  | On a warm evening in L.A. recently, I sat down to chew the fat with legendary author, editor, scenester and bon vivant, Legs McNeil. Legs is the author, with Gillian McCain, of the critically acclaimed book Legs is holed up at the Chateau for an indefinite period working with Gillian McCain on the screenplay adaptation of their book. Jersey Films (yes, that Jersey Films) has purchased the film rights to the book, which is soon to be a major motion picture. We can all look forward to this sordid tale leaping off the screen in Technicolor. For those of you to whom Legs is unfamiliar, he is a founder of Punk and Nerve magazines, a former editor at Spin and, most notably, is single handedly responsible for injecting the word "Punk" into American pop vernacular. Legs generously agreed to answer any and all questions posed to him. * * * Jodi Sax: Well Legs, let's talk about the book. How long ago did you start writing it? Legs McNeil: Please Kill Me? JS: Yeah. LM: 1993, maybe the end of '92 JS: What was the inspiration? LM: Depression. JS: Really? LM: Yes. I had just had a magazine go out of business. I was the editor in chief of "NERVE" and I lost a lot of money and I was really depressed. I was going through a divorce at the time. It was a really awful time and Gillian's mother had just died so it was equally a bad time for both of us. Plus we both really hated the 90's, what the 90's were turning out to be, which was kind of "therapy speak" and slackers and Prozac. JS: That Rodney Bingenheimer song "I hate the '90's?" Have you heard that? LM: No but I'm sure I'd agree with it! We were feeling that too. So we decided. . . well, it was funny 'cause one of the first interviews I started doing was [former Iggy and Ramones manager and record executive] Danny Fields. This was before Gillian was involved, and it was March, I remember. There were 9 snow storms in a row and I live in the East Village and Danny Fields lives in the West Village and every week I would go to Danny's house to do like 2 or 3 hours of interviews. It was like therapy. But, I had to get there and the cross-town traffic was nonexistent because of the snowdrifts blocked off the cross streets. So I remember walking in the snow to Danny's house every week to interview Danny, but it was worth it because I was just in hysterics. And then I gave the transcripts to Gillian and she started reading them and she started laughing so I said "why don't you do this with me and we can both live in the '70s for a few years and not have to worry about the '90s." JS: Did you know Gillian in the '70s? LM: No. I didn't know Gillian -- I met Gillian around '89, '90. JS: Were you intending to write a whole book at the point you started interviewing Danny Fields? LM: Yes. Well, you know the book Dee Dee Ramone has out now called "Poison Heart, Surviving the Ramones" or something like that? I was approached by an agent to help Dee Dee with his book and I said, "why don't we do it as an oral history?" and they all kind of looked at me like --"what's an oral history?" So that's how it started, with Dee Dee, but that quickly fell apart. Plus, I thought the book should be more than on just Dee Dee, although Dee Dee was certainly a main character. So that's how "Please Kill Me" started. I just kind of went off on my own 'cause I was interested in the whole scene. JS: And you were part of the scene? LM: Yes JS: Doing magazines? LM: Yeah, but we didn't come into the scene until '75 and the book starts in '65 JS: Right. LM: So Punk Magazine and us guys don't come in until a third or maybe halfway through the book. JS: Now, can we talk for a second about Punk Magazine? LM: Sure, we can talk about whatever you want. JS: I remember reading Punk Magazine when I was like 12. LM: Thank you for making me feel so ... young! JS: I'm sorry! ... And there was some punk picture of the Go Go's when they were all fat and had green hair. Remember that one? LM: No. JS: How about the Robert Gordon cover ... you remember that? LM: Yea, I remember Robert Gordon. JS: Tell me about how Punk Magazine started. LM: How did Punk Magazine start? [High Times Publisher] John Holmstrom and I had gone to high school together ... well, that's not actually true ... John was a senior when I was a freshman and, anyway, we were friends. I was friends with these two guys -- John and Ged -- who were older than me and we moved to New York City and John wanted to do a magazine. I don't think we knew exactly what it was yet. John said he wanted to start a magazine ... and I said, "gee, I think that's a stupid idea." You know, and he said, "no, no, I think it would be great! People will invite us to parties." I said, "no one is going to invite us to parties, no one invites us anywhere. Everybody hates us 'cause we weren't hippies, you know. We were really lousy. So, Danny said, no, no, and they'll buy us drinks." to which I said, "really?" So, I said, "OK if they buy us free drinks..." And then John said "we're going to call it 'Teenage News,'" which, I found out years later, was an unreleased