Original subtitles

all right what's happening

at this time i'd like to introduce you

to

hey hold on

the prince of pop

the king of los angeles radio

rodney bigenheimer

this is definitely an la this is an l8

musical historical trip

this is the band that started it all who

invented you definitely

the start of the la scene i'm rodney

bienheimer rodney on the rock ladies and

gentlemen

she

had

foreign

is is

hi this is courtney the

baby and this is

except of course rodney well he is one

of the best-known djs in the world for

that fact rodney bingenheimer reigning

as the prince of pop for 20 years on

radio station k-r-o-q

rodney's on the largest radio station in

the united states for breaking new music

according to some people when rodney can

anoint you don't forget david bowie's

phoning in tonight rodney's powerful

rocky on the line

got your radio's on it's time for rodney

on the rock from now to 3 a.m live in

studio guest brian wilson and he was

accepted by the rolling stones he was

accepted by the beatles he was accepted

by the beach boys he was accepted by the

monkeys i'd get right ups like magazines

like king magazine tiger beat they

always put rodney bingham mayor of the

sunset strip a scene at this this party

and that place hi rodney here's a guy

who for 30 years has championed you know

the cutting edge which is a horrible

phrase but um

he's also had bangs for 30 years which i

think

is a major accomplishment

bangs

above your eyes

hey

you put him in the same category as you

see sort of andy and you see keith and

there's rodney

and i came across my rodney t-shirt and

and here it is you know signed by rodney

and everything

so i thought oh wow well there's my

costume

did anybody else wear this yeah a couple

people ah

rodney bingenheimer is this small

shy kind of little

gnome

rodney

what's happening

he's like a magnet isn't he the pied

piper and all those little rats follow

him around but with him comes somebody

else it it's really important for you to

meet he was the first to play records by

blondie the ramones sex pistols and

nirvana to name a few joey ramon and

we're about to show the touring video

joey on the rock

rodney tells you you're a star you know

rodney gives you the official

impromoture how did you meet rodney

first time i stalked them the beautiful

people the beautiful people

the beautiful people the beautiful

people come on this is the barons i play

with on green

of course david boy

he's like the ultimate from the

beginning

when i started there in 1978 he was like

the k-rock god

has always been heartbreaking for me

it seems like he should be this huge

mogul and i don't understand why he

isn't

i kind of think of him as uh peter pan

a little in the school of hard knocks

which is not easy

to do

rodney's the mirror of the sunset strip

rodney's the prince and the popper

do you wish your life had been different

um

yeah actually

it's mm-hmm

unpredictable but in the end that's

right

i hope you had the time of your life

this is

the tour of the bingenheimer manor

okay we're going into the hallway here

here's a letter i got from bill clinton

president clinton invitations to

brookshield's birthday parties there's

even an autograph from bridgette bardot

and jackie kennedy

an actual monkey shirt with a brook

shields hanger

here's elvis presley's driver's license

what is that elvis presley's driver's

license

his actual driver's license yeah his

driving permit actually

how did you get that he gave it to me

one time

in here

using ideas as my maps

older than i'm younger than that now

this is where i grew up

my mom's house

and as you know my mom passed away so

i've been taking care of it camille came

up with me

after my mom passed away and helped me

organize things his mom was really

really special she was really

encouraging to the stuff that he did and

participated in collecting all his

souvenirs and different things and he

she was really there for him

is this your mother's car yeah marian's

nova

oh

wait where the pliers

this is marion's nova

does this happen very often they're very

rare

and probably the cable's dirty

marion's nova never fails

there it is home sweet home

we're in the living room of my house the

house i grew up in and good old mountain

view and my mom always kept the shrine

this is the man my mom kept

all my photos a picture of me with roger

clinton that's me with elvis

and she would show all her neighbors and

her friends and stuff and some pictures

of me at the oscars you know things that

moms like just have my album cover i

hang up all my albums on the wall here

all the covers are really cool magazines

all around and i had a lot of pictures

this is basically it the rodney room

it was great when camille came up she

got to hang out and

check out my stuff

here's an andy warhol christmas card i

sent my mom

andy warhol as an angel because andy is

an angel and he's with my mom right now

up in heaven

i was likely in the movies

well i never did get to hollywood

i just thought about it

and i always thought about coming to

california and maybe get into movies but

nah no chance at all

he didn't have the courage to uh

get in there and

go down and try to get a job in in

hollywood

i uh we went to a bing crosby golf

tournament several years

many many movie stars in

we would go every year to the crosby and

to the bob hope

and he would be thrilled when he'd see

oh bob crosby or hoagy carmichael or all

those old-time actors and entertainers

what do you think so special about

mingling with celebrities

i don't know that either i couldn't

explain that

i don't either i can't have an answer

just natural i guess

dress my friends up just for show

see them as they really are

put the people in my brain

two new pants to have a go

i'd like to be a gallery

put you all inside my

can't tell

what are these different passes what is

this what is this kitchen where

basically uh where the food and all that

is and this family gets you all over the

place yeah so we can go safely anywhere

with this anywhere with this but this

this only gets you a godhead

this is the outcrowd path

the white pass the outcrown pass yeah

tell me about it crosstalk

in crowd status it's a higher echelon

society which is above and beyond the

