In last week's episode, we learned the Wig's efforts to secure interviews with Don McLean and Meat Loaf had been in vain. This week, Heaven and Hell stepped up to join the list of mute rock stars. They're not talking to anyone, apparently.
That likely includes each other. I am, however, proud to report Christina Aguilera agreed to talk at me. Not to me, at me.
Me, and what might have been at least two dozen other journalists. Some of whom, unlike me, were permitted to ask the artist a question or two. It's called the conference-call interview, and it is the PR method of choice for touring performers who either have no time or have no inclination to deal with journalists one on one.
And it is not my preferred method of striking up a conversation. At the outset, we had been promised a "60-to-90-minute" interview provided we kept the focus solely on Aguilera's tour and music, and limit ourselves to one question at a time. After the genie in a bottle had answered one question from each interviewer, additional ones would be welcomed, time permitting.
My first question was asked early in the proceedings. How, an intrepid reporter inquired, can you call a show that promises "no fewer than 10" costumes changes, 600 moving lights and plenty of razzle dazzle, 'Back to Basics?' "It would not be fair to my audience to just kinda sit on the stage with a mic," was the gist of her answer.
I opted to abandon my second prepared question -- a cautiously worded query as to where an over-the-top pop singer like Aguilera gets off telling us about her devotion to comparatively substantial singers like Billie Holiday and Etta James -- shortly after the singer elaborated on a declaration "nothing feels better than old music." Aguilera related how she had wanted to pay homage to that sound on her latest album, Back to Basics, and had therefore presented to prospective producers of a homemade mix CD -- an aural blueprint that included material by artists that have "truly been an inspiration and completely paved the way." Artists, she said, "from Otis Redding to James Brown to Billie Holiday to Nina Simone to Screamin' Jay Hawkins.
" Excuse me? Christina Aguilera is a Screamin' Jay Hawkins fan? Have I been wrong about her all along?
Have we all? Evidently. For, as my eavesdropping session continued, I sensed that most if not all of my disembodied colleagues were similarly impressed by her musical tastes.
And that a distinct air of musical snobbishness was hanging over the proceedings. Each of us, it seemed, was prepared to actually take this gifted young vocalist seriously now that we had been offered evidence to suggest she does know what 'real' music is after all. Which brought to mind a question, which I hoped to pose once my turn at bat finally arrived.
So I waited. And when our moderator indicated a change in the rules, requiring contestants to punch in a code for all subsequent questions, I did as instructed. And continued to wait.
Which, of course, raised another question.
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