Successfully Interviewing Rock Stars and Celebrities: 3 Keys to Capturing the Heart!

Landing a Great Interview!

His stage appearance is over. His dark hair and upper body still glistens with sweat. He takes a long swig from a bottle of Perrier. Spittle drips down his chin and he swipes at it with a towel.

Your stomach twists with unease as the interview begins. The discomfort builds as he twists to the side and laughs with one of his band mates. His answers are clipped and he doesn't make eye contact. Oh-oh!

The classic warning signs! This super star is expecting another boring career interview.

But you can turn the tables with a challenging lively encounter that will interest and intrigue him. Maybe even make him lift an eyebrow and smile with surprised delight as you get to his "heart," the key to a great interview.

But only once you learn 3 simple things.

Getting To the Heart

Anyone can get facts and figures; just go to an Internet search engine. But only very skilled interviewers can get to the "heart." And it's the capture of that "heart" that will turn your interview into a great interview.

I was a radio rock reporter years ago when Supertramp and the Who were hot, when Bryan Adams was still scaling the rock star wall, and when Harry Chapin was still alive. I made mistakes but overall I got great interviews; I captured the "hearts."

The interviewing techniques I used then are the same ones I would use today. They were the same ones used long before the invention of the cassette tape player and will be the same ones employed long after DVDs are obsolete.

A great interview employs three things: research, creativity, and professionalism.

Research

Read, read, and read some more: books, online articles, book jackets, CD liners. What have they already been asked? At least a thousand times. Avoid those questions.

Find out what stokes their fires, what subject means something to them -- at the present time. Chapin loved talking about the World Health Organization and because I was prepped with this information, he let me interview him even while the concert promoter was encouraging him to get to the stage.