WHAT YOUR BAND MATES SAY ABOUT YOU...
Realistically, I won't have time to capture every DD interview out there. Especially those of the individual members.
So these interesting nuggets of Nick are what I've picked up along the way and continue to add.
(Am always open to contributions if you've read something good!)
So these interesting nuggets of Nick are what I've picked up along the way and continue to add.
(Am always open to contributions if you've read something good!)
Duranasty Webzine, July 2017
[Simon interview]
Q: When it comes to producers as well, that collaboration is such an important thing and some of the people you worked with... Nile Rodgers is a starting point point for that...?
A: yeah, you see, as band you really do need somebody who stands outside of the core group and who could... well, number one tell you when you've to behave yourself, when you have to be nice to each other, [Edith says: stop throwing pork pie... Simon: yeah exactly!] but then somebody who is able to really see the good things, sometimes things get overlooked... if you leave that up to the person who shouts the loudest... Nick Rhodes always gets his own way... you know... [laughs]
And you need that person who's overseeing to make those choices... we had some great producers, we worked with Nile Rodgers, Alex Sadkin was a guy we worked with, Mark Ronson more recently, Ben Hudson, really stick in my mind...
[Simon interview]
Q: When it comes to producers as well, that collaboration is such an important thing and some of the people you worked with... Nile Rodgers is a starting point point for that...?
A: yeah, you see, as band you really do need somebody who stands outside of the core group and who could... well, number one tell you when you've to behave yourself, when you have to be nice to each other, [Edith says: stop throwing pork pie... Simon: yeah exactly!] but then somebody who is able to really see the good things, sometimes things get overlooked... if you leave that up to the person who shouts the loudest... Nick Rhodes always gets his own way... you know... [laughs]
And you need that person who's overseeing to make those choices... we had some great producers, we worked with Nile Rodgers, Alex Sadkin was a guy we worked with, Mark Ronson more recently, Ben Hudson, really stick in my mind...
Charlotte Observer, 14th April 2016
[John interview, Paper Gods album]
Q: What’s the dynamic of the band in the studio nowadays?
A: It’s tricky. I’m not a big fan of confrontation. Nick (Rhodes) and Simon (LeBon) can go head-to-head. And they do. From day one, I’ve got the finish line in mind. I have a very low quality control. I’m like, “That’s great.” Nick tends to be the one who will edit and re-edit and reconsider. That’s his energy. He’s much more analytical. What was satisfying about “Paper Gods” … there were several songs we all pitched in with the meaning of the song. On “You Kill Me With Silence” we were able to go, “Yeah, I know that feeling.”
[John interview, Paper Gods album]
Q: What’s the dynamic of the band in the studio nowadays?
A: It’s tricky. I’m not a big fan of confrontation. Nick (Rhodes) and Simon (LeBon) can go head-to-head. And they do. From day one, I’ve got the finish line in mind. I have a very low quality control. I’m like, “That’s great.” Nick tends to be the one who will edit and re-edit and reconsider. That’s his energy. He’s much more analytical. What was satisfying about “Paper Gods” … there were several songs we all pitched in with the meaning of the song. On “You Kill Me With Silence” we were able to go, “Yeah, I know that feeling.”
Manchester Evening News, 20th Nov 2015
[Simon interview, Paper Gods album] In fact, the band was forged not in a boardroom but in nightclubs. “We were the kind of people who wouldn’t normally make friends,” Simon chuckles. “I mean, look at me and Nick. I’m the kind of person who rides motorbikes and sails boats. And Nick would like to spend his entire life in an art gallery! We’re very unlikely friends, but we are very, very good friends. “We spent many years trying to round off each other’s sharp corners, but everybody in the band has such a strong personality and is unwilling to compromise that it was never going to happen. “We’ve got a point now that we recognise that tension between us translates in the studio into a a musical energy that is exciting when writing a record.” |
Origin Magazine, 17th November 2015
[Simon interview, Paper Gods album]
Q: You and Nick Rhodes are the only members of Duran Duran who have not left the band at some point. Original guitarist Andy Taylor left in 1986, returned in 2001, and left again in 2006. Roger and John have had spells outside the band as well. The group has weathered several lineup changes, but four of the five original members are playing together on Paper Gods, your fourteenth album. You’ve known each other for more than three decades. You must have a strong bond.
