Archives
Bedazzled: Our 2006 Beyoncé Cover
This article originally appeared in the July 2006 issue of SPIN There are shoes, all sorts of shoes, lining the far wall of the studio. Many of them have the kind of heels for which only the adjective precarious will do, and some of the more glittery ones look like they’ve come straight from the set of Austin Powers in Goldmember (which, when you consider it, is kind of apt). Then there are the dresses, racks and racks of them, each noteworthy for its brevity (they finish where most dresses begin). An attentive fashion person is running a brush through a wig that the superstar will not need to wear, and somebody else is making haste with a needle and thread through a piece of sheer material that the superstar will don at some later stage. On a table in the middle of the studio sits fi...
Norman Mailer on Mike Tyson: Our 1988 Feature
This article originally appeared in the September 1988 issue of SPIN As an arena for boxing, the Convention Hall at Atlantic City is not one of the happier architectural palaces of the world. It drops the kind of pall an audience that would come from witnessing a cockfight in a bank. Lyndon Johnson was nominated there in 1964 with two identical sixty-foot close-up photographs of himself on either side of the podium. The Hall looked on that occasion like a coronation chamber for a dictator. Now on the night of June 27, 1988, thousands of seats were laid out on the great flat floor and people in the seventeenth ringside were paying $1,500 a ticket to see Tyson-Spinks heavyweight championship. Since the gala glitz of Trump Plaza was but a connecting corridor away from Convention Hall, the Tru...
How to Succeed in Bizness… By Really, Really Trying: Our 1999 Limp Bizkit Cover Story
This article originally appeared in the August 1999 issue of SPIN. Fred Durst likes it to the right, with a swivel and bounce. “Yeah, like that, with the knee out. And do that thing with your hips,” he says, then pauses a moment, narrows his gaze, and rubs the furry soul patch on his chin. Five lithe female dancers in clingy black synthetic fibers stare back at him, hanging on his every word. “Like this?” one asks, doing that thing with her hips. “Nah, to the right,” he replies. “The right is dope; the left is wack!” The dancer complies, and Durst’s eyes widen. “Yeah, that’s the dope shit!” The Limp Bizkit frontman is choreographing his “Bizkettes” in a small dance rehearsal space near Times Square in New York City. There’s an old wooden piano in the corner, but the only music in the ...
America’s Obsession: Our 1994 Kate Moss Interview
This article originally appeared in the September 1994 issue of SPIN. From billboard to shining billboard, Kate Moss’s lank frame and doe-eyed stare have dropped a volatile mixture of fame and fury into her 20-year-old lap. Elizabeth Mitchell hops continents to sift through the myths and mystique. If Kate Moss were to open her ripe, Cupid’s-bow mouth to make a public statement, it would go something like this: “I’m not anorexic, I’m not a heroin addict, I’m not pregnant – all the shit they fucking say about me is not true. It’s a load of lies the media made.” Moss pauses for breath. She is a lot of life when you meet her outside a picture. CREDIT: Catherine McGann/Getty Images Moss is not making a statement. She’s enduring an interview, a process she hates because she doesn’t wan...
The SPIN Interview: The Dalai Lama
This interview originally appeared in the April 1994 issue of SPIN. The Dalai Lama, since 1950, has inspired worldwide devotion as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and as a political ruler of uncompromising integrity. Dan Reed and Bob Guccione, Jr., journey to India to talk to the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner. When Tibet’s 13th Dalai Lama died in 1933, the Buddhist High Priests, the lamas, went into seclusion to meditate for guidance to find his reincarnated successor. Alongside a great lake outside of Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, a vision came to them of a farmhouse with a blue awning. The lamas scoured the countryside for 18 months and finally, in the eastern village of Amdo, found the place they were looking for. A woman holding a two-year-old child greeted the monk who came to...
Eddie Murphy and Spike Lee in Conversation: Our 1990 Cover Story
This article originally appeared in the October 1990 issue of SPIN. In the five years I’ve known Eddie Murphy, this interview was our first opportunity to site down and talk for any real length of time. Whose fault is it? Both of ours—we were too busy, too far apart, and too, too different (so we thought). After finishing, we were two young African-American males from Brooklyn. SPIKE: This is gonna be painless. Some of these questions I know the answers to already, but we’re just not going to assume anything. So the first question is: Why do you think we haven’t worked together yet? People always come up to me and ask me, “When are you and Eddy gonna hook up?” EDDIE: I don’t know. This weird thing happened, and I don’t even know if it’s somet...
Ice-T: Our 1991 Interview
This article originally appeared in the May 1991 issue of SPIN. Ice-T’s first acting experience came in front of security cameras—as a street hustler playing the part of a yuppie. He’d walk into a jewelry store and say to the salesman: “My father’s in the area buying land—he’s a real-estate developer—and I’m going to UCLA to be a lawyer. My mom and dad have been together twenty-five years, and I’m interested in buying them a 3.2-karat, flawless, emerald-cut diamond.” Then as soon as the salesman handed him the ring, he’d be out the door. “Being an actor,” says Ice, “is really being a liar—a professional liar.” Now the rapper is a star in the new shoot-‘em-up drug war movie New Jack City. The hardest part about making this career move was having to play a cop. “I was uptight with that,” Ice...
The Outlaw at 50: Our 1988 Interview With Waylon Jennings
This article originally appeared in the January 1988 issue of SPIN. Waylon Jennings was born on June 15, 1937. In on honor of what would have been his 83rd birthday, we are republishing the interview here. “You’re gonna get in trouble if I write this.” “I don’t care. You write what I tell ya.” Waylon Jennings, looking more like an outlaw biker than a cowboy, is dressed in black except for his nylon racing jacket. His trademark black hat never leaves his head. He turned 50 this year and he looks it. He also looks healthy, if weathered. There is no sign of his 20-plus-year addiction to pills and cocaine. He chain-smokes. He’s slightly nervous, but becomes more relaxed as the interview progresses Waylon is in New York, a city he first visited as one of Buddy Holly’s Crickets, to promote ...
Jedi Fever: Our 1997 Interview With Mark Hamill
This article originally appeared in the March 1997 issue of SPIN. What did you think the first time you read the script? I was like is this a parody? I remember one of my lines was: “But we can’t turn our back on fear. Fear is our only defense.” I mean, who talks like that? Overall, I saw it as much closer to The Wizard of Oz than Star Trek. You’ve got a pirate, a wizard, a farm boy, a princess, and an evil overlord. We could’ve been traveling in a horse-drawn carriage. Did you know all along that Darth Vader was Luke’s father? No, and I was always asking. George told me that Luke’s father fell into a volcano. I wondered about Luke’s mother, too. I always thought that she should’ve been disguised as Boba Fett, that I could pull off Boba Fest’s mask and it’d be my mother who’d been secretly...
