Now, I know what you're thinking, "Hey Will, how can a mere book about virtuosi in their fields be that interesting in this age of instant information and readers with the attention span an Adderall freak surfing Tiktok? How the heck would I know? Nonetheless, these individuals are not just top talents with captivating stories, they're also funny, quirky, and sometimes even a little bit nutty. Raise your hand, Mike Tyson, who cheerfully asked me at the end of our interview, "Do you know where I can get some weed?"
You'll meet athletes who can lick their weight in wildcats like Vladimir Klitschko, painstaking artists like Phil Niblock who can produce an original masterpiece out of the most ordinary material, and musicians who can produce a tune that will make you jump up and down like granny at a hootenanny. Between these pages, John Lord's My Woman from Tokyo enjoys a little anarchy in the UK. Thank you, Mr. Lydon. And, best of all, you'll get to hear about their lives, their struggles (including how to die hard with Mr. Willis), and their triumphs, their often unbelievable adventures, their commitment to excellence, all, in their own words.
Just sit back, relax, and let your mind's eye transport you to another realm - twenty different ones. This book is like a backstage pass to the world of talent, where the only thing that matters is what you can do, and how you do it.
If you're looking for a book that will inspire you, make you alternately make you laugh or provoke both daydreams and nightmares, and maybe even make you a little bit envious, then you might find a home between these pages. There is always that chance. Anyway, I had a whale of a time doing these interviews, and the editors kept paying me. These interviews are not just about gifted and notable personages, they're about people and how in their peculiar circumstances they've used their particular talents to carve their niche in the world. Influential they are and not an "influencer" amongst them.
Oh yes, all of these interviews took place in the 2010s in Warsaw, Poland, either in person or using the internet. Most were published in Malemen magazine, a now defunct organ. Tyson, Klitschko and Gutowski were cover stories for that periodical. Since the interviews, were conducted Jon, Gene, and Rutger have passed on. Bruce Willis has dementia (He told me he was "living the dream" and now he is descending into it. Aren't we all?) Andrei Konchalovsky's summation of the Asia-gazing-gangster tendency of the Russian leadership proved to be Nostradamus-like. The Russian director, Andrei, and the Ukrainian boxer, Vladimir, find themselves on opposing sides during the most harrowing conflict since WWII. And since interviewing Anna about her cancer documentary film, I made one of my own about an immunologist searching for a cancer cure, while several of my friends and colleagues contracted cancer. Three: Ade, Artur, and Luke, died. One, Elisabeth, survived.
So, go ahead, don't be shy, order the paperback on Amazon Kindle, and you judge if the kind of talent that inspired all these personalities to tell these stories, was worth the hullabaloo. I'm betting that you will find that it was. Unfortunately, the last time I won a bet was with Winston Carlisle over who was going to take Kathy Doverspike to the high school prom. Winston won, and I collected. It's a sumptuous and one hopes, satisfying, meal cooked up with the ingredients provided by these impressively unique individuals.
WRR, Warsaw, February 2023