SLB: The years we spent apart have made us really appreciate each other, not just as players and as people to work with, but as friends. It was so wonderful when we all got back together in 2001. And it’s really a shame that Andy is not [in the band], but it just wasn’t working. Apart from that, we do trust each other and we trust each other musically. I think it’s important when you make a record that you know you’re working with the people who are going to get the best out of you. I think that’s how I feel about them. Nobody pushes me like Nick does—nobody. He really, really pushes me hard. But then John does, too. Roger is different; Roger gives me solace. [Laughs]
[Simon interview, Paper Gods album]
Q: You and Nick Rhodes are the only members of Duran Duran who have not left the band at some point. Original guitarist Andy Taylor left in 1986, returned in 2001, and left again in 2006. Roger and John have had spells outside the band as well. The group has weathered several lineup changes, but four of the five original members are playing together on Paper Gods, your fourteenth album. You’ve known each other for more than three decades. You must have a strong bond.
SLB: The years we spent apart have made us really appreciate each other, not just as players and as people to work with, but as friends. It was so wonderful when we all got back together in 2001. And it’s really a shame that Andy is not [in the band], but it just wasn’t working. Apart from that, we do trust each other and we trust each other musically. I think it’s important when you make a record that you know you’re working with the people who are going to get the best out of you. I think that’s how I feel about them. Nobody pushes me like Nick does—nobody. He really, really pushes me hard. But then John does, too. Roger is different; Roger gives me solace. [Laughs]
Herts & Essex Observer, 18th September 2015
[Roger Interview, Paper Gods album]
But according to drummer Roger Taylor, recording Paper Gods - their 14th album and first since recent career highlight All You Need Is Now in 2010 - was like having a "proper job".
"We'd roll up about 12pm and work 'til eight or nine in the evening," he says. "For the two years we were making the album, we kept good hours, no slacking off, five days a week. There's no taskmaster as such, but Nick is definitely the most motivated. But then, we all are. There's no reason to be in this band in 2015 unless we're all motivated. That's the only thing that keeps us going.
"Or perhaps an eternal lust for affirmation. Maybe it's that?" he adds mockingly.
Any holiday time had to be run by the other three members too. Above all else, Taylor says, they wanted to make a good record.
[Roger Interview, Paper Gods album]
But according to drummer Roger Taylor, recording Paper Gods - their 14th album and first since recent career highlight All You Need Is Now in 2010 - was like having a "proper job".
"We'd roll up about 12pm and work 'til eight or nine in the evening," he says. "For the two years we were making the album, we kept good hours, no slacking off, five days a week. There's no taskmaster as such, but Nick is definitely the most motivated. But then, we all are. There's no reason to be in this band in 2015 unless we're all motivated. That's the only thing that keeps us going.
"Or perhaps an eternal lust for affirmation. Maybe it's that?" he adds mockingly.
Any holiday time had to be run by the other three members too. Above all else, Taylor says, they wanted to make a good record.
The Morning Call (Allentown), 5th August 2015
[Simon interview, Paper Gods album]
Asked about the tinge of EDM in "Pressure Off," LeBon responds, "I think there's an element of Duran Duran in EDM. I think that's a very natural kind of direction for us to take." He says Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes "is incredible. … his presence on a Duran Duran album is always extraordinary. You can always hear him … he has great ideas."
For example, on the new song "You Kill Me with Silence," LeBon says, "at the end of it, it goes into a solo. Now, a lot of people think that's a guitar solo — it's not. It's a keyboard solo. And it's one of the best things he's ever played.
[Simon interview, Paper Gods album]
Asked about the tinge of EDM in "Pressure Off," LeBon responds, "I think there's an element of Duran Duran in EDM. I think that's a very natural kind of direction for us to take." He says Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes "is incredible. … his presence on a Duran Duran album is always extraordinary. You can always hear him … he has great ideas."
For example, on the new song "You Kill Me with Silence," LeBon says, "at the end of it, it goes into a solo. Now, a lot of people think that's a guitar solo — it's not. It's a keyboard solo. And it's one of the best things he's ever played.
