Quote:
Originally Posted by Penguin Emeritus
i'd rather have rambling as opposed to interviewers who interrupt and ask stupid questions etc. i could listen to her ramble all day. 
-Lis |
I agree. I remember my interviewing classes and rule #1 is let the interviewee do all the talking. He asked some deep questions that did not have easy or funny answers. We usually get the same questions over and over. I think Mick sort of explained this in his first book about the time this interview took place. He said something like every time the plane touched down on the Tusk tour in another city the press would stick microphones in his face asking the same questions: Who is Rhiannon? Is Stevie leaving the band? What does Tusk mean? Mick had his canned answers ready to go with his bloodshot eyes.
You are also correct. A rambling interviewee will always reveal much more than direct questions with short answers we all heard before. It was refreshing to hear Chris not say once during this interview "When Stevie and Lindsey joined we tried them out on Say You Love Me and we got goose pimples" That was in every Chris interview in the 70s and 80s.
A good interviewer can get their subject to ramble and be relaxed. Many rock star interviews are the interviewer praising their subject over and over. Molly Meldrum did that for all his Stevie interviews. He spoke to her as if she was a queen. This is also why Stevie loved him and would cry and praise him as an interviewer.
When did Fleetwood Mac go from a blues band to a rock band? Open ended question and impossible to answer in short. The question allowed her to ramble about her writing and how she always writes bluesy and how it was not a conscious change. No one ever asked her that question before. Sort of out of left field but her response was wonderful especially when she was talking about Over My Head and she thinks it was one of her blusiest songs.