Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor, comic and writer known for outrageous behaviour and self-destruction, later a bestselling author and cultural figure.
On the island
Eight records
Verbatim reason: I really loved Amy and we were friends. I suppose what's wonderful about Great Art Broadly is it's difficult to see where it's coming from. It's difficult to understand how she was able to convey such depth of emotion. Because when you talk to her before or after, she's just some normal bird. And now suddenly you've become this vessel of profound, devastating emotion. Kept that quiet.
Verbatim reason: This is Daniel Johnston. I have bought into the appealing myth of the artist as tortured, as mentally ill. But Van Gogh is not great because he cut his ear off, is great because he painted crows over the wheat field. Daniel Johnston is a mentally ill person and a brilliant, brilliant genius. And that's what I find attractive about him, is that he creates wonderful pieces of music and the mental illness is a bloody inconvenience actually, not the thing that you're marketing.
Verbatim reason: Alright, this is Nick Cave, Red Right Hand. It's just got such grandeur and potency and I suppose like a lot of Nick Cave's writing, mythic resonance. He understands archetype and hero.
Verbatim reason: This is really pertinent as a matter of fact because it's almost like you know what you're doing. This is the Libertines, Tell the King, and I like it because I think Pete Doherty and Carl I think that they were very, very brilliant artists and musicians and here I think they're sort of talking about how you can achieve something from nothing and I think they render it very, very well.
Ravi Shankar, Family and Friends
Verbatim reason: This is Ravi Shankar and George Harrison and I like this song in particular because it's sort of about Krishna who I think is a really, really good deity. When you first hear it seems a bit cheesy but when you listen it's actually very beautiful like a carol.
Verbatim reason: This is Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip, Thou Shalt Always Kill. I like it because it's an interesting take on commandments and doctrine.
Triple MantraFavourite
Verbatim reason: This here is a mantra called Triple Mantra. Look, there's two reasons this is in here. One is because it makes me look good. He's got a mantra in, he's changed. The other thing is, if you like, listen to it for about twenty minutes, you can just loop this, your consciousness will change, you will think different things. And that's really positive.
Verbatim reason: Morrissey, now my heart is full. Morrissey is the, as you know, the poet laureate of the dispossessed. This song I like it because of the crescendo.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:56Where are you right now in life?
It's an interesting time, I think, Kirsty, because the infatuation with fame and celebrity, which was defining ... has progressed. ... the things I want are a wife, somewhere to live, ... some version of oh I'd like to have a sit down and watch telly with someone and hold hands.
Presenter asks
6:55Did you doubt that the offence of those people was genuine?
No, I'm sure their offence was genuine. It was wrong, and I apologise for that, but how the information is presented is important. ... What's wrong is that there's a moment where a man listened to his answer phone and there's weird messages on there and he's like would have felt hurt or embarrassed about that. That's really, really wrong.
Presenter asks
7:39I wonder if you think controversy and scandal is a mark of a life fully lived, well lived?
Well, no, what for me is a mark of a life well lived, Kirsty, is truthfulness and that there was a dishonest scandal that I feel like I want to address here. The thing that the 42,000 people were offended by is offensive. It is offensive if someone calls up and answers the phone, does some swearing, hangs up. But if incrementally that act is led to by a series of innuendos and in jokes, then it's a different thing. It's still a thing that is wrong, but it's not the thing that they're offended by.
The keepsakes
The book
I think I'll take the [Bhagavad Gita] because I've only read little bits of it.
Presenter asks
9:15Why were you lonely as a child?
Well, I think it was predisposed to loneliness in that a single mum my mum had to work all the time to look after me and my dad weren't around.
Presenter asks
18:19What was your own low point at which you sought proper help and decided that you didn't want to live that life any more?
The story that I'd told myself about how I was going to be happy was become famous. But I could no longer pursue that 'cause I required such a lot of medicinal support to cope with life. ... I was bringing sort of like crack addicts and smack heads into the radio studio with me. ... That was my low points. I got kicked off of that XFM radio show because I was being an idiot again. ... And then I got kicked off of MTV ... because I was like jumping like ... I was a nut. I was like smashing up people's cars and self harming at work ... b breaking glasses and stabbing myself in front of people.
Presenter asks
22:50Does [celebrity] get in the way of having the real things — of just buttering the toast in the kitchen with your bare feet and having a laugh with the woman you're in love with?
I think any job where you work a lot and travel a lot is an interruption. And if you define yourself by external information, which to a degree we all do, and in the case of famous people, there's a lot more of that external information. You have to make a very real effort to detach yourself from that ... You need to be able to say, this is what I am, and this is what I'm about, and it doesn't matter what people say. Now, if I knew what the conditions were for a successful marriage, I would have created them. But I tell you this, Kirsty, the important thing is that it's probably the same as any marriage that don't work. People see the same situation differently and aren't prepared to compromise sufficiently to achieve consensus. ... I don't want to be a contributor to [meaninglessness] anymore. That's the opposite of what I want.
“One of the things about being in recovery is it's necessarily a life of progress. So things that I sort of said even a couple of years ago, I somewhat blanch at. 'Cause now I increasingly think, oh, they're like just my mates.”
“In the end, sort of just some version of oh I'd like to have a sit down and watch telly with someone and hold hands.”
“It was holy for me to feel that [being looked at and listened to on stage] as a kid.”
“Fame is a coruscating heat. You know, it rips you up if you're not ready for it. So, like, luckily, I had like a built a uniform and an identity and a language and a mode of being that could take the heat for me.”
“The important thing is that it's probably the same as any marriage that don't work. People see the same situation differently and aren't prepared to compromise sufficiently to achieve consensus. And I think people would like to make it about fame and celebrity. But celebrity really has become about a kind of meaninglessness.”
“Once I'm on that island, those obligations are all gone. ... There's just me and my thoughts. So I'll be kinda relieved. I'll set up some simple arable living. I'll be meditating a lot. Once I'm on that island, I'm off into the realms of the mystical to slowly, slowly embrace the unknown. It'll be a relief.”