BassPlayer.com, 6th October 2015
[John interview, Paper Gods album]
Do your synth lines overlap with Nick Rhodes’ parts?
John: We can step on each other’s toes if we’re not careful, so Nick and I confer on the keyboard side of things. As a bass player, I don’t always want keyboard coming into my territory; if he moves down too low, I’ll tell him to stop. It has to be very collaborative for it to work. He likes it when I play synth bass, and I do, too.
[John interview, Paper Gods album]
Do your synth lines overlap with Nick Rhodes’ parts?
John: We can step on each other’s toes if we’re not careful, so Nick and I confer on the keyboard side of things. As a bass player, I don’t always want keyboard coming into my territory; if he moves down too low, I’ll tell him to stop. It has to be very collaborative for it to work. He likes it when I play synth bass, and I do, too.
Huffington Post UK, 14th September 2012
[John Interview, Cancellation of AYNIN Tour due to Nick's illness]
Duran Duran’s John Taylor has opened up about his bandmate Nick Rhodes’ brush with illness, which brought their recent tour to an early close in the United States.
“Nick is a workaholic, one of the most driven men I know, and he just hit the wall,” Taylor has revealed to HuffPost UK.
“He was having fainting spells, it was very frightening, but he saw a doctor, and was made to rest.
“His immediate treatment was to do as little possible, for as long as possible.“We don’t have plans to work as a band until the New Year, so now he needs to look after himself.”
Taylor admits that Rhodes’ plight shook him up, particularly after they’d had to cancel shows earlier on the tour due to frontman Simon Le Bon suffering throat problems.
“If Duran Duran is a plane, Simon is the nose-cone, in fact his voice is the nose-cone, and we work like One Direction, we go for it.
“So Simon went down at the beginning of the tour, and Nick went down at the end, and it could have been me or Roger (Taylor). It’s a warning for all of us.
“Nick always says we’re an aristocratic band with a working class work ethic, but you just never know if you’re coming back. We didn’t know.
“One show gets cancelled and you think ‘okay’, then it’s a second one and suddenly the tour’s over.”
[John Interview, Cancellation of AYNIN Tour due to Nick's illness]
Duran Duran’s John Taylor has opened up about his bandmate Nick Rhodes’ brush with illness, which brought their recent tour to an early close in the United States.
“Nick is a workaholic, one of the most driven men I know, and he just hit the wall,” Taylor has revealed to HuffPost UK.
“He was having fainting spells, it was very frightening, but he saw a doctor, and was made to rest.
“His immediate treatment was to do as little possible, for as long as possible.“We don’t have plans to work as a band until the New Year, so now he needs to look after himself.”
Taylor admits that Rhodes’ plight shook him up, particularly after they’d had to cancel shows earlier on the tour due to frontman Simon Le Bon suffering throat problems.
“If Duran Duran is a plane, Simon is the nose-cone, in fact his voice is the nose-cone, and we work like One Direction, we go for it.
“So Simon went down at the beginning of the tour, and Nick went down at the end, and it could have been me or Roger (Taylor). It’s a warning for all of us.
“Nick always says we’re an aristocratic band with a working class work ethic, but you just never know if you’re coming back. We didn’t know.
“One show gets cancelled and you think ‘okay’, then it’s a second one and suddenly the tour’s over.”
St. Augustine.com, 10th October 2011
[John interview, AYNIN Tour]
Tell me a bit about the video for “Girl Panic !” that features supermodels Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Eva Herzigova, Helena Christensen, and Yasmin Le Bon.
J.T.: Ahhhh ... well, it was Nick’s (Rhodes) idea that it would be really great if we could just get some supermodels to play us. We connected with Jonas Akerlund who is famous for big, high concept music videos. He did [Lady] Gaga’s video with Beyonce — I think that’s perhaps his most famous piece. We connected with him and once he got on board, it became an extravaganza. I think it’s going to be the most talked about video of the year when it drops in November.
[John interview, AYNIN Tour]
Tell me a bit about the video for “Girl Panic !” that features supermodels Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Eva Herzigova, Helena Christensen, and Yasmin Le Bon.
