Interview: Lawrence Grobel - "You have to go into each interview with an open mind..."

Joyce Carol Oates called you "The Mozart of Interviewers". Do you think your work will survive the test of time just like his music did?

I’ve never bought into what Joyce said about me. It was flattering, but way over the top. If my work survives, it won’t be because of me, but because of some of the people I wrote about. Will any of them last over centuries? Probably not. Mozart will!

Surely you are an icon in the world of journalism. Do you feel you have achieved everything in it?

No, of course not. If one achieves “everything”, what else is left? I think I’ve achieved some very revealing interviews over the years, but journalism is more than interviews. I’ve written one big biography on The Hustons—it’s something I’m proud of. But I’ve never followed it up with another great subject. 

Let us talk about the beginnings of your journalistic journey. Has career in this profession always been your dream? 

It was never a dream of mine. I always wanted to be a novelist. James Joyce was the writer I aspired to. And for years, it screwed me up, until one day I came to the epiphany that Joyce as a genius, and I wasn’t. Once I got comfortable with that, I was able to publish my fiction without making comparisons.

Doing interviews requires courage and the ability to deal with stress. Was it easy for you to master both of these skills? Or maybe they are inborn features?

I don’t agree about "courage". There’s nothing courageous to have a prepared conversation with someone. Stress, on the other hand, is real. And interviewing iconic figures can be stressful because so much depends on whether you get along, if they’ll give you amble time, and how your editors will feel about the result. I never “mastered” it, in the sense that I always felt the stress before the interview began. But once I was into it, I just tried to enjoy the verbal confrontations.

Over the years you have interviewed a lot of famous and recognizable personalities. So you couldn't complain about the lack of information about them. Did the fact that their lives were so widely known make your task easier? Allowed you to prepare for the interview better?

Yes and no. Because there was often material about these people, the challenge was to go a step further than anything that was written before. It meant I had to read EVERYTHING, see EVERYTHING, talk to AS MANY people about the subject as I could before I felt prepared.

Well, even if you know a lot about them, celebrities can be capricious. Mae West - the legendary film actress did not want you to use the tape recorder so you had to take notes during the conversation. Have you often experienced such frills? It seems that being ready for anything was an important part of your job.

You have to go into each interview with an open mind and not any preconceived notions. You never know what to expect. Some subjects insisted their publicist be in the room (which I always objected to). Some said up front that there were certain topics they didn’t want to discuss. Some used their own tape recorders as a way to try and intimidate me, which never worked. Each interview had a few surprises, and that was fine, since I always felt prepared for the unexpected.

In one of your books - "The Art of the Interview" you wrote about an interview with former basketball coach Bob Knight, who took you on a journey and then almost threw you out of the car dissatisfied with your questions. This leads me to the conclusion that you had to be a good psychologist in your job as well. Did you ever treat such events personally? Felt upset in any way?

No, never took anything personally. And yes, there is very definitely a sense of being a psychotherapist when doing interviews. Many celebrities told me that they felt I was like a shrink, asking intimate questions. Goes with the territory. The only time I got upset was when Robert Mitchum made anti-semitic remarks to the point where I walked out on him. But then, some years later when I was researching The Hustons, I went to see him and spent 5 hours talking to him.

What about criticism of your work? Does it mobilize you, makes you see mistakes you couldn't see before?

I’ve been lucky, I haven’t had much criticism. A few interviews have failed, but I understood why. You learn from mistakes. I once had to finish an interview on the phone with Warren Beatty and asked him about his not paying his taxes one year, and he said, "I’ve got to go" and hung up. My mistake was asking that question before I finished asking all my other questions. My advice - leave money questions to the end!

I will remember that. It is said that we learn throughout our lives and improve by looking for inspiration. Regarding these words, tell me who was your role model among the journalists you knew? 

Not sure about role models, but the journalists I read and enjoyed before I entered the profession were Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion, and Oriana Fallaci.

Now you are an inspiration for a younger journalists. When you look back at your life, what have you learned about yourself in these 40 years of your journalistic career?

Too broad a question. The answer is in my books. I’ve written two books on interviewing ("The Art of the Interview", and "You, Talking to Me"), two memoirs ("You Show Me Yours", and "Turquoise") and a bunch of other books. That’s what I’ve learned.

I mentioned "The Art of the Interview", but you are also known as a novelist. One of my favorite is called "Catch a Fallen Star", which tells the story of Layton Cross, a fallen actor trying to rebuild his career. What made you try your hand at this literary form? Has your journalistic experience been helpful in that? 

As I said above, the novel was the literary form I most respected, and novels were what I wanted to write. But I started in journalism early on, found some success, and was able to make a living, so the fiction got delayed. But in the last five or so years, I’ve concentrated on fiction, writing two novels, and three books of short stories. And yes, the journalism allowed me to observe characters on intimate levels, so it helped, absolutely.

There are also expectations with each new adventure. What were yours when you wrote your first novel?

The expectation any writer has is that people will read and like their books. My first novel was published first in Poland, so it was treanslated into Polish, a language I cannot read, so I don’t know how it sounds. But I was very proud to get that book out in a country I’m very fond of.

As you know, my blog is devoted to music so we cannot omit music in this interview. During your career, you have had the pleasure of talking not only with famous actors but also with great musicians. Can you tell me which of these interviews will you remember the most? Well, Dolly Parton for example seems to have had a lot to tell you about.

I love Dolly, she is a great interview and a wonderful personality. I remember once she was sitting in my car as I drove to the beach in Santa Monica when she started tapinig her nails together, singing her new song, "9 to 5" before it was recorded. I also interviewed Miles Davis, Luciano Pavarotti, Natalie Cole, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Anthony Kiedis, Grace Jones, Bette Midler, Roy Clark and each of them were memorable in their own ways. The ones I will most remember are with Miles, Luciano, Dolly, and Streisand.

When you asked about the importance of music in his life, American writer James Michener replied that he listens to music every day and matches the appropriate genres to the subject of his books. Does it stumulate your writing in similar way? Do you listen to music during your creating process?

I sometimes listen to classical music, or Miles Davi when I write, but most of the time, I prefer silence. 

In the same interview, Michener, at your suggestion, interviewed himself. And if you were to do a similar thing, what would you ask young Larry Grobel if you met him today?

I don't think I'd ask my younger self anything, since I would already know the answers. What I would do is give him advice about what to expect as a freelancer, what stocks he should invest in, and not to spend so much time trying to get interest in his screenplays and devote himself to his fiction instead.

And how do you think, what is the most difficult question I could ask you during this interview?

"How much longer do you think you’ll live, and do you think your brain will remain functional until the end?".