Johnnie Walker meets... Carly Simon; Phil Collins; Peter Kay Radio 2
The Ryan Tubridy Show RTÉ 1
It’s the end of the year, forget the high drama and relaxez-vous. Well, that was the intention in this house. So tune into Johnnie Walker for a little laid-back listening.
Walker does his homework, asks the right questions and leaves plenty of space for the answers.
Earlier in the week, he was in Martha’s Vineyard to interview Carly Simon at her home. She welcomed him in: “You can look in my drawers if you like.”
And while he suggested she had had a wonderful, idyllic childhood – her father was one half of the publishing company Simon and Schuster – she begged to differ. They lived around an “enormous secret”, she said.
She talked about her turbulent marriage to James Taylor - they no longer speak except through their children.
Bob Dylan, Sean Connery, Mick Jagger, Cat Stevens, – all the big names were there; all the stories of a starry other world set against the real challenges of a childhood stammer and, later in life, breast cancer.
Sure, Simon has a book to sell but she does it with panache ...It’s the husky inviting voice, the easy chat.
Later in the week, you could have enjoyed Phil Collins or driven around Manchester and Bolton with Johnnie and Peter Kay, stopping off for a pasty at Peter’s favourite bakery and singing along to records on the car stereo.
Ballymena’s own Liam Neeson was interviewed by Ryan Tubridy in the run-up to Christmas. He has two films out – Martin Scorsese’s Silence and A Monster Calls.
Scorsese is like “a true artist... he’s always questing,” said Neeson.
Ryan tiptoed tentatively over the line into the personal – unlike Carly Simon, there was never going to be an invitation to look into his drawers!
“Is it too personal a question to ask are you a religious person?” Tubridy tried, apropos of his film, Silence.
But he stopped short of more than a little personal chat about Christmas and how the actor would celebrate... with his sons eating deep fried turkey, said Neeson.