J.T.: Ahhhh ... well, it was Nick’s (Rhodes) idea that it would be really great if we could just get some supermodels to play us. We connected with Jonas Akerlund who is famous for big, high concept music videos. He did [Lady] Gaga’s video with Beyonce — I think that’s perhaps his most famous piece. We connected with him and once he got on board, it became an extravaganza. I think it’s going to be the most talked about video of the year when it drops in November.
METRO UK, 12th May 2011
[John Interview, on being 50]
Don't you feel a bit silly singing a song such as Girl Panic! at your age?
Nick [Rhodes] wrote the lyrics to that. He's still single and out there experiencing the passions of early love, so he was able to bring that to the album. But we're actors too. You have to act the material, that's part of the profession.
Did you have a blow-out 50th birthday party last year?
I had the most amazing one built around this extraordinary film Nick made using friends, family and people from all over the world. Spandau Ballet were in there, Kiss, Iggy Pop, Cilla Black. It began with the guy who introduced Nick and I in 1975, now an art teacher living in Cornwall, and ended with a letter of congratulations from Barack and Michelle Obama.
Who arranged that?
Well, you know, we've got friends.
[John Interview, on being 50]
Don't you feel a bit silly singing a song such as Girl Panic! at your age?
Nick [Rhodes] wrote the lyrics to that. He's still single and out there experiencing the passions of early love, so he was able to bring that to the album. But we're actors too. You have to act the material, that's part of the profession.
Did you have a blow-out 50th birthday party last year?
I had the most amazing one built around this extraordinary film Nick made using friends, family and people from all over the world. Spandau Ballet were in there, Kiss, Iggy Pop, Cilla Black. It began with the guy who introduced Nick and I in 1975, now an art teacher living in Cornwall, and ended with a letter of congratulations from Barack and Michelle Obama.
Who arranged that?
Well, you know, we've got friends.
ELECTRONIC BEATS Magazine, Spring 2011 issue
[Simon interview. on the 'All You Need is Now' video]
In one scene, a Warhol impersonator walks past the camera, while in another Nick Rhodes visits a cemetery resembling St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Pittsburgh where Andy Warhol is buried.
Well, we all knew Andy Warhol personally and we were very, very sad, when he died. Why not remind people of that? But there are hidden links as well. Nick came up with the association to the Velvet Underground song »The Gift« off of »White Light/White Heat« – now that is a weird song. Nick also had the idea of getting a newscaster to read a text in John Cale’s same deadpan voice at the end of our new song »The Man Who Stole a Leopard« . You might not notice many similarities between our song and the Velvet’s original, but the echo of the original is there – even if the newscaster is a woman. In the end I think Nick just liked the style of the story being told.
[Simon interview. on the 'All You Need is Now' video]
In one scene, a Warhol impersonator walks past the camera, while in another Nick Rhodes visits a cemetery resembling St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Pittsburgh where Andy Warhol is buried.
Well, we all knew Andy Warhol personally and we were very, very sad, when he died. Why not remind people of that? But there are hidden links as well. Nick came up with the association to the Velvet Underground song »The Gift« off of »White Light/White Heat« – now that is a weird song. Nick also had the idea of getting a newscaster to read a text in John Cale’s same deadpan voice at the end of our new song »The Man Who Stole a Leopard« . You might not notice many similarities between our song and the Velvet’s original, but the echo of the original is there – even if the newscaster is a woman. In the end I think Nick just liked the style of the story being told.
Birmingham Mail, 19th June 2015
[Simon interview]
Are you a fan of shows like X Factor and The Voice?
“I have no problem with other people watching those shows but it’s not my cup of tea.
“I’ve been offered those gigs to judge but my band would hate me!
“It’s the same with other shows like I’m A Celebrity - imagine what Nick Rhodes would say if I did that?
“Besides, I have an aversion to ritual humiliation.”
[Simon interview]
Are you a fan of shows like X Factor and The Voice?
“I have no problem with other people watching those shows but it’s not my cup of tea.
“I’ve been offered those gigs to judge but my band would hate me!
“It’s the same with other shows like I’m A Celebrity - imagine what Nick Rhodes would say if I did that?
“Besides, I have an aversion to ritual humiliation.”
