Kate’s an old pal from our days at Word magazine. She was on the staff for six years before heading off to the New Statesman and has just put out a collection of the sizzling and revelatory profiles she wrote for us, them and the Observer about a particular sector of the musical landscape for whom she’s always carried a torch. As she wonders in ‘Men Of A Certain Age: My Encounters with Rock Royalty’, “how is it that in the presence of wrinkly rock stars twice my age I sometimes think I’m meeting … me?” This tremendous exchange is full of hard-won insight about the mind-set of musicians and stops off at the following …

… the fascinating appeal of rock stars’ vulnerability, giant egos, oddness and obsessions – “they’re often frozen at the emotional age they became famous”.

… growing up with Britpop, the decade when “teenagers weren’t allowed to like anything”.

… things women notice and men often miss: the difference between male and female journalists.

… being driven down a mountain by Kevin Ayers after he’d drunk a pint of Pernod.

… why she’s so drawn to the critically unfashionable acts like Bruce Hornsby, Kiss and Terence Trent D’Arby.

… what she learnt from interviewing Joni Mitchell’s old boyfriend Cary Raditz.

… why the best route to understanding any rock star is via their parents.

… her obsession with “the shamefully unfashionable” Queen, aged 11, and the appeal of these self-styled “fun ambassadors” against the grating irony of the ‘90s.

… the “charming yet awful” Paul O’Neill of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra handing out $50,000 bundles of cash to the homeless.

… why musicians are more interesting when they’ve peaked.

… “the cartoon characters” of Shaun Ryder and John Lydon.

… “the only people at Jeff Beck’s interment were his wife and Johnny Depp”.

… and being refused an interview by Janelle Monae for not being sufficiently “queer or black”.

Order ‘Men Of A Certain Age’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Men-Certain-Age-Encounters-Royalty/dp/1788705645

Tickets for Kate’s launch event on April 3:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/men-of-a-certain-age-kate-mossman-with-alexis-petridis-tickets-1270535970289

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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