Kate’s an old pal of ours from Word magazine who writes scintillating columns and profiles for the New Statesman and Observer. We loved her book ‘Men Of A Certain Age: My Encounters With Rock Royalty’ – just out in paperback! – where she relives her meetings with a variety of legends, eccentrics and old lags whose music she finds particularly compelling and wonders what they all have in common. This typically funny and colourful conversation stops off at …

… the attractive fallibility of rock stars past their peak

… a lifetime’s devotion to Paul Simon

… “Olivia Dean is the Carole King of her generation”

… the ridiculous expectations we heap on musicians’ creativity

… why Arts Criticism is under threat

… when the first record you buy (aged five) is the Chicken Song

… “One-Hit Wonders have achieved infinitely more than most of us”

… Ray Davies and his “eternal sense of apartness”

… why George Michael is under-appreciated and the time he found someone living under his floorboards

… the days when Jeff Beck modelled PVC jackets for Rave

… the genius of Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion

… and the new acts who’ll still be huge in ten years’ time.

Order copies of ‘Men Of A Certain Age’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Men-Certain-Age-Encounters-Royalty/dp/1788705645

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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