TheDivaReview.com, 22nd September 2008
[Andy interview exclusive, about his autobiography Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran]
LadyMizDiva: I was impressed by your early business sense. I recall reading that you were the first band member to have opened up a business. I believe you had a restaurant in London?
AT: The toughest business to ever try! {Laughs} I think you also feel like you wanna be doing something responsible, as well. Because when you’re young, the early 20’s, even though things were flying at one point, you’re never thinking about getting to near 50. So, there is always a bit of insecurity in you that, well, maybe this will be and perhaps you have to invest your money and you know how wrong that always keeps going for everybody!
LMD: I’m in America; I don’t know what you mean.
AT: The funny thing is, when you write songs, you have hits that play on the radio, it’s all very legal and very good for the songwriters. And in actual fact, if you write five or ten hit songs, you’ll have income for life!
LMD: Really?
AT: Yeah, well, because the radio airplay. Paul Anka, the guy who wrote My Way for Frank Sinatra, that one song is all he’d need to live like a king. But when you’re a young man, they don’t tell ya this, they sell ya pension funds and insurance. And they try and take away your song rights! We were shrewd. Me and Nick {Rhodes} were shrewder and so we managed to and, in fact we still do – unlike The Beatles - we still get our percentages for Girls on Film and Planet Earth and everything.
LMD: Well, kind of on the flip side of how judicious you are talking about John and Simon, the one who comes off a little off balance in the book is Nick Rhodes. You make note about your differences, but I found a lot of similarities between you: As you mentioned earlier, you both have a great business sense and in chapters when you join forces against a perceived wrong, the two of you are like an immoveable object. However, in the book he comes off as a little dictator, and Andy, you don’t seem at all to have trouble expressing yourself, but Nick is charged with some of the wrong directions that the band has taken, and I wonder how he got away with that?
AT: Well … {Laughs} the power struggles, band’s power struggles. Sometimes, in fact generally, when we agree on things - and even music - and I suppose that was perhaps the… We’d have a collision about things, but what used to come out of it was something that was different with the guitars and the keyboards and the way that songs were structured, and I really understood Nick when I first met him what he was trying to explain to me. I could understand him musically, what he was doing – he didn’t. And I say, the way he took keyboards and made them into … he was the first real programmer for pop music. He programmes, Nick. He didn’t even know what he was doing, and I say there’s a touch of genius in it. But we have got very different … You know, I will go and spill beer in the pub and watch soccer, and Nick doesn’t wanna do anything, you know? Fundamentally, we’re different like that, but there’s a lot of things we agree on and when we do we can always work well together, but we’re different people in that respect.
And he, to his credit or discredit - and it’s a very subjective sort of thing, y’know - all he’s ever known is Duran Duran. That's it! All he’s ever known. So, you can forgive him for screwing up sometimes.
LMD: So you don’t hate him?
AT: {Laughs} No, not at all. But y’know, me and Nick can push each other’s buttons like nothing else and it’s one of the most productive things when it works and one of the most destructive things when it doesn’t, and that’s what bands ought to be. Not those homogenised fuckers from Pop Idol. {Laughs}
[Andy interview exclusive, about his autobiography Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran]
LadyMizDiva: I was impressed by your early business sense. I recall reading that you were the first band member to have opened up a business. I believe you had a restaurant in London?
AT: The toughest business to ever try! {Laughs} I think you also feel like you wanna be doing something responsible, as well. Because when you’re young, the early 20’s, even though things were flying at one point, you’re never thinking about getting to near 50. So, there is always a bit of insecurity in you that, well, maybe this will be and perhaps you have to invest your money and you know how wrong that always keeps going for everybody!
LMD: I’m in America; I don’t know what you mean.
AT: The funny thing is, when you write songs, you have hits that play on the radio, it’s all very legal and very good for the songwriters. And in actual fact, if you write five or ten hit songs, you’ll have income for life!
LMD: Really?
AT: Yeah, well, because the radio airplay. Paul Anka, the guy who wrote My Way for Frank Sinatra, that one song is all he’d need to live like a king. But when you’re a young man, they don’t tell ya this, they sell ya pension funds and insurance. And they try and take away your song rights! We were shrewd. Me and Nick {Rhodes} were shrewder and so we managed to and, in fact we still do – unlike The Beatles - we still get our percentages for Girls on Film and Planet Earth and everything.
