Glenn O'Brien

Tony Bennett: Rebirth of the Cool

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, February 1988

TONY BENNETT is cool. I have felt this way since the early '60s. Sinatra was hip, but Tony was cool. He was a swinger singer. ...

Blondie: Debbie's Back: Debbie Harry

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 1986

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein talk about Blondie, wrestling, disease, record rating, show biz, fear, and fantasy. ...

Blondie: Deborah Harry: Platinum Blondie

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, June 1979

DEBORAH HARRY is the singer in a band called BLONDIE. In recent weeks one of their songs, 'HEART OF GLASS' has been the number one ...

Bon Jovi: Bon Vivant

Report and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, April 1987

They came, they made videos, they conquered: Five nice guys from New Jersey find a place in the sun. Article by Glenn O'Brien. ...

Chic: Take It Off

Review by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, February 1982

IT'S BEEN ABOUT a year since the last CHIC album. Since then, half of the dance bag bands, in the world have come to resemble ...

Ray Davies: The Definitive Ray Davies Interview

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, January 1973

Glenn O'Brien, with the help of Warhol Superstars Candy Darling and Tinkerbelle, talks to Kink Ray Davies ...

Rick Derringer: A Real Mccoy

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Rolling Stone, December 1973

NEW YORK – Elizabeth Derringer is married to Rick Derringer. Rick Derringer is a rock star. He has been since he was the 15-year-old guitarist ...

Brian Eno: Eno at the Edge of Rock

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, June 1978

BRIAN ENO was a founding member of ROXY MUSIC, the English band that more or less founded the Fine Art-Fashion-Rock and Roll fusion that continues ...

Bill Evans: The Piano Has Been Thinking

Retrospective by Glenn O'Brien, Gear, 2001

I HAVE FORTY Bill Evans CDs in this room and a copy of Everybody Digs Bill Evans up in the bedroom. Everybody should have Everybody ...

Fuzzbox: Girls Just Wanna Have Fuzz

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, August 1987

Face it. If the four women in Fuzzbox had called their album We've Got a MIDI-compatible Digital Sampling Device and We're Gonna Use It, it ...

Incubus: Brandon Boyd: The Voice of Incubus

Profile and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Vogue Italia, 2001

BRANDON BOYD is a handsome, thin, fine-boned young man who holds the microphone for a popular band called Incubus, and wields it with odd grace ...

Isis: Eight-Piece, All-Woman Band in Musical No-Man's Land

Report and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Rolling Stone, November 1973

NEW YORK – An all-woman rock band, one that really cooks, seems to be both a contradiction in terms and a lousy pun. They've come ...

Jane's Addiction, Perry Farrell: Perry Farrell: Making Pop to Celebrate a Better Apocalypse

Report and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, L'Uomo Vogue, 2001

PERRY FARRELL named himself. Born Peretz Bernstein in Queens, New York, he moved to Miami during high school, liked the sun and the surf ...

Rahsaan Roland Kirk: The Great Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Or: What you don't know about Black Classical Music could be killing you

Retrospective by Glenn O'Brien, unpublished, 2002

BACK THERE during the revolution, when we called ourselves freaks proudly, rock was rocking the world. Musicians like Hendrix, Clapton, and Page, and philosophical bands ...

Kraftwerk: Deutsche Disko

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, 1977

KRAFTWERK is Germany's top pop group, and that's saying something because plenty of original sounds have been amanating from Deutschland since the psychedelic era. But ...

Cyndi Lauper Cooks!

Profile and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Grafitti, 1986

Noted scribe contemplates Cyndi’s spaghetti sauce, Niagara Falls pillows, crocodile sofa, hair, voice, aura, etc. Meanwhile, Lorenzo St. Dubois ponders Cyndi’s past… ...

John Lydon: John Rotten Lydon in a Few Words

Essay by Glenn O'Brien, V-Man, Spring 2005

OKAY, JUST THINKING about him, I got a powerful yen to listen to John Lydon's music and as the vinyl's all out at the country ...

Madonna

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, 1990

I interviewed Madonna at the Disney Studios, of all places, where she was rehearsing her Blond Ambition tour. It's not really so odd that she ...

Malcolm McLaren: Mozart, Puccini, Bizet, and McLaren

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Artforum, December 1984

MALCOLM McLAREN is a new sort of artist, your Barbarian Renaissance Man, the missing link between Leonardo and Conan. He has been the enfant terrible ...

Ted Nugent: Good Clean Fun: An Interview with Ted Nugent

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, High Times, Summer 1977

A Ted Nugent concert is an incredible musical experience, but that's just the beginning. While Ted and the boys are churning out some of the ...

Ozzy Osbourne: I am Oz the Great and Terrible

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 1986

Everyone believes Ozzy Osbourne is the devil, the perfect scapegoat for hysteria and madness. "To be Ozzy Osbourne, you got to be special," he says. ...

Tav Falco's Panther Burns: Deep in the Blues: Tav Falco and Panther Burns

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, 1988

Tav Falco is a bluesman from Memphis. He might look like Charlie Chaplin, but inside he feels just like T-Bone Walker. He might have ethnomusicologist ...

Pogues, The: Pogues' Gallery: the Pogues

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 1985

Erin Go Bragh-less: A liberated Irish punk band rediscovers its roots. ...

Iggy Pop

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, 1985

Iggy Pop is the greatest. He was metal before metal. He was punk before punk. He was and is poetry in motion. He's a wild ...

Buster Poindexter, David Johansen: Buster Poindexter

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Double Trouble, 1988

Buster Poindexter is the cafe incarnation of David Johansen. More than a pseudonym: a happily split personality, an alternate ego, Buster is sometimes surprisingly real. ...

Red Hot Chili Peppers, The: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, 1988

THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS ARE PLAYERS & ATHLETES & POETS & HOMEPERSONS. THEY RIFF, THEY RAP, THEY BARK, THEY BITE, THEY STRIP NAKED AND ...

Red Hot Chili Peppers, The: What's Red Hot and Chili?: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, May 1985

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are the greatest rock band in the world. You can tell by watching them perform or you can guess by ...

Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Exiles on Mainstream

Essay by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, March 1986

Being a Rolling Stone used to mean never having to pick up a Grammy. Until now. ...

Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros.)

Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 1986

Graceland is a pilgrimage. On the title track the singer heads for the Presley estate in Memphis, filled with faith, trailed by doubt, led by ...

Bruce Springsteen

Essay by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 1985

Hey, it was the greatest show I’ve ever seen. It was like rock ‘n’ roll and a gospel meeting and a party and the World ...

Jimmy Swaggart: The Best of Jimmy Swaggart (Jim Records)

Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, April 1987

A LOT OF fundamentalists today preach against the evils of rock 'n' roll, but TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart has gone and done something about the ...

Tom Waits for No Man

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, November 1985

How to act. How to watch Mr. Rogers. How to pick a road manager. How to live in the big city. And more solid information. ...

ZZ Top: Life at the Top

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, 1985

ZZ Top doesn't care that it took people 15 years to discover their mega-greatness. They've known all along that if you feel sharp, you be ...

Bop Art

Essay by Glenn O'Brien, Artforum, February 1982

1) From Atlantis to the Jazz Loft MUSIC WAS probably the first art. You could run with it and take it up a ...

Psychedelic Art: Flashing Back

Essay by Glenn O'Brien, Artforum, March 1984

Standing in line at the bank: what if this were on TV? What if we were all on mescalin?– Michael Brownstein, from '43 Cents a ...