do interviews often go like this

You’d be surprised.

I’d be surprised too! I’ve never done an interview that even included the publicist, let alone had him break in.

No, it does actually sound p normal, the odd part is that the journo put it in the article. If you are interviewing a subject who has stuff they emphatically do not want to talk about (especially personal issues—or legal issues and a divorce is both) they often will have their publicist sit in. Because it is often hard to refuse to answer questions if the interviewer is persistent or it’s on your mind.

Ok, so the interesting part is not the interjections, it’s the interviewer publishing them while apparently omitting much of the rest of the 20 minute interview.

Also, the publicist’s job is to keep the discussion focussed on whatever s/he is there to publicise, right?

uh, i have a good friend who WAS lita’s publicist; calling her now to find out if this is her. Doesn’t SOUND like her at all...

lol, not her. She says since the divorce she hasn’t been able to get in touch with lita and that she can’t imagine that the “publicist” is anyone but a well-meaning friend or an overbearing label rep

Yeah, this is pretty common, actually. SMH at the journo trying to make it into a big deal. Can’t imagine the phone call he’s gonna get today

Yeah, it happens all the time. But I’ve never had a publicist be as blunt as that, that’s pretty funny.

I once interviewed a band for a feature to run alongside a competition that was being promoted/funded by an alcoholic drinks company.

I was asked not to talk about getting drunk. Inevitably, we talked about getting drunk. Hadn’t occured to me that the PR would listen in to the entire phone conversation. She was straight onto my editor afterwards ...

Oops, I hadn’t thought of pub listening in, thanks for mentioning that. The contacts on her official site are all for various workers at her manager’s office, so maybe a bit heavy-handed, but/and delib playing the heavy, so Lita’s the more amiable sympathetic figure. Maybe considered necessary because of some thunderous offstage response from hubby, to her previous, very blunt interview here: http://www.classicrockrevisited.com/interviewLitaFord.htm

however common it is, the way journalists roll over for it is pretty pathetic. though it’d be more interesting to highlight the coddled-ness in an interview with an “outspoken” artist — i’d love to hear the unedited transcripts of yr average kanye interview — than something as innocuous as a lita ford profile.

thirty three pages about truffle fries

holy shit, was that last year? it seems like just yesterday.