general public the superior way of doing

things that includes the the show

business people

now do they do the big celebrities need

passes too yeah they have to leave it

like woody harrelson yeah woody's gonna

have to have one of these really you're

gonna be out if you didn't

when you go to see bowie god you're

gonna probably get shocked you haven't

seen him in like how many years no i saw

him a couple years ago did you remember

him at the palladium really when i

brought kato kayla and this is really

really good

they said robbie could come in and cato

has to wait outside

now you're going to hit me with all

kinds of things that i can't have no

recollections about whatsoever i'm sure

how you doing pretty good so you're only

in town for a couple of few hours yeah i

came in i got up four o'clock this

morning flew in

i'm absolutely beat completely

generalized but let's talk about you

rodney buys into the rockstar myth and

um

derives a sense of gratitude fulfillment

from that energy and this fear

this what we're doing right now is the

beginning of the stardom of rodney

bingenheimer

the whole subject of fame is like the

special case of

social life in general

and the way in which we relate to other

people so it's inescapable in any kind

of society

it's an inbuilt desire i think the

aspiration to fame the talk about famous

people is

pervasive and it's part of our way of

learning the world

who is rodney bagenheimer

i don't know

i don't know who rodney bingenheimer is

hollywood's first radio premiere in many

a year the boss jocks host young

hollywood to a celebrity premiere of the

new it's boss on the sunset strip here

all your favorite movie tv and recording

stars live

8 35 at boss radio the home of sunny and

share

i used to have a little transistor radio

and late at night you'd pull around with

it you could actually pick up radio

stations from los angeles

great music and sounds talking about the

beatles and the stones what did you like

about it was just the beat the way it

sounded it was just happy music real

poppy and happy and

kept the spirit going i remember first

of all when you were the kid that

everybody beat up on the way to high

school right cause i had long hair

nobody had hair like mine and they

noticed you were smaller than they were

i think when you're not real aggressive

and you're not active in sports and

stuff sometimes you know you're the last

one chosen on the team and people kind

of pick on you that way

i played basketball for a high point man

in my high school for two years in a row

but we're on track team

here it is

rodney b

rod

4-h club i was a member of the 4-h club

head health hand what was it

head

hands health and heart

i think his father did not see a

traditional conventional kind of a boy

child

rodney and his mother fit well together

because they were together different yes

she was a waitress she worked at the los

altos country club

and she just worked a lot of lounge kind

of

places

i think she worked

at night and he was alone a lot

well she was uh kind of hard to get

along with say that

we were really very much in love with

each other in the first place i don't

think

she didn't trust anybody

she didn't trust anybody

she was she was domineering to him

rodney tried to get along with her

but

she would always tell him what to do

constantly and he just

couldn't take it

yeah my parents got a divorce when i was

three years old

and

i hadn't seen rodney too much after that

really

i'd stay home alone basically

tv mirror

looking at movie magazines and teen

magazines and

they consider jackie a movie star

he's doing the average kid thing

can man speak to the president please

rodney bingham mountain view in

california

rodney bingham

sorry i won't be able to reach the

president

rodney bigenheimer's mother was an

autograph hound

you know what an autograph pound is

she would collect autographs in the 40s

and 50s of famous people she got a john

f kennedy autograph marilyn monroe

autograph and rodney grew up with this

kind of mother who was into celebrity

and he had a crush on connie stevens

oh there's a beautiful pan ready look at

that

connie stevenson

there's a story about your mom taking

you to visit connie stevens

god

when i was really young

yeah we drove by connie stevens house

mommy dropped him off at connie stevens

house to begin his adult life

as a teenage boy and said see you later

good luck with connie get the autograph

if you can

and rodney rings the belt he's got a

suitcase out there and the maid said oh

connie stevens isn't here she's on

location

oh

well my mom's gone

yeah i didn't see my mom for about five

or six years

after that

so he went down to the sunset strip

hollywood or the music industry or

movies it's it's a place where you could

be different and not know exactly

what your direction is but somehow

something might happen things might

click

energies might cross the sunset strip

scene of the mid 60s was probably the

most creative convergence of people in

the history of l.a you had doors there

and love here and frank zappa over there

and sonny and cher here and the mamas

and papas and you'd go

wow

oh no i can't believe it i'm really i'm

really here

this is mecca this is the music this is

music and show business mecca you come

here for the same reason that uh people

went to paris after world war one the

dadaists and the surrealists and the art

scene in paris hollywood you used to be

able to go down the street and magical

people who had just gotten off the bus

would be down there in their iowa beauty

or tragedy and you could pull the car up

and say you're new in town it was just

amazing there were hundreds of kids on

the street half naked girls all over the

place young boys everybody was beautiful

everybody was wearing antiques and

feathers and it was a

real eye-opener it was all love and

peace

hugs everywhere and we all wanted to be

together it was everybody there was

almost like it was a revolution i felt

like i was part of a revolution

and somehow he

not saying he led us or anything but

rodney was a real pivot it was a focus

in this huge big group of kids rodney in

1965 was a very

cuddly

lovable little guy like mickey rooney in

the judy garland mickey rooney movies he