New York Dolls song and that's what he wanted to name it. But, I just thought he just wanted to call it "Teenage News" JS: You were like, "that's a really bad name." LM: Yeah. I was like "that's stupid, John!" and then he said, "what do you think we should call it? And then I said, "why don't we call it "'Punk'" and then they started laughing and they though it was a brilliant idea and then John said he'd be the editor, and this other guy, Ged Dunn, said he'd be the publisher and they said "what are you going to do?" So John said "you can be the resident punk." That's how that started. JS: So you were the original punk. LM: Yep. Then we started it, and overnight it was just .. ya know ... well...what's interesting about Punk is that it was distributed at 7-11's. JS: Really? LM: Yea. It had a circulation of 30,000 immediately. I think it went from 5 to 10 to 30. So we were actually out there. People were just so shocked when they saw it. You see, the 7-11's didn't know whether to sell it as a comic book or a rock 'n roll magazine. And if we kept our productions schedule, we actually made lots of money, instead of having all the fun in the world. JS: And going to all the parties and having all the free drinks. LM: And humping everything that moved. You know, which was fun. It was a fun way to spend the '70s. JS: Do you remember how many issues you did? LM: We did 18. JS: And then what happened? LM: Ahm, let's see, I went into detox. My first detox in '77. Already I needed one. I left the magazine and then it shortly folded. I think we all hated each other by then. They certainly hated me. JS: Nooooo. How could anyone hate you, Legs? You're so friendly. LM: Because ...ummm.. JS: You don't have to answer that. LM: Beause John did all the work and I got all the attention, you know, I got all the girls, I got all the drugs, and the beer and the whiskey. JS: Wait, wait and you were still in high school? LM: No, I was 18 in '74, which we had been in New York for a year so I was about 18 when we ... no, I was 19 when we started. I had left high school. I didn't graduate. John was going to The School of Visual Arts and he dropped out. JS: Ok. Let's talk about the movie. LM: Ok. Sure. JS: So, you're here writing the script. LM: Uh huh. JS: How did that situation present itself? LM: I have no idea. JS: You don't know? LM: Well, you know, we went to meetings with people. I don't think we ever met with Jersey. I don't know ... I guess the film agent called one day and said Jersey wants to buy this. We said "how much?" and he said the number and we said, "OK." JS: And that was that and so here you are. LM: Well, we had some other offers that we just let go away. JS: Were most of the other offers from independent companies? Because it just strikes me as kind of odd that a company such as Jersey that puts out such mainstream projects for the most part would be interested in this. LM: Why? JS: Because I think it's controversial. I don't know. It just struck me as kind of odd. I don't know why, no reason in particular. LM: I think it's a good story. JS: Oh. It's a great story. LM: And it's great music. JS: Yea. But it's unusual that a company that's so apparently mainstream would be progressive enough to realize that. LM: Well, I don't know about that. They put out "Dead Man Walking" which is about a guy who's a white supremacist. They put out "Leaving Las Vegas" which is about a guy going to drink himself to death and they put out ... it doesn't, you know ... Hollywood seems to me to be very ahmmm kind of modern. I mean they put out blockbusters like "Armageddon" and "Lethal Weapon 18". They also put out ... there's always like 10 movies I want to see. You know. It's not like there are no movies I want to see or I have to go see some boring European movie...there's always something... JS: Sure. I understand, I'm the queen of liking commercial movies. Even when nobody wants to go with me I'll go by myself... LM: I like commercial movies. I want to go see Armageddon. I don't think Hollywood's that snobby. They'll make anything. JS: I didn't mean it in terms of being snobby, I just, I don't know... LM: Look at "I Shot Andy Warhol".... JS: But wasn't that put out by an independent? LM: Yes, but Jersey's independent, isn't it? I mean, they're aligned to Universal. JS: Well, it's all good, however it's getting made...Going back to "Please Kill Me," how are you going to transfer the format of the book into a film? LM: Well, write a screenplay. JS: Legs, I realize that...but is it going to be fictionalized? Are you going to have interviews? It's not a documentary, is it? LM: No. It's like a feature movie. I just have to sit down and write the screenplay. JS: Right, but because the format of the book is in interviews.... LM: Yeah, but you've got to remember, we did 500 interviews, ya know, we only used 10% of our interviews. We have like, I think, 21 file cabinets filled with interviews that we didn't put in the book, and I was also there, so, I mean, it's not like I don't know the story... JS: So are you going to