Everyone Loves You When You're Dead
by Neil Strauss
itbooks (e-book)

Sometimes outtakes can be more interesting than material used. And often they are more revealing. That realisation motivated Neil Strauss to review his recordings, notes and transcripts for 3,000-odd articles he'd written, mostly about musicians and actors. In this book, he presents snippets from 228 of them that expose the essence of the character in question. Little can be quoted of his interview with Snoop Dogg because of the rapper's prolific use of profanity. But he reveals verbatim exchanges with, for example, Pink, who, unwisely, drinks during their encounter. After her fifth beer she is saying things like, 'Take your shoes off! I want to lick your toes.' The interview with Ben Stiller shows the comedian to be neurotically guarded, while Lady Gaga presents a deeper personality than her whacky outfits would suggest: she and Strauss talk about the tattoo of a passage from Letters to a Young Poet (by Rainer Maria Rilke) on her arm. Other noteworthy chats include those with Bruce Springsteen, Oasis and Eric Clapton, although conversations with Kenny G and Tom Cruise are notable only for being so dull.