A remarkable story worth telling

Legendary Los Angeles DJ Rodney Bingenheimer immortalized in Mayor of the Sunset Strip

Though most of us have never heard of Rodney Bingenheimer, his is a story worth telling, and one that director George Hickenlooper did terrifically in the documentary Mayor of the Sunset Strip.
Bingenheimer is the famed Los Angeles-based DJ who got his first job as a body double for Davy Jones of the Monkees thanks to his tiny, elfin looks and pageboy haircut. He did catering for the Doors, lived with Sonny and Cher, and helped introduce David Bowie to the United States. He briefly owned a club and got a show on KROQ, a small radio station that became the most influential rock station in the country. He's still there breaking new bands, although he's consigned to the wee hours of Sunday morning.
In the film plenty of stars show up to pay tribute to Bingenheimer - Courtney Love, Coldplay, Debbie Harry and Brian Wilson, among others. Some owe a lot of their success to his radio show. Others can't really remember how or why they know him; they just do. A measure of his celebrity comes up during our phone interview when he interrupts our conversation for a courier who shows up at his door with a case of vintage Coca Cola bottles sent to him by best friend Nancy Sinatra.
Tandem talked to Rodney Bingenheimer from his home in Los Angeles.

So how does it feel being on the other end of the interview process?
"Yeah it's weird. I'm the guy who usually does the interviews or reviews people, now I'm being reviewed."

How did this film come about? Who approached who?
"Well, Chris Carter, who plays in a band called Drama-rama - they have that song, 'Anything Everything' - they're from New Jersey, and I convinced them to come down to L.A. And of course their song, was the first song I played by them, and I played it constantly and it became really big. And it's still one of the most requested songs. So Chris thought, 'I should do something for Rodney, to kind of pay him back.' And he had this idea to do this book, and of course the publishers want to hear all the stories about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But I'm not gonna reveal any of that stuff. So we were turned down. Then he went to an art opening for Ron Wood. Wood thought he was very colourful and very cool looking, and Chris started talking about Rodney, and Ron Wood goes 'You mean Rodney Bingenheimer? He was the sixth Face,' 'cause one time I played bass in Rod Stewart and the Faces on Top of the Pops in England, I filled in for Ronny Lane. And then Ron started getting the idea, you should do a documentary. And Chris thought it was a great idea, and he got in touch with George Hickenlooper. That's how it got started. We actually were turned down all these publishers. Nobody ever heard of me outside L.A. (laughs)... but little do they know."

Did you have any concerns at all about your life being put on the big screen like that?
"Yeah, but I've had a great life. And I don't do drugs - that doesn't exist - and I don't drink and I don't smoke. I had a great life as a kid growing up on Sunset Strip, then coming to Hollywood, and working with Sonny and Cher, doing gopher work for them."

Watching the film, it's obvious that so many important people owe so much to you, and they've said that, but, let's say financially, they've surpassed you even as far as power is concerned. Have you ever thought about that?
"What can you do? You can't ask for hand outs. I would never do that. You know I went out for dinner last night with Nancy Sinatra and her new boyfriend, and we went to see Morrissey, and we went to dinner and all that. And you know a lot of these people, like there's a band called the Donnas, and there's the Go-Go's, and they always thank me on the liner notes on the backs of their albums. And Nick Guilder, remember Nick Guilder from Canada? I was the first to play him on the radio. 'Hot Child in the City.' You know, I get recognition on their records, and whenever they come to town they invite me to the shows. There's so many gold and platinum records I've received from the labels, the management, and the bands themselves."

Is there anything you would have done differently?
"No, not really."

Is there something that you're hoping this documentary will do for you?
"Maybe get my [radio] show syndicated, to play more cities."

Why hasn't that happened? Why isn't your show syndicated in North America?
"Because radio is so restrictive now, especially with the new FCC laws we have in L.A. The whole Janet Jackson thing really stirred up a lot of problems for DJs."

A lot of music critics and DJs start off their career that way, and then they go on to be producers, musicians, some go into movies. You've pretty much stayed covering music, first writing about it, then on the air. Did you ever have the ambition to go into another medium?
"Well, I've done records. I did a record with Blondie. And the Ronnie and the Daytonas' song, 'Lord GTO,' and I did 'Serving Sobriety' with the Ramones. Then if you have the soundtrack to the album, I did a song with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth; and Eric from Hole, I did a song called 'I hate the nineties.' Yeah, I'd like to do music supervising. I did a lot of music supervising for Mayor of the Sunset Strip."

Do you think that's something that might happen then?
"Oh yeah, there's already talk of me doing a life story. Warner Bros is interested in doing my life story."

You're what we call a living legend. How do you see yourself?
"As long as I'm in music, as long as I'm doing my show... Once you're in there late at night, and you're away from the world, and you're into the music, turning people on to great new sounds... that's my life."

You're still in love with music, you still love going to concerts...
"I do all the time, I'm introducing shows on stage, there's David Bowie, and I'm still DJing at clubs, too. We play new music as well as some of the Glam music."

What did you think of the film?
"Well, I had a great life. You got to see all that, you got to see the old footage. To have people like Cher talk about you is just incredible. I remember going to school and telling people about it, Sonny and Cher, and people would go 'yeah, yeah, yeah,' they wouldn't believe me, but when you get Cher actually admitting it, and talking about me and stuff. And Joan Jett used to go to my club, and tell all those stories, and Mackenzie Phillips..."

...and Bowie...
"Oh, amazing, yeah. Talking about the demos he sent me. Where are they now? Do I still have those demos?"

They would be worth a fortune today. There were times in the film when you seemed awfully sad, lonely. Did you see that?
"No, I'm just real quiet, but I'm always happy. I'm the happiest guy around 'cause I do so much, and I have the prettiest girlfriends, like models. This one girl, Kathy Fuller, who's the cover girl for Teen Magazine, I mean how could you be sad when you have her for a girlfriend?"

That's fair.
"I was sad one time when my mom passed away, and I went to Brighton to put my mom's ashes to rest. That's what she requested. Of course that was sad, but it's part of life."

You've been to Toronto before...
"Oh yes. I was there for the Toronto Film Festival, and I was there with John and Yoko one time."

Of course. So who will play you in the Warner Bros movie?
"They've got a lot of money behind it, and they're asking people like Johnny Depp..."

Of course...


Mayor of the Sunset Strip is currently playing in local cinemas.

Publication Date: 2004-05-16
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3966