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Dad of Red Hot Chili Peppers Anthony Kiedis Writes a Book About Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll

Roger Friedman
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Somehow I missed the whole story of how Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers grew up in Hollywood. His father is a 73 year old hipster actor from Grand Rapids, Michigan who made sure his 12 year old son experienced sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Maybe this explains Kiedis’ drug problems and why he didn’t wear a shirt until a couple of years ago. John Kiedis, aka Blackie Dammett, has written a book about all of this. You can buy it on amazon as a Kindle download for six bucks. I’m giving you guys the press release I received this morning, as well as a video clip from the BBC. I kind of like this guy.

the release:

Dammett!

Who put the HOT in the Red Hot Chili Peppers–The wild, lurid, hilarious tell-all Hollywood Babylon memoir of Anthony Kiedis’ dad

Soon-to-go-viral book now available as an exclusive on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C4MD2DY

April 1, 2013–Beverly Hills, California: You may wish you had some of that evil 1980s Sunset Strip cocaine too when you can’t put this book down til dawn–it’s immersive, exhilarating, exhausting, elegiac, ribald…and hilarious.

It’s simply the biggest, boldest epic of Hollywood and Rock & Roll ever written.

It’s the memoir of John Kiedis, father of legendary rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers front man Anthony Kiedis.

John Keidis–AKA Blackie Dammett–the Hollywood Babylon Renaissance man whose mind blowing exploits and relentlessly lurid lifestyle shaped his future Rock & Roll Hall of Famer son–between the torrent of drug and sex fueled parties, auditions and business deals in Hollywood, New York and London, Dammett towed the young Red Hot Chili Pepper with him on his drug deals with a show biz who’s who.

Along the way Dammett found time for acting in high profile movies and TV too–everything from “misunderstood junkie hypochondriac suspected child kidnapper with a soft side” to “a failed Hell’s Angel.”

Then there were the “girls.” OMG. Nobody could make this stuff up:

“New girls were always coming of age, replenishing the scene… Deirdre, Darcy, Jill Jacobson, Melissa, Skye Aubrey, Lisa Blount, Lehna from Sweden, Summer, Shannon, Veronica Blakely, Tallulah, Debbie Baker from Trashy Lingerie, Punky, Vickie, Raven Cruel… Annette Walter-Lax who later became Keith Moon’s significant other…”

Fasten your seatbelts–it’s going to be a humpy ride.

Dammett knew them all:

He played Pong (the first video game) with John Lennon, and then Lennon, temporarily exiled from NY by Yoko Ono and lubed with coke and whiskey, poured out his legendary heart to Dammett.

Dammett partied with the likes of Lou Reed, Axl Rose, Andy Warhol, Keith Moon, Alice Cooper, Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, 14-year-old Drew Barrymore, George Carlin, David Lee Roth, Deborah Harry, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Richard Hell and Television, Patti Smith and Basquiat…the list goes on and on.

This is Blackie Dammett’s story–the man who has had a profound, ineffable influence on his son, Anthony Kiedis, front man of the seminal Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Red Hot Chili Peppers.

And the entire book is ghost-writer free–every single word is Blackie Dammett’s.

From his Lithuanian ancestors landing at Ellis Island (with some Algonquin and Mohican blood mixed along the way), to Blackie’s classic youth in 1940s and ‘50s hardscrabble Michigan (an almost Norman Rockwellian, American Graffiti idyll), to his hilariously depraved Hollywood of the 60s through the 90s, his story is the story of America in the second half of the twentieth century–an epic, authentic cultural document without equal in detail, profound candor and heart.

Hey Blackie–You’ll never heave lunch in this town again.

Monday on The View: A Barbara Walters Showdown Looms

Roger Friedman
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Monday on The View: A Barbara Walters Showdown Looms

UPDATE 11 AM MONDAY: Walters says “I have no announcement to make.”