had that kind of presence and

immediately all these teenage girls got

to be his mommy

and started feeding him and making love

to him and nursing him and giving him

places to live i made out with rodney

he was the first boy i kissed in

hollywood and he tried to fill me up but

i wouldn't let him hi what's happening

i was a mate

i could never figure out he he never had

a job

there had to be days when he said

gee am i gonna

am i gonna survive

another an ad in the holly reporter

looking for guys with you know boom the

hair

and um i went down and tried out for the

monkeys

what do you want me to do

i didn't didn't get the part they gave

it to davey but i since they gave it to

davey that was exactly his thought

from behind he looked a lot like me you

know he had the same little curled under

hair and the whole thing

and when he er

you know he turned around and oh my

goodness yeah you know same height so

it's like same little thin little body

uh and when it came time for us to do a

show with the monkeys called the prince

and the pauper and there was rodney

bingham and he was it was the sort of

man of my choice that was great he got a

lot of girls because of that

rodney's sexual stock skyrocketed off

the nasdaq on that one

that's because the monkeys were gigantic

baby brought one door and i go out the

other door and girls are chasing me

hey davey davey no it's rodney

fame is this world that people want to

get into but how do you do it it's like

love you know it's what's when i was a

teenager it's like you know there is

this line if you could only say these

words to a girl she'd immediately fall

into your arms this is like some some

mantra some incantation and i think it's

very similar with fame it's this world

of perfect emotion perfect identity

perfect feeling and perfect appreciation

by other people if we only knew what the

key was

get laid by an elvis fan if he's with

elvis he can get laid by a beetle fan if

he's with beetle so whoever your sexual

icon is rodney's with them so if you

want to make love to elvis you better

make love to rodney that's the process

you'll ever get

monday morning

it was all

i hoped it would

be

big it's rodney bingham a famous groupie

now he's probably a respectable what is

he now he's a dj yeah

it's become a bad word the word groupie

has become a jeer and a

very naughty word almost like horse

pamela de barr was a group

and i'm proud of him exactly you know

she would darn jimmy page's socks you

know she'd give him blow jobs she'd uh

wait backstage for him she'd get him out

of bed in the morning make sure he made

his plane give him another [ __ ] give

him another hello job actually i met

dion's wife and she told me groupies had

always been around only in the old days

she called them top 40 [ __ ] is that

the best

i just thought that was so great but

that word came into existence for girls

in the 60s

who wanted to pretty much

you know have sex with the bands

but

why not

for all that a groupie maybe something

uh uh

derogatory but at the same time all the

men and groups needed needed women

you know i mean jesus christ had mary

magdalene what can you say

about that yeah i think everybody needs

everybody i think josephine and napoleon

and

much of that

and the gtos were really dedicated to

something i don't know what it was

they were the ultimate groupies only

they had a lot of style

we have a friend named rodney bingover

he has a dutch boy haircut and he's five

feet three he lives down the street from

hullabaloo and he doubles for davey

jones and he got beaten up by brian

jones

pop stars in the fruit section

it just screams get in there with the

pop star

yeah it's totally about the music he

didn't he didn't want to have sex with

any of them he liked knowing them though

he loved saying he had been hanging out

with so and so and so and so sonny and

sherry took me under their wing took

care of me and they always looked after

me and taught me a lot of things you

guys really kept a good eye on me and

yeah you got me my first part in the

movie got to your first part gave you

your first camera when you were taking

pictures sunny really liked him and so

he came with us to like gigs and he came

to the studio and i remember he had this

this hat that was just like sunnies

the question to me is

why is it that so why did the

celebrities

glom on or allow to be glommed on to by

this guy that i mean around here people

would just kind of make fun of i don't

care

i think certain people are graced with a

sense of spirit a connection to their

spirit

that a lot of us don't have even though

we try

you know

and they are the ones

that you want to protect

and city and chair were kind of like my

mom and my dad

he just seemed very genuine and

and you didn't have to really worry

about him you know you didn't have to

wonder what what he wanted or what was

his ulterior motive or anything like

that he was just

really sweet boy and

and just kind of there to absorb

whatever he could absorb just like he

was looking at everything and kind of

learning about everything

when we played the toronto pop festival

rodney uh was actually the backstage he

was the caterer

and he had brought out

wonderful uh east coast shrimp just a

beautiful thing of shrimp

and of course since the beetles were

more famous than the doors he of course

invited the beetles to eat first and

they filled themselves and their gaping

maws were stuffed with shrimp

beautiful beautiful east coast shrimp

and then there were just a few left and

then they came over and knocked down our

door and said uh there's food in the

other room if you guys would like was it

well yeah man oh my god you know and i

went in this other room and uh here's

this huge plate you know with two shrimp

two shrimp on it it was like as big as

this table there was one here and one

over here and i said rodney that's it he

said well you know the beetles come

first ray

oh man this is what we came for really i

love him

i couldn't even eat the shrimp let alone

meet the beatles i heard asking jimoth

no you know were you able to see lennon

you know did you meet len and he said

nobody met leonard that's right he said

we weren't even allowed to stand on the

side of the stage

he was

