Mark Goodman | email How did you get the gig at MTV? A friend of mine called to tell me about this company he'd heard was doing some sort of 24 hour video thing. So I just called someone I knew who was working there and set up an audition. Of course, so did thousands of others. The audition process was interesting. The first was just me in a dark studio with a stool and a camera. I did rock news. The second one... someone posed as Billy Joel, and I had to interview him. He was way more of a wiseass than Billy would have been. Could have been the toughest interview I ever did. Then we had to walk from a couch over to an easel with a picture of The Eagles on it and talk about the band. I was able to walk and talk so I guess that's why I got it. What was the best interview that you did at MTV? It's hard to pin down what the best interview I ever did at MTV was, since I got to do so many great ones. But I suppose it's somewhere between Paul McCartney in a recording studio in London (after the interview he personally got on the phone and made a dinner reservation for me) and Bruce Springsteen backstage after a show on the Born In The USA tour. Were there any interviews that didn't go well? Tell us about it! Oh yeah. Frankie Goes To Hollywood. It was their first time in America and in New York. They rolled in to the studio directly from a night of clubbing. Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford acted like real asses. I stopped the interview. Holly came to my dressing room a few days later and apologized. What was the most memorable event you covered for MTV? Well, I guess I have to say Live Aid. For all the obvious reasons. The size and importance of the event. The line up of performers. But I also had a fantastic time doing live reports from the US Festival in 1983. It was the first time MTV ever did live reports from some where. Who are your favorite '80s artists? R.E.M.: one of the most important American bands of the last 25 years. U2. Peter Gabriel. And of course... Blotto! What did you do after you left MTV? I quit MTV because I was bitten with the acting bug. So I studied with Stella Adler... got some small movie and TV roles. I worked for J.J. Jackson for a short while at a L.A. radio station. I also worked at several other stations in L.A., Chicago and Phoenix. For a couple of years I ran a music web site called Soundbreak. We had live DJs in studio playing great new music 24/7. And in the last few years I've been a music supervisor. The last thing I worked on was Desperate Housewives. Tell us a good J.J. Jackson story. There are so many. I used to call J.J. "Club Man." Because he was really making great use of the New York night life, and sometimes he'd come to the studio right from some crazy downtown club. I remember he booked the Palladium for his birthday party one year. And he got it on a weekend night which the club owner said they wouldn't even do for Mick Jagger! But J.J. knew some "guys" who were "connected" and they "convinced" the club it was the "right thing to do." It was another example of how people loved J.J. The owners wound up being happy to do it. Really. Read Alan Hunter's interview Read Nina Blackwood's interview Read Martha Quinn's interview Classic Rewind The Spectrum