Monday morning on “The View” comes the long time star of ABC’s soap opera “General Hospital,” Anthony Geary. But a bigger soap opera is looming right there on “The View,” and it’s much more complex than anything Luke and Laura have had to face. The show returns live with Barbara Walters and the pressing question: is she announcing her retirement from ABC News and this program? Or did ABC leak a story to media sites on Thursday knowing that Friday was a holiday and that the story of Walters’ exit would become a fact before it could be disputed?

Even producers at “The View” have no idea what Walters is planning to say when she marches on stage at 11am Eastern. True, she’s 83 years old, and had some illness issues this winter. But Walters is a supreme game player. She will not go down without a fight. And while ABC News chief Ben Sherwood is young enough to be her son, Walters is no fragile senior citizen. She has a lot of fight left in her.

Since the story broke on Thursday, there’s been a lot of strange stuff. On Friday’s “Good Morning America,” the panel at the desk actually discussed this as if they weren’t on ABC, and weren’t being directed about what to say. They sure made it seem like Walters was leaving her career.

But I told you immediately on Thursday, Walters’ conversations, according to sources, had been about leaving ABC News. She planned to stay with “The View” indefinitely, certainly beyond May 2014. This May the show will lose Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck (who hasn’t announced her plans yet). But there’s obviously a power struggle afoot. And lest anyone forget, Walters will remind you: she invented “The View” and owns a piece of it.

So what will she say? A source says: “I can’t believe she will just give in and say it’s over. I think she’ll say she’s thought about retiring from News, and intends to stay with the show.”

I can tell you about a time I was with Walters when she went through tense negotiations with ABC News in June 1991. I was interviewing her for Vogue. At that exact moment, ABC News chief Roone Arledge was making it tough for Walters, who then had “20/20” as well as her specials, and substituted on “Nightline” and on “GMA.” Things were so fragile that Walters brought Henry Kissinger into it. (I can still remember her asking me to leave the office so she could take a call from “Doctor Kissinger.”) Eventually she rode it out. Arledge succumbed, and Walters made it through the 1990s at least.

Can she do it again? Her back is against the wall. Syndication is an iffy deal for any kind of specials. Larry King has already shown that it’s not easy to function from the outside. Of course here’s a crazy scenario: Walters leaves ABC involuntarily but lets them make a big deal of her retirement. She immediately, even at age 84 or 85, makes a deal with NBC, appears as a guest host on “Today,” and gets some killer interview. Stranger things have happened.

Literally–stay tuned…

Bradley Cooper, Ryan Gosling Make “Pines” a Record Indie Hit

Roger Friedman
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Bradley Cooper, Ryan Gosling Make “Pines” a Record Indie Hit

It looks like Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines” is a record indie hit this weekend. Total ticket sales for showings in just 4 theatres is around $300,000. Of course, having Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper in one movie, not to mention beautiful, talented Eva Mendes (who also dates Gosling) and the fearsome but beloved Ray Liotta in an indie film made for nothing, is kind of outrageous.

But the budget was minimal as Cianfrance’s script is a literary triptych. The movie unfolds in three parts; Gosling and Cooper are never in it together, really, except for a brief sequence. The third part is about their sons, one of whom, played by Dane DeHaan, is the new Leonardo DiCaprio. If the movie holds as it expands at the box office it could be the first Oscar nominee of 2014. I am serious. “Pines” is a deeply wondrous film that when it was first shown in Toronto last fall caused a sensation. Gosling and Cooper each do exceptional work. They have turned into old fashioned movie stars who are also very good actors. Or vice versa. And they are real leading men, something we haven’t had in a long time.

The premiere on Thursday night was held at the dreadfully cold Landmark Sunshine Theater, a foreboding pit. But the party was at the ultra hip Bowery Hotel. You go to a lot of these things and the cast doesn’t seem too interested in each other. But the “Pines” gang seems pretty cohesive. Gosling brought his mom, Donna, who’s a doll. She told me she’s just gotten her teaching degree and is launching a new career.