rodney you are mayor of the sunset strip

i was king

well mayor first i let rodney have it he

got a lot of mileage out of being

married the sunset strip

i didn't need it i could always reclaim

it rodney be careful

and i remember meeting him at ben

frank's parking lot and well your your

name is on the popsicle and icicles

record you produce it he goes i'm a

genius i produce a lot of music i've

done so much it was whole kim paoli rap

and he was actually quite a decent

songwriter he was the voice on allyou

and then also the rumor was that he did

they're coming to take me away

he he did the english version he did

he was very off the wall and he didn't

conform to anybody's rules or he had no

rules at all

you thought it was a joke and so you

left

kim fowley rodney the gtos there needed

to be some reference point there was a

certain social hierarchy there and they

were

the head of it

whatever happened to the stone ponies

we decided we had to eat that's a good

idea i first started out working at

capitol records working for linda

ronstadt i was getting in all the teen

magazines

and then i went over to mercury records

and started handling rod stewart i used

to take david boy around downtown i was

trying to get him signed to labor valley

must have had a hard time at that time

um getting played on the radio yeah and

maybe like listening at the door they're

well knees and locky with this weirdo

with a dress on

they used to send me demos remember yeah

yeah i'd like them back please

they're now extremely magical yeah

i'm knowing you no no i'm sure you

haven't put them in auction have you run

it

here's a guy who brought david bowie

ziggy stardust to the hollywood

glitterati he introduced bowie to to the

town

okay i did so i came to l.a and finally

put together the english discover

that's when i started to know rotten and

you know more about english bones than i

did he'd bring their records and test

pressings before anyone else had them

introducing not just me but really

i think america it was really important

for someone like him to be able to say

this is hip

and and in his weird

quiet little way just magnified it and

it was him

i was a rodney kid

i was a glitter kid i was hanging out on

the strip every night

music pop music was was a lot more

special and secret and like liking bands

and knowing groovy bands and unusual

bands was a lot like being part of a

real secret

club we would spend hours getting ready

but we would spend hours like clipping

our hair hoping that we would look like

mental patients you know we were wearing

tube tops as skirts with ripped fishnets

there were mirrors on the wall there are

pictures of us like going

you know that's what we would do we

would dance in front of this

you know and stick our tongues out and

very hedonistic sort of

you know and we were so beautiful and so

young

people came like cute moon would come

there and led zeppelin you'd see bowie

and you'd see iggy mark bolan or you'd

see

gary glitter actually elvis dropped into

remember that yes elvis came everybody

came elvis was it came in there

with his d.a badge

and a bag of pergamon

i like everybody else was on quaaludes

and drinking and projectile vomiting you

know puberty

1970s style

the dance floor was his biggest famous

coffee table but there was a vip booth

you know with one table in it

you know it's so cute with like a velvet

robe separating you from the other three

people that were in the joint you know

the other three people happen to be iggy

pop and you know bowie and you know ben

elvis

but uh there's a hell of a membership

this this but i mean literally the the

very small club was so tiny wasn't it i

was and unlike the the ritual like going

into this vip opening the velvet rope

being hustled in and then you sat down

and

you were two feet away from everyone

else yeah it was funny at least you were

in there though

but that was so reflective of rodney's

character wasn't it that like there was

hierarchies oh yeah

i mean

rodney was one of the people that would

sweep through in an entourage and head

for the backstage with passes and chicks

and fabulous clothes and we'd be you

know pressed up against the speaker

thing busily losing our our hearing

robert plant says this guy here gets

more girls than i do

robert plant said rodney was more of a

sex symbol than he was

and he's probably right

uh

it was far more hedonistic i mean it was

sort of i only remember the sex i don't

remember anything else about elia

tillman frankly i i i mean he just

walked out the door and yeah women

screamed and girls brought you food and

they drove away

and they brought their girlfriends over

and they kept the boyfriends away and

the fathers and the brothers

and all you did was lay there and you'd

have to eat all the time just to keep it

up

but you know what's funny about male

[ __ ] no matter how tired you are you

can always get it up for a new naked

girl

kim fowley is

an absolute beast

i've never i think he's a very dangerous

man extremely dangerous man and uh

he should definitely not be working with

anyone that's under 18.

because he's breaking the law trust me

he'd always put together

uh some little sunset boulevard runaway

and say okay we're going to make a bro

band you're going to be a

star and then

i mean

kim

i'm just going to tell you the truth

this man would force us to sit in a

hotel room while he had sex with girls

and then when i got sick enough of it i

stood up to leave it he'd say down dog

and that's when i just said [ __ ] you

you sicko

no

i don't think so

i was sexually abusive to the whole

universe i i wouldn't limit it to any

one person

i think that basically kim fowley used

rodney

for everything that he could

it's almost like a drug dealer

except rodney was dealing girls not not

in the sense of a of a pimp or anything

but that that the power that a dealer

has

you know

you know everybody is your friend

because you're holding the coke it was

it was the same with rodney he just had

access to these beautiful beautiful

little nubile girls stars on their faces

you know coupled with his enthusiasm for

the acts you know genuine you know

musical ability and style and glamour

and so on he also you know had this

extraordinary posse of [ __ ]

