DAVID BOWIE
An embarrassment to most,
but Tricky,
as ever, swims against the tide.
"FOR understanding what's going
on. He
said all this nice stuff about me. People say he's doing
it for his own
gain, but I don't think it's about that at all. What do I
think about his
wallpaper? I've never seen it. Is he making wallpaper?
That's mad. No,
l don't find it embarrassing, he can make as much
wallpaper as he wants,
and really that is a bit of a stupid thing to do, i must
say, but there's
something special about the man. I think he's just lost,
and that ain't
his fault, if you're making wallpaper you've got to be a
bit Iost, for
f***'s sake. So, no, I don't give a f***. He can make as
much wallpaper
as he wants. But I ain't gonna buy any. That's mad. What
did it look like?
Has it got 'David Bowie' written all over it or something?
It's scary,
isn't it? Oh God, that is scary."
BUJU BANTON
Best known to non ragga
fans for his
homophobic track "Boom Bye Bye", which caused more
trouble for Shabba Ranks
than it ever did for him, Buju Banton is now one of
the wodd's biggest
reggae stars.
"FROM the first album to the
second album,
he never developed too much. He was more like a regular
MC. And now he's
developed so much he could be in the same league as
BobMarley an' that,
some of those songs on the new album are sof***
brillinat. It's like watching
him grow up. I think he's got really into God and things
like that. Obviously,
he's not going to apologise for anything he's done, but
I think he doesn't
feel the same way now. In 'I Wanna Be Loved' and
beautiful songs like that,
you can't actually feel hate for anybody, so I'm sure he
isn't on that
boom-bye-bye-batty-boys sort of vibe anymore."
RZA
Wu-Tang Clan member RZA is
also
one of Gravediggaz, the
original and
finest exponents of horrorcore, who collaborated with
Tricky on the "Hell"
EP.
"HE'S an extraordinary
producer and musician,
a f***ing Nineties Mozart. I feel a connection with
Wu-Tang, definitely,
but only in that we're all very confused, we haven't had
a good education
as such, but they're sort of heavy. They are men, and I
feel like a kid
being in the same room as them, because they've been
through a lot more
than me, and l don't face up to my responsibilities
sometimes, and I'm
a coward about certain situations ... just the way I
lead my life. I'm
not a man, and they feel like men, you know."
AL PACINO
You know.
"THE king. Robert De Niro
cannot sit next
to him.In the past I've put a lyric down about DeNiro,
on the Massive Attack
album, but I've changed by mind since. I think he's just
f***ing incredible."
DANZIG
The diminutive but highly
buff singer
of the eponymous rock band.
"HE wrote a song called 'I
Can't Speak',
which I listen to all the time. The lyrics are exactly
my kind of thing,
just really negative, but in a positive way. And it's
just caught the feeling.
A lot of the time we go on to it before we do a gig, the
way I feel sometimes,
the way everybody feels sometimes."
STEVEN SEGAL
Martial arts star of
beat-em-ups with
a conscience.
"HE'S made some of
the best fighting
action films, but he's always got a message. Even though
he's corny as
f***, it's always about the environment, or the
government. He's anti-Mafia,
anti-FBl, anti-CIA, anti-everything. Also, he's the
world's hardest chef.
"I wanted to put Kurt
Cobain in,
for writing some of the best songs, but l don't know if
I should. He's
a bit of a prick for blowing his head off, innit? And it
happened last
year? Yeah. He's done a lot of stupid things, so he
don't deserve Man Of
the Year. Take him out."
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MIKE
TYSON
Tyson has yet to officially
reclaim
his world heavyweight title, but Tricky has absolutely
no doubts about
him.
"IT'S nothing to do with the
rape
verdict, I know nothing about his private Iife or
anything, but
in the ring, he's the heavyweight champion.
Frank Bruno is too nice.
He's like
a teddy bear. He rabbit punches his opponents? Maybe, but
if you compare
him toTyson, he's quite a gentleman. His heart ain't big
enough. When they
had a fight, Bruno and Tyson, Bruno hit him with a huge
punch, which rocked
Tyson's world, and Tyson just came straight back and
battered him."
VARIOUS MUSIC
BIZ BODS
Let's leave Tricky to
explain these
himself.
"CAN women be Men Of The
Year? Fruit Management,
my management, they've been there since the white
labeIs. And Smash and
Vicky from Island Press. Why? Politics. Andy Whittle, my
tour manager,
and Steve Finan. He keeps it raw. No airs and graces.
What you see is what
you get. He's a Liverpudlian scallywag, and he hasn't
changed."
MARTINA
Tricky's singing partner
doesn't strictly
belong in here, but I felt I'd better let her in after
cruelly barring
his grandma.
"NOTHING fazes her at all.
She's so departed
from this business. She's one of the best singers in
England at the moment.
But if you're with her, you wouldn't know she was even
in the music industry.
She's just so departed from it, and I really respect
that."
GARY NUMAN
One of the least
fashionable men of
all time, but primed for a comeback as never before.
Whenever he received
a bad review, he has claimed, he would drive past the
paper's offices inhis
Ferrari, thinking, "Yeah, I'm really upset."
"FOR writing 'Cars' and 'Are
Friends Electric'.
What do I think of the Romo? I prefer it to all this
Beatles revival.
No disrespect toThe Beatles at all, The Beatles should
be a personal thing.
If you want to listen toThe Beatles, play it in your
house. They're over,
they're finished, right? And every couple of years they
keep banging it
back in our faces because it's the only thing England's
ever had. Its time
to move on! Like my first album, nothing to do with
nothing anymore. It's
just bollocks, it's all rubbish.
"Fort me, l missed a
lot of the
New Romantic stuff like Japan and Gary Numan, and I
can't remember the
other bands, but l've heard them. My own use of make-up?
Yeah, yeah, I
don't know where that comes from, l think it's boredom.
I guess I've got
a lot in common with them. I just did a remix for Yoko
Ono, and it's quite
New Romantic. Very much like that. I'm realIy pleased
with it. I was really
gutted, 'cos I wished I'd kept it for me."
GARY OLDMAN
British actor who
specialises in
hip, violent Hollywood
movies, although
he occasionallyappears in comedies like the
unspeakably funny "Immortal
Beloved", a biopic of Beethoven.
"HE'S someone I've admired
for years,
and I was realIy disappointed when l met him. Totally
shat over my illusions,
f***in' all over for me, this is it. And he was
my hero, he was
my god.
We were talking once,
I don't think
he was even interested, although I'm talkingwith him, he
hasn't given me
the message to go away, 'cos l would, if l felt like l
was bothering someone,
I'd go away. So he's talking with me, without looking me
in the eyes, with
no interest of anything. But then being as big as he is,
to stay normaI
would be really f***ing hard.
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