Ryan is very excited but nervous about shooting his first feature as a director. He’s directing Mendes, he said. “Or she’s directing me,” he laughed. No one will talk about the plot of this movie. Not because it’s a secret. “But you know, it can change a lot,” Gosling told me.

Cooper had an unceasing crowd of young women piling up around him. We attempted to talk, but we were constantly interrupted by young women who simply walked right up, interrupting without thinking once, and saying “Can we take a picture?” All the main actors had personal bodyguards who were very polite.

Some of the other guests included Patricia Clarkson, who had a long talk with Gosling, and Oliver Platt, who told me he’s getting into producing now. “It turns out I’m very good at calling people up and asking them to do things,” he said.

Funniest line of the night was Cianfrance, introducing Ray Liotta at the Sunshine: “When I was a kid, I didn’t have posters of Playboy playmates on my walls. I had pictures of Ray Liotta.”

By the way: Cianfrance’s lovely wife, Shannon Plumb, has directed her first film. It’s called “Towheads,” and it features the couple’s two young sons. “Towheads” was shown at MoMA’s “New Directors” series this weekend and got rave reviews.

 

Phil Ramone: He Kept Phoebe Snow from Being “Gone at Last”

Roger Friedman
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There are a lot of good stories about Phil Ramone and all the stars he recorded. There are some coming in now on Twitter, and more to be told this week. One story not in his book which we had recently discussed was about the late Phoebe Snow. We were reminiscing about Phoebe, both in agreement that she had had tbe single best voice of her generation. Phoebe’s life changed after having a huge debut album in 1974, self-titled, and a follow up that was so-so. At that point she’d given birth to daughter Valerie, who had multiple defects. Her career–artistically and financially–was a mess.

Phil recorded Phoebe’s third album, “It Feels Like Snow.” Valerie’s picture is on the cover. Phil created a couple of Phoebe’s standards on it, including a remake of “Teach Me Tonight” that stands as a towering recording. He knew she was a jazz singer, even if she railed against it. A year later, Phil was making “Still Crazy After All These Years” with Paul Simon. Bette Midler was supposed to sing on a track called “Gone at Last.” But either Atlantic, her label, wouldn’t give her permission, or something else went wrong.

Phoebe, meantime, was bankrupt and sinking under the weight of raising Valerie on her own. “I saved her,” Phil told me. “It was lucky that it worked out.” He convinced Paul to put Phoebe on “Gone at Last.” The result was a hit single And it bought Phoebe some more time to care for Valerie at home.

Hard to believe–now they are all gone–Phoebe, Valerie, and Phil. I know that Phoebe is driving Phil crazy right now, probably about making another record.

Phil Ramone, Famed Record Producer of Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Dies

Roger Friedman
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40
Phil Ramone, Famed Record Producer of Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Dies

Exclusive UPDATE: Billy Joel says:

“I always thought of Phil Ramone as the most talented guy in my band. He was the guy that no one ever ever saw onstage.
He was with me as long as any of the musicians I ever played with – longer than most. So much of my music was shaped by him and brought to fruition by him.
I have lost a dear friend – and my greatest mentor.The music world lost a giant today.”

Earlier: Heartbreaking: my friend, the friend of so many in the music business, has died at age 79. Phil had been in a New York hospital for the last few weeks, recovering from an aortic aneurysm. It’s just tragic. Phil produced the great music by Paul Simon, Billy Joel, and Tony Bennett– all of whom had been keeping in touch with Phil’s family constantly over the last few weeks.

Phil had 14 Grammy awards– and not enough frankly. Just in the last two years he’d produced Tony Bennett’s “Duets II” and “Viva Duets,” as well as Paul Simon’s critically acclaimed “So Beautiful, So What” and was finishing up a new album with George Michael.

To say Phil was a musical genius, a gentleman, the sweetest and nicest guy–it’s all not enough. For years he’s been producing the annual Songwriters Hall of Fame show and it’s been such a great experience. This past winter, right before he became ill, Phil was honored by the Salvation Army for all of work in the last few years. He was so proud of organizing their kids’ orchestra. He was beaming when they played at the Marriott Marquis that night. And he was so thrilled that Aretha Franklin came to honor him as well.

