Nissue #4: Ben Fong-Torres, Rock Journalist and Author.
Let’s start with the obvious, that Ben Fong-Torres is a living rock legend. No, he didn’t start or play in a band, but he wrote about and hung out with all the greats: Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, The Stones, Ray Charles, Bonnie Raitt… And while he might be best known as the highly influential writer and senior editor of Rolling Stone (nearly from the magazine’s hazy and crazy start), he’s also published numerous books and keeps the music flowing on Moon Alice Radio, which he programs and still does a show on from 9-12 Pacific, day and night!
How did a rock fanboy like me get to meet Ben? It was just one of those San Francisco things: Years ago, my good friend Angella mentioned that her hip landlords were this journalist and his wife, but I probably wouldn’t know who they were. How wrong she was.
In characteristic fashion, Ben channeled some Dylanesque snark when responding…
Nish: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Ben: Not having to answer questionnaires like this one. (Is that Fran Lebovitz enough for you, or what?).
Nish: What was your worst job ever?
Ben: Selling encyclopedias door to door. This was in the mid-60s, just part of one summer, because I got dismissed for NOT selling any encyclopedias. I could not accept the scam factor in the sales pitch, that this was all for the education of your children…
Nish: What was your first job ever?
Ben: As a teenager, at a tiny Chinese restaurant in Emeryville, working alongside fellow tiny Chinese, taking delivery orders over the phone, then packing the orders for the delivery guys.
Nish: What was your best job ever?
Ben: Two jobs, at the same time: Rolling Stone and KSAN, where I was a weekend DJ.
Nish: What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Ben: Too many to list.
Nish: What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Ben: Tardiness. And just for film and television directors, showing drivers looking away from the road for five or six seconds.
Nish: What’s some advice you’d give to yourself at 23?
Ben: When opportunity knocks, fling that door open (after a look through the peephole, of course!).
Nish: What is your greatest extravagance?
Ben: Snapping up new tech gadgets.
Nish: You have dinner reservations for 4 at Noma, excluding family and close friends, who are the three people (alive, dead or imaginary) you’d invite?
Ben: Elvis, Sinatra, and this “Noma” gal.
Nish: What is the theme song of your professional life?
Ben: “My Back Pages” (the Byrds version). Flip side: Napoleon XIV’s “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”
Nish: What is your motto?
Ben: One I borrowed from Bob Neuwirth, who probably borrowed it from someone else: If you don’t take a chance, you ain’t got a chance.
Nish: What is something you’re really excited about right now?
Ben: Two things: A documentary about my life and times, called Like a Rolling Stone, and the fact that this questionnaire is over. Ha-HAAA!!!
End Interview.
