Bill Kettelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
He has a radio program on WXOU out of Oakland University
Wild At Heart
It has been a star-studded week so far so me as I have had the opportunity
to interview some cool people for my show. I started off the week with Rainn
Wilson on a round table discussion talking about his upcoming film “The
Rocker”. Starting off, he was showing his inner geek by wearing a Star Trek
shirt from the animated series.
I am not sure if he was joking, but he did ask me if I would come on “The
Office” and play his cousin. This could work since we are about the same age
and are both inner geeks and proud of it. What do you people think?
Talking about “The Office”, he was tightlipped about the upcoming season but
mentioned that the cast has pictures of their real families on their desks.
He is also proud of his first leading role with “The Rocker” which will now
be out in August. Visit the WXOU at the Concert Of Colors on Sat and we will
have some passes for the movie next Monday at AMC Southfield. I highly
recommend it and have a review on my website at
http://www.myspace.com/wildatheart_13 so check it out.
One of his highlights was meeting ex-Beatle drummer Pete Best and related how he thought it was funny that Pete came in one day for a shoot which got cut from the film. No
respect after all these years. Pete expressed to Rainn how lucky he feels to
have his health and kids and likes that he still receives nice checks from
the early Beatle recording which will keep him set for the rest of his life.
Besides the industry, Rainn does have a website www.rrwilsonart.com which he shares with his father and they sell fine art. He asks to talk to them about art but no autograph requests please. Rainn also does a lot of work supporting education through the Mona Foundation
which he feels is very important though he might have some questions for his
music teacher who got him to take up bassoon for 5 years, though his musical
background (including clarinet and xylophone) did come in handy for his role
in “the Rocker”.
Remember, the Concert Of Colors is this weekend starting Thursday with Buffy
Saint-Marie and continuing through Sunday with such artists as Rickie Lee
Jones, Mavis Staples and Don Was.
I had Don on my show this morning and we talked about the show Sunday which will feature a number of local musicians such as Mitch Ryder, John Sinclair along with members of the Dirtbombs, Black Merde and the Detroit Cobras. Basically it will be a jam session with
every artist doing one song on a rotational basis. This should be a lot of
fun and should not be missed. We talked about 1 hour and 15 minutes which
made him a little late for a recording session for Amnesty International
with the Sudan United For Peace musicians which should be stellar. We
covered his extensive career (producing albums for Bonnie Raitt, Roy
Orbison, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Al Green, B-52’s, etc) where we learned
we share the idea that if you just make a great album, people will
respond to it. Recording artists just need to keep their own inner voice
true to the music and they won’t get off target. He said, he has trouble
producing hit songs (Love Shack being a true surprise due to it being
radically different from anything on the market) but making a good album is
possible as long as the artist has a true vision.
Despite being a big star, he admits he has had moments of being starstruck, esp the first time he
worked with Johnny Cash. It was a great interview, so for those who heard it, I thank you for listening. PS - WXOU will have a table at the event on Sat and Sun from 1-8PM so make sure to stop by.
Lastly, “Weird Al” Yankovic called in for a conversation which we found out
his new album comes out Tuesday (no particular Tuesday, but some Tuesday),
that Harvey the Wonder Hamster doesn’t return his calls anymore and that he
will performing a good selection of older hits along with material from
Straight Out Of Linwood at his show at Meadowbrook tomorrow (for those not
at the Concert of Colors or Warped Tour). I was always a huge “Weird Al” fan
growing up and it was great to be able to do this interview.
I also had a good time at the Missy Higgins show at the Crofoot. Missy has a
beautifully powerful voice, and while I didn’t get the opportunity to
interview her, I was happy to have seen her performance and wish her luck
breaking into the US market since she is a superstar in Australia. I did
however get the chance to talk to Chandra of the Watson Twins and will play
that brief interview on Monday, 21st at 9AM on wxou.org so you can hear
about how they got their start and if they worried about being over shadowed
by Jenny Lewis on their album together.
Also, if you would like tickets for the Cavalera Conspiracy show at Clutch
Cargo on July 22nd with Bury Your Dead and Dillenger Escape Plan, send me an
email at doramu13@yahoo.com and we’ll see what we can work out. Just tell me
something cool about the city of Detroit to look into for future blogs.
Also, if you want to be in a short student Zombie film (one or two days
work) with no pay, call Ted at 586-212-3225 or email Kurt with the header
‘Zombie Extra’ at squire132000@yahoo.com.
Enjoy the weekend. And welcome back to Detroit Emily Rose after your trip around the county spreading the music of Detroit.