All I can think of this afternoon is Phil in the studio recording the “Duets II” album in the summer of 2011. I came into see him, and it he was drenched in sweat. It was at least 100 degrees outside, and Aretha had asked that the air conditioning be turned off while she and Tony Bennett recorded “How Do You Keep the Music Playing.” Phil was wearing a light blue dress shirt, and all of it was wet by degrees. I said, “Phil are you all right?” He looked at me with that big smile. “Do ya see what’s going on in there?” he pointed to Aretha and Tony on other side of the glass. “I’m great. Hot. But great.”

Phil’s Grammys:

  • 2006 Producer, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, Tony Bennett Duets: An American Classic
  • 2005 Producer, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, Tony Bennett The Art of Romance
  • 2004 Producer, Album of the Year, Ray Charles Genius Loves Company
  • 2004 Producer, Best Surround Sound Album, Ray Charles Genius Loves Company
  • 2004 Technical Grammy, for contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.
  • 2002 Producer – Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Playin’ With My Friends: Bennett Sings The Blues
  • 1994 Producer – Best Musical Show Album, Passion
  • 1983 Composer – Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television Flashdance
  • 1980 Producer of the Year – Non-Classical
  • 1979 Producer, Album of the Year, 52nd Street
  • 1978 Producer, Record of the Year, Just The Way You Are
  • 1975 Producer, Album of the Year, Still Crazy After All These Years
  • 1969 Producer, Best Musical Show Album, Promises, Promises
  • 1964 Engineer, Best Engineered Recording (non- classical) Getz/Gilberto

Why Taylor Swift Is Not Going to Find a Happy Relationship Anytime Soon

Roger Friedman
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Why Taylor Swift Is Not Going to Find a Happy Relationship Anytime Soon

Yes, I went to a Taylor Swift show last night. Judging by the audience of preteen girls at the Prudential Center in Newark, I doubt many of my colleagues have had this experience. My twin nieces, Hannah and Charlotte, turning 13 on Tuesday, wanted to see opening act Ed Sheeran. They had no interest in Swift, but since i paid for the tickets, I told them we had to do the whole thing.

Now, having seen her in arena, I can tell you why Taylor Swift will never find a happy relationship. In a minute. First the show: I don’t know who wrote it, directed, choreographed it, scripted it in within an inch of its life. But the Red tour show is not about rock and roll or even pop. It’s a humongous Broadway spectacle. Or a series of them.

There are 18 songs including a duet with Sheeran and a guest spot. Last night that went to Pat Monahan of Train, whom Swift called “my favorite singer from my favorite band.” I know, I am an old curmudgeon, but I did do a spit take. “Special guests” in my day meant Eric Clapton, Or Elvis Costello. And they sang a song from a Ford commercial. Eeee.

Anyway.

Most of the 18 numbers have total costume and lighting specifics on the scale of, say, “Les Miseables.” Or more. Swift makes countless costume changes, all stunning. The dancers- there are many– and singers– lots of them too– never sit down for more than two hours. They are very talented. The band is bland, and I’m not even convinced they were all playing their instruments live. They’re so incidental that Swift never introduces them. Whatever was country about Swift is gone. Her music has been rearranged into institutional 80s New Wave pop. The arrangements are clunky. Her own songs from older albums sound better solo, on acoustic guitar. But that’s just a small segment now.

Swift comes across like a QVC hostess. She is endlessly self promoting, listing all her awards for the audience, her so called accomplishments, her many successes. At one point she says that she and the audience have “a lot in common”– but she doesn’t mean several homes, celebrity boyfriends, and millions of dollars. She means that the audience, like her, is obsessed with Taylor Swift. She is disingenuous even to the eye of a New York 13 year old. And she often stands on stage, backlit, flirting with the large video screens.

