can't believe I'm talking to Ian Anderson!"
Does such a dynamic go on in the heads of regular entertainment reporters, or, like working in the Godiva chocolate factory, is a candy bar just a candy bar after awhile?
Well, let me know how I did when you listen to it next week. It will be on "Pets in the City" on Pet Life Radio. In the meantime, you can listen to a great interview my colleague and friend Victoria Wells and I did with an up-and-coming new band, Mad Juana. You'll know Victoria's distinctive voice immediately from having seen and heard her on Animal Precinct, Dogs 101 and a number of other projects when her superb training skills and unique insights have been in order. She's also a very talented musician in her own right.
If you've gotten this far you're doubtless wondering what the hell any of this has to do with cats. Turns out Ian Anderson LOVES cats. He calls them by their proper Latin names. He knows their breeds, blood lines, and pivotal places in history. He knows which ones are on the endangered species list. He devotes large sections of his website to talking about them in great detail. And he and his wife have had many a fortunate feline reside at their farm in the United Kingdom over their many years together. The resident favorite right now is a Bengal called 'Rupi' who has her own song.
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