oh

god

and when he left for los angeles did you

hear from him

not for quite a while not for years a

few years

his mother would

contact his mother

or where he is where he is but

i didn't in fact i didn't even know he's

gone for quite a while

we we basically knew that he was down

there but we hadn't heard from him for

for quite a while and of course you know

we were concerned and we were worried

about him

did you ever consider going to hollywood

yourselves

no

no

cause we i had my daughter and he had

his son so we were already you know we

had responsibilities and we didn't think

of i didn't want any part of it

no i just wanted a home and a child

i think she would have been the star in

her in

hollywood well i love to sing western

songs yeah i did i've always been a

beautiful girl

thank you

that's the first time i heard that in 47

years

he's not very complimentary really

i'm gonna call my dad tell him

see

rodney was a well i was a thrown away

child i mean your mother dropped you off

and my mother dropped me off years ago

when you come to hollywood kind of by

yourself you learn how to read trouble

my own mother had gotten bored with me

years before and so i got put in one of

those foster home kind of things and

then i started hanging out by myself

because that's i'm a lone wolf i realize

egomaniac parents aren't the best thing

to have

what did you you were not photographed

with your mother well i was there

how many photos you have with your

mother that

show me that one again it's right here

but she's not in that photo

she should be

now daddy that's ready what's happening

wow

i don't think i'm gonna be really late

so we're we're still working i think i'm

gonna be really late

can you get a photo of all of us

okay

sharon i got something i want to give

you i forgot to give it to you it's been

a while and i got this on one of my

first trips to hollywood

and i never got around to giving this to

you

i figured it's better

late better now than late than never oh

thank you rodney

you remember when i first went to

hollywood right mm-hmm

sure do

ah

elvis presley

thank you sharon from elvis presley

oh rodney thank you and i just never got

around to giving that to you oh goodness

oh this is incredible absolutely

incredible

thank you

i noticed all the family photographs you

got back

oh yeah yeah rodney's not here he's

hanging up in the other room

who are in these pictures

well

that's bang iving and um

we're doing pictures of rodney yeah in

the other room no uh no yeah no

yeah him with the beatles and him with

the roger clinton laura

yeah oh god i've got a lot of your

clothes and went me another clip with um

with the easter bunny in the other room

yeah yeah

yeah we have

but what we have they're all in

scrapbooks they're just you know

pictures that he would send that stories

about it could we see one sure yeah

honey get the book

please

what about um the easter bunny photo

oh yeah you want to see that that was

good

that's me and with the easter bunny

well now i guess dad will have to put

that in the frame because it's

daddy

albums here i found kato's picture

why do you have cato's picture

he sent it to us

what are you looking for

picture rodney's got his pictures yeah

what are some of your thoughts about

what we've been doing the and everything

seems okay

do you have some concerns

well yeah i guess my life

you know i'm a very quiet person i'm

very

you know pretty private

what are some of your warriors well i

don't want to talk about that

really

cut

because you're

leaving the eyes

los angeles was the place that people

came to to die out of their old selves

leave their past behind

the potential of becoming somebody else

of becoming a star of becoming

someone who was so much better or so

much more perfect than the person you

left behind

i want to have a 3d like i want to have

a

technical

and a liver technical of life as opposed

to a black and white life you know

so i had nowhere to go so i ended up

here

on the streets of la at 17. and rodney

was one of the people that we aspired to

you know be like okay i'm going to run

away to los angeles i'm going to find

kim valley i'm going to find rodney

bingenheimer

we are iron because we overcome

catastrophic pain on a daily basis

that's why i don't do drugs

because i don't want to be numb i want

to feel the pain i want the clarity of

the challenge i want to win i want to

kick in the head i want to tear the

throat box out i want to smash in the

lungs i want to kick in the rib cage

i'll split the spine and i want to use

your phone make love to your wife's

sister eat your dog and leave your house

with a good cassette

that's how i am i'm at war i'm at war

with myself i'm at war with you i'm at

war with everybody

kim fowley and rodney

dogs of war

iraq

106.7 k rock

it's all happening

so well we're going to go out and look

for um this band what is it no duh who's

no doubt yeah who are they

hello

no doubt they're like the biggest band

in the world right now they're on cover

of all these magazines they're from

orange county really yeah you got at

least playing back when they were a punk

band

no

i'm sorry

it's like the highest compliment

is it's the highest compliment yeah yeah

you said i'm a godhead you're a guy oh

goodness

that is

that's sweet i have a niece whose name

is desiree and uh she's totally into no

doubt we went to the k rock acoustic

christmas and no doubt was there and

gwen was there and and rodney bent over

backwards

pushing people out of the way and he's

like she's ready to go on stage she's

like but gwen wait you have to get this

for desiree and and it's like people

don't do that

they don't care you know

he's like that

who's camille doing camille's something

i

really care about i think about a lot

and

love her very much

i don't know anybody else like him

a lot of people have looked after me and

i should return the favor i think that's

the way it should be

look after people and

take care of people

i'd like to introduce mr ronald vaughn

he um actually hitchhiked out here

from houston texas and saw an article on

my club in people magazine so ronald why

don't you tell us your story you came

out here from houston and yeah same

state that jennifer love hewitt's from

but i'm from houston now

i always want to be a musician and i

decided to come to california we always

kind of look after ronald vaughn and

help them out give them money and always

have problems with rent and stuff

i like them you know i feel sorry for

him i i i moved to california so i can

get some opportunity in the music

business

and make a life for myself

what was your relationship like with

your parents

that's something i really

don't really want to

discuss very much it was you know i was

adopted only child and

uh

it just just was it was not a positive

relationship let's put it that way

i had i did not ask to be

adopted by those people

okay

i try to get creative work done

you know past the point of survival

because what is the point of life if one

just barely survives that's no fun

because my my plans for a music career

have been too long in coming you know

and i'm in a crucial stage where i must

succeed

we all want to be the golden calf

secretly we we all do people are

pretending we don't but everybody that

gets a taste of fame wants to be the

golden [ __ ] calf

fame itself has become a kind of

cure-all

yeah yeah i'm here with phil spector

with bill spector's annual bowling party

a happy birthday i have a surprise for

you

i'm collecting the bridge between the

famous and the not so famous people it's

like if you go to a party and and

there's some drunk people there

you're the designated driver well i'm

the designated driver between the famous

and the not so famous i think he's like

andy warhol i'd you too absolutely

absolutely didn't say that yeah you are

totally like the west coast really

yeah rodney is very reminiscent of andy

warhol in that gee well

his persona becomes this big blank

screen that draws and bounces off of of

like crazy talented people

i know andy there's a picture of me and

andy did you get on really well yeah oh

yeah

i'm here babysitting rodney bingham

thanks a lot joe okay we just heard the

letter bomb by the circle jerks a brand

new album and dedicated to you no doubt

right i was approached by k-rock

they used to hang out in the club and

see all these amazing stars hanging out

hey we should get this guy riding was

first on the radio august 22nd 1976.