LMD: Well, kind of on the flip side of how judicious you are talking about John and Simon, the one who comes off a little off balance in the book is Nick Rhodes. You make note about your differences, but I found a lot of similarities between you: As you mentioned earlier, you both have a great business sense and in chapters when you join forces against a perceived wrong, the two of you are like an immoveable object. However, in the book he comes off as a little dictator, and Andy, you don’t seem at all to have trouble expressing yourself, but Nick is charged with some of the wrong directions that the band has taken, and I wonder how he got away with that?
AT: Well … {Laughs} the power struggles, band’s power struggles. Sometimes, in fact generally, when we agree on things - and even music - and I suppose that was perhaps the… We’d have a collision about things, but what used to come out of it was something that was different with the guitars and the keyboards and the way that songs were structured, and I really understood Nick when I first met him what he was trying to explain to me. I could understand him musically, what he was doing – he didn’t. And I say, the way he took keyboards and made them into … he was the first real programmer for pop music. He programmes, Nick. He didn’t even know what he was doing, and I say there’s a touch of genius in it. But we have got very different … You know, I will go and spill beer in the pub and watch soccer, and Nick doesn’t wanna do anything, you know? Fundamentally, we’re different like that, but there’s a lot of things we agree on and when we do we can always work well together, but we’re different people in that respect.
And he, to his credit or discredit - and it’s a very subjective sort of thing, y’know - all he’s ever known is Duran Duran. That's it! All he’s ever known. So, you can forgive him for screwing up sometimes.
LMD: So you don’t hate him?
AT: {Laughs} No, not at all. But y’know, me and Nick can push each other’s buttons like nothing else and it’s one of the most productive things when it works and one of the most destructive things when it doesn’t, and that’s what bands ought to be. Not those homogenised fuckers from Pop Idol. {Laughs}
NYLON magazine (USA), October 2007
[Says Simon, RCM album]
"She's Too Much" -- which was originally called "Gentle Touch" until Nick pointed out that it sounded like a diaper brand. Simon complains that Nick is always like that: "He wouldn't let me use the word 'nostril' in a song once. I was like, 'fckuing hell! Jim Morrison did!' But, upon reflection, he was probably right."
[Says Simon, RCM album]
"She's Too Much" -- which was originally called "Gentle Touch" until Nick pointed out that it sounded like a diaper brand. Simon complains that Nick is always like that: "He wouldn't let me use the word 'nostril' in a song once. I was like, 'fckuing hell! Jim Morrison did!' But, upon reflection, he was probably right."
Spin.com, 26th September 2007 (Oct 2007 issue)
[Simon Interview, RCM album]
Have you and keyboardist Nick Rhodes ever come to blows?
People don’t tend to come to blows with Nick. Many have tried. We’re not that kind of a band, really. The worst thing that ever happened was a pork pie got thrown during an argument in 1980. I can’t say who was involved; that would be unprofessional. I hasten to add that I was an onlooker.
Who tended to get the girls from your videos?
I did a couple of times. [Laughs] Nick claims to. I think we’ve all done that.
[Simon Interview, RCM album]
Have you and keyboardist Nick Rhodes ever come to blows?
People don’t tend to come to blows with Nick. Many have tried. We’re not that kind of a band, really. The worst thing that ever happened was a pork pie got thrown during an argument in 1980. I can’t say who was involved; that would be unprofessional. I hasten to add that I was an onlooker.
Who tended to get the girls from your videos?
I did a couple of times. [Laughs] Nick claims to. I think we’ve all done that.
The Independent, UK, 25th May 2005
[Simon Interview. People write in to ask Simon questions.]
Is it true that you nearly drowned on the video set for The Wild Boys? NIGEL SNODGRASS, DONCASTER
No, it's not. People think that because I was strapped to a windmill and my head went underwater, it was really dangerous, but it wasn't. Of course, when we get asked this question in interviews, Nick Rhodes always says: "Well, we've got the DVD now so, if you pause it, you can keep his head underwater for as long as you want." Which I think is so crass, but he thinks it's funny! He says it in almost every interview. I think repeating yourself is a sign of old age, telling the same joke again and again. Especially if they're jokes that don't make people laugh. Yeah, you've really been trying with that one, Nick, but you've gotta give it up.
