When I was still in the newspaper racket writing about music full-time there were three folks I hoped to interview above all: Ray Charles, B.B. King, and Tony Bennett.
Fortunately, all three came to town nearly every year on tour. Unfortunately, I worked at the second-biggest daily in the county — and most of them only did one interview to promote a show.
If that.
I got it — all three were going to sell out their show with or without an interview. And all three had tremendous demands on their time.
But every time I saw those names on the calendar, I'd dutifully call the publicist or venue and put in my request.
And every time, I'd get a call back, "I'm sorry, Mr. Charles isn’t doing any interviews now." Or Mr. King. Or Mr. Bennett. (When I saw an interview with them the day before the show in the competition, I understood that the publicist hadn't lied — the artist wasn't doing any interviews outside the major metro. It was just business.)
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