Tuesday, June 22, 2010

swings and roundabouts


FotografĂ­a de Malia James


Robert Levon Been from San Franciscan rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on his ups and downs, from the trials of romance to that Labyrinth guy.

My most painful injury
"Falling in love"

My best ever night out
"We just played at Slims in San Francisco the night our record came out. That was a big one for us, because Slims was the club that Pete and I saw most of our favourite bands play when we were growing up."

My Worst hangover
"Easily it was after an all-nighter in Dublin. We'd all gone out with the guys from Mainline to the Morrison Hotel and got into trouble till the sun came up. I was told later that I got out of line behind the bar and my friend had to head-butt me just to get me to settle down. The next day all I remember was arriving at the airport hungover for a flight to Israel and there was a big thunderstorm. Probably the bumpiest flight of my life."

My most memorable trip
"Most memorable, took a lot of mushrooms out in Joshua tree after the Clean Air Clear Stars festival. There was a huge group of people there which was alright for a moment but then quickly became an awful scene to be around in that state. I quickly grabbed a jacket and wandered off into the darkness walking through the desert for the next seven hours. Finally I sat under a tree and laid with the stars for the rest of the night and felt everything truly connect for the first, and last time."

The strangest situation
"Playing hide and seek with David Bowie went I was like 10. He was friends with my parents. It's a strange situation to have the guy from Labyrinth chasing you".

The worst song I ever wrote
"The first band I ever started was a metal band which I formed for the 'battle of the bands' in junior highschool. We got together like one week before the show, and the song we wrote for
it was called 'Armageddon' and it was as good as you can probably imagine. Ironically we broke up before the actual show, so sadly no-one ever heard it. I think I still remember the bass line though... Legendary."

My most impressive sporting feat
"I can wiggle my ears good"

The coolest person I ever met
"Neil Young was one of coolest sweetest guy I've ever met"

The most disagreeable celebrity I ever met
"Everyone else”

The hardest I ever laughed
"I was watching I'm Alan Partridge on TV and there’s an episode where Steve Coogan was trying to hop over a spiked fence and ends up stabbing himself in the foot. He then tries to give a sales speech after that while hemorrhaging blood. I literally couldn't breathe and I thought I was going to die laughing. Literally that was the only time I really thought that this is it, I'm gonna die like an asshole laughing by myself."

The worst gig I ever played
"Our first BMRC show, it was at the Crocodile in San Francisco. Fucking epic bad first show, all I'm gonna say is that we forgot the cymbals at home and I almost got electrocuted halfway through the second song.”

The best gig I ever played
"Hard to say, maybe in Chille"

The worst lie I ever told
"Probably one of my earlier answers".

The angriest I've ever been
"Broke up with a girl"

The best piece of advice I can give is
"If people are coming to us for advice then we're all in big trouble"

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