I love the book reviews on your website. Might you start a Duran Duran book club? DAVID BRABNER, DUNDEE
It gives me a chance to have a bit of a rant sometimes, which I did about The Da Vinci Code. I mean, it's tosh, isn't it? There's always this sense of potential nookie. But I like full-on sex, I do. "Robert stepped sexily from the shower. Dressed in a tight towel with a noticeable bulge by one of his knees." Well, that's kind of what it's like, isn't it? But the book club is mostly for Nick [Rhodes]. He never reads any books. He just asks me what I think of them and pretends to have read them all.
[Simon Interview. People write in to ask Simon questions.]
Is it true that you nearly drowned on the video set for The Wild Boys? NIGEL SNODGRASS, DONCASTER
No, it's not. People think that because I was strapped to a windmill and my head went underwater, it was really dangerous, but it wasn't. Of course, when we get asked this question in interviews, Nick Rhodes always says: "Well, we've got the DVD now so, if you pause it, you can keep his head underwater for as long as you want." Which I think is so crass, but he thinks it's funny! He says it in almost every interview. I think repeating yourself is a sign of old age, telling the same joke again and again. Especially if they're jokes that don't make people laugh. Yeah, you've really been trying with that one, Nick, but you've gotta give it up.
I love the book reviews on your website. Might you start a Duran Duran book club? DAVID BRABNER, DUNDEE
It gives me a chance to have a bit of a rant sometimes, which I did about The Da Vinci Code. I mean, it's tosh, isn't it? There's always this sense of potential nookie. But I like full-on sex, I do. "Robert stepped sexily from the shower. Dressed in a tight towel with a noticeable bulge by one of his knees." Well, that's kind of what it's like, isn't it? But the book club is mostly for Nick [Rhodes]. He never reads any books. He just asks me what I think of them and pretends to have read them all.
Sunday Mirror (London, England), 19th September 2004
[Simon Interview, Astronaut album]
Which member of Duran Duran do you get on best with?
Simon Le Bon: It's tough to say because I have a great relationship with all of them. Roger Taylor's the one I spend a lot of time in cars with discussing our crazy lives. John Taylor and I are very similar to each other in a funny sort of way, so we get on very well. Andy Taylor's a great laugh, he's the one I go out partying with. Nick Rhodes has been my buddy for years. I've spent a lot more time with him than I have the other guys. We all get on really well though. I'm like the glue that holds the band together. They all tend to pull in different directions.
[Simon Interview, Astronaut album]
Which member of Duran Duran do you get on best with?
Simon Le Bon: It's tough to say because I have a great relationship with all of them. Roger Taylor's the one I spend a lot of time in cars with discussing our crazy lives. John Taylor and I are very similar to each other in a funny sort of way, so we get on very well. Andy Taylor's a great laugh, he's the one I go out partying with. Nick Rhodes has been my buddy for years. I've spent a lot more time with him than I have the other guys. We all get on really well though. I'm like the glue that holds the band together. They all tend to pull in different directions.
SFGate, 11th June 2000
[Simon Interview, Pop Trash album]
Q: Your lyrics are also starting to make sense. Were you on drugs when you wrote "Union of the Snake"?
A: Actually, no. There's never been any necessity to turn to drugs, but there's often been a desire. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Nick (Rhodes) wrote a lot of the lyrics this time.
Q: Why are you letting the keyboard player write your lyrics?
A: I had a real problem with lyrics. Tunes just come to me, but I lost confidence with lyric writing. I just didn't think I had a worthwhile idea in my head.
[Simon Interview, Pop Trash album]
Q: Your lyrics are also starting to make sense. Were you on drugs when you wrote "Union of the Snake"?
A: Actually, no. There's never been any necessity to turn to drugs, but there's often been a desire. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Nick (Rhodes) wrote a lot of the lyrics this time.
Q: Why are you letting the keyboard player write your lyrics?
A: I had a real problem with lyrics. Tunes just come to me, but I lost confidence with lyric writing. I just didn't think I had a worthwhile idea in my head.