be telling the story of certain characters? LM: Yes. JS: What characters does it focus on? LM: I'm not telling. JS: Oh, that's one I'm not allowed to ask? LM: You can ask, but i'm not telling. JS: Is it fictionalized, or is it real? LM: It's very fun. You have to remember I lived at Arturo [Vega's] where Joey and Dee Dee lived. JS: So you have a lot of stories to tell... LM: Yeah. JS: Are these people cooperating? LM: Well they already cooperated. JS: I mean, do they know you're putting them in the movie? LM: Yeah. They all know about the movie. They always say like, "I want this guy to play me..." Ya know. Everybody always asks "whose playing what?" JS: Yeah! Who's playing what? LM: I don't know. I'm writing the thing. JS: Who do you want to play what? LM: I don't know. Writing the thing I don't think about, like Leonardo DiCaprio. Writing the script I'm thinking about Dee Dee and Johnny Thunders and Iggy and, you know, the people in the book. I'm not thinking about who's going to play them. I'm thinking about telling the story and the movie. So it's not like I'm sitting there thinking "oh gosh! Johnny Depp!" JS: I was just going to say, who's Johnny Depp going to play? Who's going to play Johnny Thunders? I'm allowed to ask that. LM: I don't know. I'm not the director. JS: Do people always ask you that? LM: Every day. about 5 times a day. JS: [Laughs.] And you're like "fuck off, leave me alone!"...By the way, do you know when you're planning to go into production? LM: When we finish writing it. We're late. JS: Are you? LM: [nods] JS: We're all really anxious for the movie to come out. LM: you are? JS: Yeah. I want to see it. LM: But we don't want to do a lousy job. There are too many shitty movies out there and we would rather not make the movie than make a shitty one. The world really doesn't need another shitty movie. I mean, for all the good movies I want to see there's also a lot of bad ones. and the world really doesn't need another bad Hollywood movie. JS: yeah. LM: You know, everybody thinks I'm this big rock and roll guy, but if you notice, in Please Kill Me there's no music in it, there's just crime, and sex and drugs. JS: There's a little bit of music in it. LM: Not much. for a 450 page book there's probably 2 pages about music. purposely. JS: I'm going to have to go back and reread it now. LM: There's no music in it. Nobody notices that. When you say that to people, they go "what?" But in order to do a music book you shouldn't write about music. You should write about [the subjects'] lives so you see where the music comes from, which is what you get. you get the music from these peoples' lives. if you tell it honestly enough, it will.... JS: Your book doesn't paint Patti Smith in a very favorable light. LM: Really? JS: I came off thinking, "god, she's like the Courtney Love of the '70s." LM: I don't think that's true. I think Patti comes off honestly. But a lot of people have said that. I think when a woman does it.... you know, if it had been a male character doing it, people would have though "cool!" JS: Ya think? I don't know...I just had a completely different impression of her before I read Please Kill Me. LM: Well, actually Patti and I had a huge fight about the book. JS: She didn't like what you said about her? LM: I hadn't said anything about her yet! Patti just didn't want anyone to mythologize her other than Patti. Patti wants to be responsible for her own myth....I didn't say to people "tell bad things about her..." I just asked people questions and they told me stories. There's a lot of bad Iggy stories but Iggy doesn't come off badly. Why does Patti come off badly? If you ask 500 people questions and they tell you stuff and predominantly the stuff they tell you is that stuff about Patti...they weren't all lying..so what's the conclusion there? I didn't hold up all the good Patti Smith stories and just print the bad ones. Plus, a lot of people said very nice things about Patti. I liked Patti a lot in the '70s. Now I think she's a reprehensible, hypocritical bitch. JS: Is she in the movie? LM: You'll have to see won't you. JS: ohhh, you're not going to give anything away are you? LM: what do you want me to give away? JS: I'm just teasing you...So, why are you and Gillian staying here to work on the film. LM: Because it's like summer camp. It's Camp Marmont. Because we needed to get out of New York...Everything is hell in New York. I'm just kind of sick of New York. JS: I like new York LM: That's because you don't live there. JS: Every New Yorker says that to me. LM: L.A. is very easy. It's nice not having to fight to get in a cab. In New York you have to fight for everything. You're late for everything, Everyone needs everything now. JS: Do you still have your apartment there? LM: Yes. I even have an office there. JS: Are you going to move out here? LM: I don't know. If I was I wouldn't tell you. JS: [laughs] All right. I think we're done. LM: That's it? That was easy. JS: My story only has to be 300 words long. |
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