The ageing rock gods and me - Kate Mossman on meeting KISS, Bon Jovi, Terence Trent D'arby and more
The New Statesman | UK politics and culture
The New Statesman
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2025
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Meet your heroes - it'll help you get over them"
Kate Mossman is known for her singular, surprising and ultra-perceptive interviews - in which she often reveals more about her subjects than sometimes they appear to know themselves.
And there is one breed of interview subject Kate has written about more than any other: the ageing male rock star.
If anyone knows about meeting their heroes, it’s her.
In her debut book, Men of a Certain Age, Kate Mossman collects and revisits the interviews she’s conducted with rock royalty such as Kiss, Jon Bon Jovi, Nick Cave, Ray Davies… and her teenage obsession: Roger Taylor of Queen.
In this episode of Culture from the New Statesman Kate join Tom Gatti to discuss her obsession with ageing rockers, and shares some behind the scenes stories of her time with rock royalty.
BUY KATE'S BOOK
Men of a Certain Age is available to pre-order here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/men-of-a-certain-age-my-encounters-with-rock-royalty-kate-mossman/7792527?ean=9781788705646
SEE KATE LIVE
Kate Mossman in discussion with Alexis Petridis, live in London
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/men-of-a-certain-age-kate-mossman-with-alexis-petridis-tickets-1270535970289?aff=ebdssbdestsearch&_gl=1*25lj0d*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTU1MDAwNzE1Ni4xNzQzMTg1MTYz*_ga_TQVES5V6SH*MTc0MzE4NTE2My4xLjAuMTc0MzE4NTE2My4wLjAuMA..
READ MORE
Kate interviews Jon Bon Jovi: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2016/11/jon-bon-jovi-on-trump-bono-bieber-and-the-agony-of-his-split-with-richie-sambora
Kate meets Terence Trent D'Arby: https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2015/10/i-was-killed-when-i-was-27-curious-afterlife-terence-trent-d-arby
How Jeff Beck became a guitar hero by saying no: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music/2023/01/jeff-beck-interview-tribute-guitar-hero
LISTEN AD-FREE
Get the New Statesman app:
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/new-statesman-magazine/id610498525
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.progressivemediagroup.newstatesman&hl=en_GB
SUBSCRIBE
Join the New Statesman from £8.99 per month https://secure.newstatesman.com/offer
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The New Statesman. |
| 0:04.2 | At one point he backed me into a wall and it was a bit too hard. |
| 0:09.1 | And I remember his sort of funny fibreglass spikes digging into the back of my hand and just thinking, this is interesting. |
| 0:18.3 | Meet your heroes. It'll help you get over them. That's the title of the first chapter in Kate Mossman's debut book, Men of a Certain Age. Regular listeners and new statesman readers will know Kate from these podcasts and over more than a decade for her writing for the magazine. If anybody knows about meeting their heroes, it's Kate. Kate Mossman |
| 0:39.8 | is known for her singular, surprising and ultra-perceptive interviews in which she often reveals |
| 0:44.7 | more about her subjects than sometimes they appear to know themselves. And there is one breed of |
| 0:50.7 | interview subject Kate has written about more than any other, the aging male rock star. |
| 0:57.0 | In her book, Kate collects and revisits the interviews she's conducted with rock royalty such as Kiss, John Bon Jovi, Nick Cave, Ray Davies, |
| 1:05.0 | and plums her teenage obsession with Roger Taylor of Queen. |
| 1:09.0 | This is Culture from the New Statesman. |
| 1:11.9 | I'm Tom Gatti, and I'm delighted to say that Kate Mossman is here with me now. |
| 1:16.3 | Hello, Kate. |
| 1:18.7 | Kate, we live in a time in which the energy and popular music feels distinctly female. |
| 1:24.8 | We were talking about this on the podcast a few weeks ago. |
| 1:27.0 | This is the age of Taylor Swift, Charlie XX, Chappell Roan. Almost entirely female, it feels, yeah. So I wanted to ask you why, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, have you published a book about male rock stars in their 60s and 70s? Well, I did think about this when I was putting this book together because Jan Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone magazine, actually did a compilation of his interviews with what he called rock philosophers. |
| 1:50.5 | And they turned out to all be old white males. |
| 1:54.5 | And he was cancelled for comments he made explaining why he had this specialist subject. |
| 2:00.0 | And I thought, will I get cancelled for this. |
| 2:01.7 | He was making the case that these were the only sort of intelligent. |
| 2:05.1 | The only people with the necessary articulacy to fit in the category of rock philosopher, I think I would not say that of my charges. |
| 2:12.8 | No, your starting point is different. |
| 2:14.5 | My starting point was different. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 3 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Statesman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The New Statesman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.