But: the show is almost overly entertaining. It’s sort of brilliant in its nonstop, ceaseless attack. The detail work and the production are superb. Swift comes off like an actress playing Taylor Swift in a musical. You get the sense there is no there “there.” At what, 23, she is already beyond the pale. But the thousands of girls in the audience love her. I mean, love her. They adore her. They are transfixed. She is the realization of all their fantasies.

It’s the physicality of the show that made me realize, she cannot go back. Taylor Swift is now the G rated Madonna. She flies across the arena suspended from the ceiling on an open platform. She walks out in the middle of the audience sort of on a crane, barefoot. She swings around on a cherry picker (the same one Tina Turner used about 10 years ago in her mid 60s.)

By the time she reaches the end of this extravaganza, Swift is standing at the top of a huge staircase. She is wearing a top hat and is dressed like Sergeant Pepper’s cheerleader in red and gold. Some 20,000 people are speady before her screaming so loudly that you cannot hear anything. Imagine the adrenaline at this point pulsating through her. She tells the audience– it’s scripted but true –“I can’t believe you know all the words to all the songs.” They do, they really do, even though the songs are largely meaningless.

She is not Joni or Carly or Carole. She plays guitar well enough, but fakes piano miserably (like Justin Timberlake). She is a brand, and there is tons of merchandise. But she is also an entertainer.  And she’s superb at it. You know movies are next. This is inevitable. She’s so ready for her closeup she’s already taking it. But a boyfriend who can measure up to the rush of being Taylor Swift? She’s asking too much. I think she will realize that soon.

Ed Sheeran? I like him. He’s sort of this year’s James Blunt or Jason Mraz. He plays amplified acoustic guitar really well, and is a good, athletic singer. He sort of sing-raps. One thing I didn’t understand: he put down the guitar mid-song and the music kept playing. Who was playing it? Compared to Swift’s show, Sheeran’s is like something from Folk City. The two acts complement each other.

Barbara Walters “Is Not Leaving the News, the News is Leaving Barbara Walters”

Roger Friedman
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Barbara Walters “Is Not Leaving the News, the News is Leaving Barbara Walters”

It should be wild on Monday’s edition of “The View.” Over the weekend, Barbara Walters is fighting with ABC over their ambush announcement yesterday that Walters would retire at the end of the 2014 season. Walters had only told friends that she was leaving ABC News. She planned to stay on “The View” and in control of it. Insiders at “The View,” as well as friends, were stunned by the leaked item on Deadline.com yesterday.

But one insider told me: “Whoever is planting these stories knows we’re always dark on Friday. They plant the story on Thursday knowing there’s no show the next day.” Indeed, the leaked story about Joy Behar, also on complicit Deadline, was on Thursday March 7th. It was the exact same set up.

A friend of Walters told me: “Barbara’s not leaving the news. The news is leaving her. They just have no respect for her or for anyone anymore. They’ve moved Nightline to the middle of the night. And when Diane Sawyer’s contract is up, you can expect her to leave as well.”

Walters is 83 years old, and basically in good shape except for her chicken pox and blood clot this past winter. She’s outstayed even the older men–Ted Koppel was kicked out of ABC News long ago, and is now over at NBC. The truth is, young news programmers and executives don’t want old people on their shows. And no one ever expected this generation of broadcasters to live so long, and so well.

“Nothing is set in stone,” says a Walters friend. “It’s not over til it’s over.”