approximately 15 months after his club

closed rodney hit his own show

i'd be playing demos a lot of the early

punk stuff like the sex pistols and the

germs i show up with the stack of

records ramones the dam and blondie

people say what is this what kind of

music is this who is this

them

weren't you the first one to play cheap

trick and also

was that true that's true you don't get

any recognition for it i don't

understand oh

you know and in that sense the true djs

are essential if if the disc jockey is

not into the music that's it

is that amazing or what oh yeah you

can't make a record if no one hears that

you have to have somebody play it and

without them we're kind of screwed

you know what i mean i just played the

quick hello quick where are you

joan and susie quattro yes i was like an

alien

in my school people made fun of the way

i dressed and the way i look

it was instrumental in my development of

who i became as a musician

maybe it's a girl

for me

corey levin from rnr and and holly

reporter oh yeah chris at minnie minty

fred

julia from jive here you keep on talking

to them i'll talk to you okay rodney is

being pursued now by a mediocre record

label with a crummy band say hello to

nancy sinatra this is julia from drive

records hi julia

okay i want to meet her yeah she's not

going to have sex with you this might be

ready a record play don't let him fool

you for a minute rodney

she comes naked or don't come at all

this is in 1986 the record came out in

1985 and we were all

still you know doing our thing back in

new jersey we're doing our jersey thing

yeah

working on day jobs i was working at a

record store and i got a hold of their

album

the k rock and started playing it on my

show the song anything anything and

rodney came and visited us and we let

him sleep on our floor that was the

first time we met him we were in this

like house in the midst of this like

kind of decaying area i am

lodi new jersey

this is chris carter's mansion from

dramarama they've got their own swimming

pool there it is

there's no record company pushing it was

just he picked this song out of this

whole album every record company in town

is calling us on the phone

thank you for playing us on the radio

rodney well your godhead what can i say

anyway me and everyone else

i want to thank rodney bingenheimer

where i see his hair right from here

right he's the man who brought us in

here on the first try so he's going to

be a good man on kroq and we're going to

show our love for you

sometimes we give messages is there

anybody like a new york rally you want

to give a message that you don't see you

know

sometimes you don't get to see people

but

at a certain point in time k-rock was

not a very powerful radio station he was

very you know creative and instrumental

in dictating their style

he likes things with hooks he likes

things that are catchy he likes things

that are buzzy he likes good looking

english boys you know he gets the joke

about almost every

good band and he's there if you've got

he's just has an aesthetic

did you also have a difficult upbringing

did i have a difficult yeah i grew up in

a teepee in oregon my dad gave me acid

when i was four

he was like the grateful dead drug

dealer

hey rodney ronald here they didn't know

yeah rhino ought to get get off their

butt and do something anyway my head's

spinning around i got i gotta i gotta

try to sing so keep in touch and see

what see what you can come up with

yeah okay bye

what did he say about helping you out

well he didn't really commit to anything

you know i mean he

he helped him in a can but i don't know

if he's capable of doing that

he wants to make it as a rock and roll

star a rock and roll singer with records

out

market market

right playback playback

uh the cd album that i've had press now

i'm still looking for a record label for

is called is it or ivy spaceman at large

just a demo

he um

always had this

this fantasy wearing a space suit

ronald vaughn in a space suit

when i become this is it or i be persona

my

my mind kind of becomes larger than life

you know if that's the way it is with an

entertainer right

he's pretty fair about if i make a good

record he'll play it if it's a crummy

record he won't play it or if it's a

record that's good but not in his pocket

the runaways to death well it would kind

of

come on i have the number one record in

yugoslavia this week

slick willie in the arkansas frog record

really that piece of crap is number one

you're kidding adam and duran duran

alaska the smiths blondie gave me the

gold record when you guys go gold there

i got someone okay i need to power a

wild gold you got it we changed our

lives completely and as a result you

know um

we made what five five six albums and

you know had this big long career he's

the man around here played coldplay

before anybody else you know thanks so

we owe you that's that's why we do this

because we owe you oh we take it one

that owes me one which i'm never going

to get is oasis really

they're playing before they were signed

i was playing them on cassettes

it was very influential in actually

creating i think what became alternative

music

faster than

who is very dear to all of us who

wouldn't be here

oh

oh

after you've had all this amazing

success i completely forgot to ask you

what happened to the english disco

well

the english disco you know what happened

was disco music was coming in i don't

want to play donna summers and i don't

want any part of disco so that kind of

ended the glam glitter thing

so i grabbed my girlfriend by the hand

and we left and i never came back

i became a karate stew can you imagine

the english disco becoming a karate

school

man

when you're young you have a vague idea

that as you get

older things are going to change and

there is some going to be some strange

happily ever after well as you get older

and older you realize there's not a real

