Interview to Famous Artists Sculptors Musicians

Intereview to Famous Artists, Sculptors, Musicians

Blues Rock was an impressive form of rock that experienced its apogee during the mid to late 1960s. Janis Joplin and Lynyrd Skynyrd are certainly artists who made themselves known during the era and who influenced numerous individuals to turn their attention toward the genre. Their daring and passionate singing made them different from other notable singers of the era, taking into account that the feelings they put across seemed to be more intense. It was practically as these people were singing about experiences that they went through and that they were not simply interested in becoming famous as a result of their singing.

Date of the interview: June 10, 1968

Hi, I'm very happy to meet you at last, Janis. One of the first questions I want to ask is why is it so difficult to reach you?

"Well, the truth is that I've recently become famous and I'm surrounded by all these people I don't know. I barely have the time to know someone and then someone else is introduced to me. It's very confusing for me right now and I like to focus more on my projects and less on people who want to speak to me."

I'm honored to know you accepted to see me. What is music for you?

"Umm…that's a tough question. No, it really is! I guess that music is something I've loved my whole life and that I've always wanted to do. It's not a passing trend and it's not unimportant. Music, my music in particular, defines who I am and what I want from life. I've always felt that I have no place in society and many of the people listening to my music are likely to feel offended as a result of this. It's personal!"

You're really straightforward. I can see you have a powerful personality and I hope I'm not too intrusive when I'm asking about the experiences that made you want to sing. Have you really gone through things that made you sing about these feelings?

"Actually I have. I want my songs to be about life lessons and about things that can really be educational for people. I'm not necessarily interested in putting across a positive message. I believe that teaching people things that might prove to be harmful for them is beneficial for society as a whole. The world needs to be balanced and it would probably be torn apart if it were not for some people to express interest in deviant ideas."

Wow, I don't even know what to say. I'm sure that many of the people seeing this interview are not going to appreciate your thinking. What do you think about how people feel about you?

"Hey, people are mean sometimes, but that does not mean that you have to be influenced by them. I'm not saying I don't appreciate my fans. I'm only saying that I can't spend my time worrying about what some people might think about me. I'm a singer and I transpose my feelings through the way I sing. Having to act in accordance with social mores would practically mean that I would be left with nothing to sing about."

Date of interview: August 18, 1973

I'm happy to meet you guys, I really appreciate your music and I wanted to ask you about how you came to consider this genre.

"I don't think it's something we've suddenly considered. We got together as we realized we had similar preferences. We were inspired by the blues rock movement from the late 1960s and we realized that we could personalize it by introducing country elements and we practically created a whole new genre."

I'm sure that many of your fans have trouble understanding your band's name. How did you come up with this name?

"We've gone through several names during the last years and this one kind of stuck. The initial version of this name was 'Leonard Skinner', a physical education teacher, from the Robert E. Lee High School. This teacher was crazy with following rules and he penalized boys who wore their hair long. I guess we felt that this was out chance to show our sarcasm and we took advantage of it."