“American Idol” Hits Series Low, In Danger of Dropping Below 10 Million Viewers

Roger Friedman
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“American Idol” Hits Series Low, In Danger of Dropping Below 10 Million Viewers

“American Idol” hit a series low on Thursday night, dropping to a 2.7 in the key demo and 11.03 million viewers. If 10 million is the benchmark for disaster, then it’s just around the corner. At this rate, the moment could come earlier than May 8th, when “The Voice” will put a show up against an episode of “Idol.” Of course “Idol” won the night last night anyway, beating a lot of weak shows and reruns. Advertisers will look at the sheer numbers and see that of all people watching TV last night, most of them were seeing “Idol.” But still– every week “Idol” sinks lower and lower. And in the key demo, “The Voice” is killing it already and it’s only been back for one week. That 2.7 means “Idol” is skewing older and older– not the audience that buys and downloads music. It’s more or less tying with “Grey’s Anatomy” (which should have  been cancelled eons ago) and Kerry Washington’s cool “Scandal.” Now let’s see how “The Voice” does this coming Monday.

Daniel Craig Drops Out of George Clooney Movie for…Love?

Roger Friedman
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Daniel Craig Drops Out of George Clooney Movie for…Love?

There’s news today– courtesy of my pal Baz Bamigboye in the UK Daily Mail– that Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz are definitely headed to Broadway this fall. IN fact Baz says they’ve found their “third” for Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal”– Rafe Spall, the hot young actor who is also the son of favorite Brit star Timothy Spall. Mike Nichols will direct the trio, and Daniel will watch his real life wife playing his fictional wife, having an affair with Spall. It has all the makings of a Liz Taylor-Richard Burton scenario.

But the Weisz-Craigs do want to spend all their time together. Daniel had agreed to be part of a big all star ensemble in George Clooney’s “Monuments Men.” He dropped out suddenly in February and was replaced by Matt Damon. Some thought this was because Daniel didn’t want to be part of a crowd. “MM” is like an “Ocean’s Eleven” caper, except with a real history. Craig, they said, wanted to be the star.

Now I’m hearing that his exit was just because he didn’t want to work. After all, DC made a fortune on “Skyfall,” and has more to come with the next two James Bond movies. Friends in the UK say Weisz has turned down a lot of offers for work simply to be with 007 at their own Skyfall in upstate New York.

So now neither Craig nor Weisz has a project scheduled until October and Broadway. By that time they should be sick of each other (just kidding) and ready for some good volleys on stage!

PS This hot couple met making what turned out to be a terrible movie, “Dream House.” It was a nightmare. Just FYI.

AMBUSH! Did ABC Just “Leno” Barbara Walters? She Has No Plans to Retire from “The View”

Roger Friedman
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138
AMBUSH! Did ABC Just “Leno” Barbara Walters? She Has No Plans to Retire from “The View”

UPDATE: Barbara Walters was totally ambushed by ABC today, my sources say. And the reality is, if she were even contemplating retirement of some kind, either Liz Smith or Cindy Adams would have reported it first. Now every media outlet has picked up this crazy story, and it’s quickly becoming “fact.” Stay turned to see if Walters rebuts. Interesting timing too since “The View” is not live tomorrow, but taped for Good Friday. ABC really played it well.

Earlier: A couple of stories popped up this afternoon in Hollywood columns claiming Barbara Walters was set to announce her retirement. Ha ha. It seems ABC News may have done to Walters what they did to Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and what NBC just did to Jay Leno and Matt Lauer. My source says that Walters had only discussed retiring officially from ABC News, not “The View.” She actually owns a piece of that show.

also read: http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/03/29/barbara-walters-is-not-leaving-the-news-the-news-is-leaving-barbara-walters

But ABC may have decided that the only way to make Walters retire was to announce it and see what happened. It’s too convenient that the two stories were published within a half hour of each other. I’m no particular fan of Walters, but this seemed pretty blatant today. I called a close friend of hers who said, “Barbara has been talking to them about retiring from the news side, but not entertainment.” Indeed, the Walters everyone knows would never, ever completely retire from television. It’s her life.

These stories today were also well timed by someone at ABC who knew that Walters’ personal publicist, Cindi Berger, was out of the country, traveling, and on business elsewhere. Berger’s office was surprised by the afternoon ambush. But this is the Machiavellian way networks conduct themselves these days.

PS Any ABC insider “knowledgeable about the situation” insists that Walters was not ambushed, and that this is exactly what she wanted.

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