What Kate Mossman discovered about rock’s elder statesmen

Kate’s an old pal from our days at Word magazine. She was on the staff for six years before heading off to the New Statesman and has just put out a collection of the sizzling and revelatory profiles she wrote for us, them and the Observer about a particular sector of the musical landscape for whom she’s always carried a torch. As she wonders in ‘Men Of A Certain Age: My Encounters with Rock Royalty’, “how is it that in the presence of wrinkly rock stars twice my age I sometimes think I’m meeting … me?” This tremendous exchange is full of hard-won insight about the mind-set of musicians and stops off at the following … 

… the fascinating appeal of rock stars’ vulnerability, giant egos, oddness and obsessions – “they’re often frozen at the emotional age they became famous”.

… growing up with Britpop, the decade when “teenagers weren’t allowed to like anything”.

… things women notice and men often miss: the difference between male and female journalists.

… being driven down a mountain by Kevin Ayers after he’d drunk a pint of Pernod.

… why she’s so drawn to the critically unfashionable acts like Bruce Hornsby, Kiss and Terence Trent D’Arby.

… what she learnt from interviewing Joni Mitchell’s old boyfriend Cary Raditz.

… why the best route to understanding any rock star is via their parents.

… her obsession with “the shamefully unfashionable” Queen, aged 11, and the appeal of these self-styled “fun ambassadors” against the grating irony of the ‘90s.

… the “charming yet awful” Paul O’Neill of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra handing out $50,000 bundles of cash to the homeless.

… why musicians are more interesting when they’ve peaked.  

… “the cartoon characters” of Shaun Ryder and John Lydon.

… “the only people at Jeff Beck’s interment were his wife and Johnny Depp”.

… and being refused an interview by Janelle Monae for not being sufficiently “queer or black”.

Order ‘Men Of A Certain Age’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Men-Certain-Age-Encounters-Royalty/dp/1788705645

Tickets for Kate’s launch event on April 3:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/men-of-a-certain-age-kate-mossman-with-alexis-petridis-tickets-1270535970289

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