Hello, My Name Is Roger
IE: Duran Duran are part of the Olympic Team Great Britain?
Roger Taylor: This is going to be the musical version of that. We’re representing England; Stereophonics are representing Wales; Snow Patrol are representing Northern Ireland; and Paolo Nutini is representing Scotland. It’s a big night for the Brits. We’re all going to unite under the Union Jack.
IE: There’s a really strong bond between major sporting events and music in Britain.
RT: Oh, yeah. Yeah. There’s been that connection for as far back as I can remember. They’re usually not great, but there’s always been a World Cup song for the England team. And I guess, one thing Britain’s famous for is music. I think I might put that down to the weather, actually, because it is usually so bad that everyone’s indoors writing songs, playing guitars, in studios.
IE: With [bassist] John Taylor’s coming tell-all biography, did you each get a chance to preview it?
RT: None of us have read it, actually. I don’t think we’re all in a rush to read each other’s biographies. We spend every day with each other, we know the stories inside-out. I will, when I get some time off the road.
IE: Do you find often that you guys remember things a completely different way? It must be hard for publishers to fact-check these things.
RT: Totally. Maybe we will all write books, eventually, and I think they’ll all have very different perspectives of the same thing. Because we all feel differently. Every situation in life, everyone feels individually – it’s how you’re made up – so they’d all be very different versions of what’s the same story.
IE: Bands today are so compulsively chronicled by the Internet, there are no gaps.
RT: That’s true. Nothing is private these days. It’s very hard to lift the lid on a period of time that’s been well-documented. We’re lucky to have 20 years that weren’t – we were around before mobile phones.
IE: How do you rate the influence of momentum in your career?
RT: The momentum – the times I’ve been in this band – has always been extremely fast. We don’t tend to sit around and mull things over too much. We’re not that kind of band. We move via instinct; we have a group-conscience, if you like, and it’s very powerful.
IE: Is it easy to get going when things slow down?
RT: It is tough, sometimes. That’s why we don’t like to be off the road for too long. We like to keep busy – we’re an incredibly hard-working band. Probably one of the hardest working bands in the world – we’ve been on tour for the better part of 18 months, and I know bands that won’t tour for more than three weeks. I think a lot of people questioned if we should be opening the Olympics, but we’re hard-working and deserve it to an extent.
Duran Duran play Ravinia Festival in Highland Park on August 29th. The Diamond In The Mind live album is available digitally, and on CD, DVD, and Blu-ray. Q&A by Steve Forstneger.