happily ever after

oh here it is

what's that

the death certificate

this is like early pictures of that

that's your mom there's a little girl

yeah

it's my mom

look at my mom's ashes

look it fits perfectly in there

some steve just left off a little steam

there

do you remember ronnie's mom at all

no but i remember him talking about his

mom

i don't remember that but i do remember

him here tell me what did you say about

your mom

when you guys are doing the good times

recording session yeah i brought my mom

and she hang out okay yes all right i

remember now

but you talked about her too a lot yeah

yeah okay and she always looked up to

you and stuff yeah

when did she die

two years ago

i wasn't gonna get her a maid or a

nurse or someone to take care of her i

think she'll

last longer she needed someone to take

care of her and i couldn't be there

because i'm living in los angeles

he knew she suffered quite a bit toward

the end and he did

he did take it pretty bad and and he

called her all the time he was always

calling her

several times a week

he wasn't he wasn't around when she

passed away

but

i

felt pretty bad about it i guess

eventually his uh her remains is going

to go to london is where she requested

and that's where rodney wants to take

his mother

yeah

you think about her a lot yeah

there he is

phil spector with celine dion oh my god

there's kato kayla

here's um melissa tormey

oh yeah well that was the oscars they'd

get in there were you invited yeah she

was holding her oscar

jody foster

well it's the kind of a wide variety of

kinds of people here well ronnie you

know them all

i can't quite figure this out

i stay away from anything negative or

negativity or anything like that i like

positive you know happy things

tell me what music means to you

just you know just

positive it makes makes you

makes you happy makes you want to do

more things okay you have the oasis of

christmas id yes yes i do

it's so unlikely that a station would

start out playing nothing but weird

music

and become successful well k-rock is a

monster i mean it just gets bigger and

bigger doesn't it i mean

i mean they're probably programming the

whole country

the new rock alternative

j-rock

so why haven't you participated

financially

probably because you know you know

you're on the radio you're not really

supposed to be paid for that kind of

stuff because it dates back to the

payola scare back in the 60s 50s and 60s

so it's just nice you know knowing that

you did this and would you like to have

the money i wouldn't mind

could you use it

sure

anyway rodney on the rock right here

106.7 k rock a lot of things have

changed but i'm still i used to be on

saturday and actually i first started my

shows at eight o'clock new time from 10

until 1am

what can i say and now i'm way back here

in the corner every sunday from midnight

to 3am

i think he's sort of seen as

the king of the obscure

where he was king of all that was

happening when i first started at k rock

i think he's seen as

the gateway to

things people care about

less everybody knows how you love bill

spector and ronnie spector you know she

recorded one of your songs what really

yeah creation what'd she record she

wrote she did don't worry baby

ronnie's wow i can't believe that doing

brian wilson wow let's hear it here it

is

i mean we're an 18 to 24 year old

station do they really care about sonny

and cher and the beach boys

the audience is i'm pretty young

they're in tomorrow that

probably what you might call the

skateboard music techno and dance and

ambient and drums and bass and the

jungle that that's the future of music k

rock has really become this like kind of

hard rocking

station playing corn and limp biscuit

and metallica it's much more business

now it's much more uh

it's like having

shares of

ibm or something it's it's less like

guys getting together in a garage and

then going and making a record

i think surviving in this business is

really the longevity in this business is

what's is what's always questionable you

know it's so based on transients you

have to have you have to be uh like me

very cynical very detached and and

nothing bothers you

and you'll be fine

i recommend it for all selfish bastards

who have [ __ ] in their own little place

get on a plane immediately and show up

aspiring actress and a social ladder

climber saw you at denny's with rodney

bingenheimer

congratulations looks like your pick of

the day

he has had a an amazingly long run and

especially amazing seeing as their

slimmer and slimmer pickings to be

jazzed

about we love you from philippines

i look at rodney and i think all right

you're still here and so am i you know

let's just kind of let's write this one

in our journal

oh this is good this is going to be

exciting yeah this is amazing it's going

to be fun so how are you great good

great

are you doing this i'm doing the tonight

i have to go be uh happy now and go be

happy you know it's different this is

fun really yeah i wish you i wish you

yeah you'll see it yeah i can't wait

you're gonna surprise me with it i don't

know i was okay i was kind yeah those

are great

you hear about chris chris got food

poisoning

yeah at ken's house of pancakes he's in

the hospital

yeah

i can't believe it i told you she went

with me to denny's i just wanted to have

a little snack yes

ronnie what does chris's friendship mean

to you it means a lot you know it's good

to have someone

that knows

about you and cares about you

that's right rodney beetleheimer it's

time if it wasn't for rodney i wouldn't

have this job on the station because i

wouldn't have been in the band and i

wouldn't have got paul mccartney last

week or david bowie or any of the things

that i consider great moments in my life

all kind of stem from my relationship

with rodney so you know

uh i know a part of his life so i i

guess i kind of expected it 30 seconds

right what the [ __ ]

chris is like my best friend and i have

like very few close friends maybe a

handful of like really close friends

why do you think you only have a handful

of close friends

a lot not

with or that available don't hold back

something

from everybody's your friend

everybody's your friend and everyone

treats you nice

i think we're all very wary

you know a little bit afraid and a

little bit defensive

because we've all been

used to a degree

but

it's funny because we can use each other

and not mind it at all

you know what i mean in the kindest

sense of the word

uh i had to slowly

kind of explain it to him i said you

know i might be getting a show and again

honesty is the way to go chris my my

buddy is working on the competition

station and when your best buddy

tries to cop your hustle

man

he knew my love of radio so i didn't

think he was shocked when i when i

told him that there was a possibility i

might be getting my own show weekly new

music show we called the chris carter

mass and if you listen to the show you

know this happens at this time and now

why 107's chris carter because

it's shattering

because i was the only one doing this

type of radio show

here can you stop for a second

i'll be an [ __ ]

what's wrong just leave me alone all

right go do your [ __ ] radio and be me

you are me it's your problem [ __ ] you

i'm not involved

is

i got so much going over there with the

other djs i'm only on one night a week

so don't consider me that important

i think they're afraid to fire him

actually i think they're afraid that

the soul of k rock will blow away

if they take rodney off his midnight to

two shift

well you know if they don't want me here

and i'll go to another station

it's

unbelievable that someone could be in

the music business this long and help so

many people and just be in it because

they love the music

she

i've only been in love maybe twice in my

life and she's the main one i actually

love

what is it about camille that you like

look at her you can just tell and she's

beautiful

she's thin thin is in

and she's caring

and

she's understanding and

very smart

is that hard to find

very hard

you just don't find that especially

in hollywood

camille playing tonight

gigging i couldn't find her i thought

she'd be at bob didn't show up i don't

know i didn't get a packs from her

you should do a real radio thing

off the question but don't let her

answer until next week

tune in next week to get the answer all

right yeah

i hate to hate to get noah live say when

you see those shows like sally jesse

raphael they pre-record those shows if

they say no they can cut it out good

writing

yeah

absolutely

what she said no

all right i like to settle down and be

with

my partner

by my side

who likes me someone who really cares

for me i know camille cares a lot and

you talk a little about that up in

and does mountain view mm-hmm

what were you saying

what was i saying

are you talking about camille yes then

you know how much i care about camille

think about her and

you know think a lot about coming up

so how would you characterize your you

how do you guys

relationship great friends

i can call rodney up and

you know like he called me up about his

plumbing broke in the house you know

i can come up and ask him for a ride if

i'm stuck in la and i

have i have

relationships are kind of like

you have to be ready for them you have

to want them

and you have to commit to them

and

you have to be into

when you get into them basically take

the fall

you know

because there's always enough but then

there's always a down

i'm kind of on a mission you know

to

do my music and stuff and

right now i i kind of have a boyfriend

and

you know rodney's just a friend

now

my mom's ashes wants me to

spread them over

you know the sea over

in england

yeah i love london

i like to live there someday

were you there in the early 70s

yeah the first time

tell me about that that's when you met

bowie right yeah

to be with melody melanie mcdonald

i thought we were gonna get married but

she ended up marrying david bowie's

manager

but who knows maybe when i'm over in

london and i find the woman of my dreams

you could take me in take care of me and

live happily ever after

if you find a woman like that in london

would you come back no no

absolutely not

rodney

sleep

i sleep every day

there

is part of

the mom

once you scatter them

no more gone

a forever

here to the palace here

you know

you know i love you so much

why are you throwing that stuff in

i swam

across i jumped across for a

year and it was all yellow

and it's true

look how they shine for you

this is what she wanted

they should be proud

look at the stars

106.7 kroq righty on the rock i'd like

to welcome on the telephone right now

none other than david boye hello david

hi rodney how are you it's great to hear

from you thank you it's good to be heard

this is david bowie and you're listening

to my friend rodney bingenheimer rodney

on the rock

106.7 k rock yes you just heard

aka isidore ivy spaceman at large doing

a heather locklear twist

and right before that you heard jennifer

love hewitt herself singing how do i do

how do i deal with that and right before

that you heard ronald bond himself doing

jennifer love hewitt really cool anyway

listening to rodney on the rock

yeah incredible

well rodney means a hell of a lot to me

and

i say is irreplaceable best friend

that's how i made it through

kind of moral support

do you want this movie to have a happy

ending or saturday

you think it's going to have a happy

ending

that's up to you riley

really

how would you like to see the movie end

well you know everybody everybody enjoys

it

makes everybody happy

i'm happy

you're not dick clark are you okay are

you okay being rodney yeah yeah no he's

okay being rodney that we're cool

we are still here [ __ ] you

my name is

so come on let's go

come on let's

go but somehow it just isn't the same

come on come on come on come on come on

come on come on come on come on

come on let's go

i'll give up

everything let's go

and when oh down

is

is

is

is

what's happening

is

uh

that's all we know

hi hi honey

hi honey why are you making them go

is it time to go

they have to go

okay bye i guess we have to go bye bye

bye and thank you for coming

to the show

bye

i still listen to you on the radio it's

cool really yeah

they keep switching times and stuff at

least

you