Michael Des Barres has had quite the career. Actor, musician, radio host, etc. One of my favorite parts of it all? He’s not even close to being finished.
Des Barres currently hosts The Michael Des Barres Program on Little Steven’s Underground Garage on SiriusXM. He’s made countless appearances on T.V. shows such as Seinfeld, MacGyver, Roseanne, WKRP in Cincinnati, Miami Vice and many, many more. He’s been in feature films such as ‘Pink Cadillac’ with Clint Eastwood and ‘Under Siege’. There’s plenty more in that category as well. He’s put albums under his own name, Detective, Silverhead, Chequered Past and fronted The Power Station as they made their Live Aid performance to one of the largest television audiences in history in 1985.
As I began to introduced him on the podcast – I gave up and just said.. “I’m just so excited to have Michael Des Barres on the show!” To which our conversation started.
Des Barres says, :laughs: “Jumping Jack Flash of all trades, ya know? I’ve just been lucky. I never really differentiated between acting and music. I’ve always thought it was the same thing.. One fabulous song, because I started so young, Tommy. I was eight years old and now I’m a hundred and eight years old. I’ve been through a lot. :laughs: As I kid I did a lot of commercials and I did To Sir, With Love, when I was seventeen and it just went on like that. Whether it was on the tele or in a movie or rock and roll.. it seems to be one wonderful, mad opera.”
Indeed.
Sometimes during these interviews I’ll stray off topic as a thought enters my head. In this case it dawned on me – A memoir or documentary of his life has the potential to be one the most interesting reads/watches, ever.
When I propose this to Michael he says, matter-of-factly, “My documentary comes out July 10th. Streaming everywhere. It is an absolutely exquisitely made movie. It took eight years to make. During the last thirty years I have written my thoughts down about what has happened to me. From Sidney Poitier to Jimmy Page to Stevie Van Zandt to Steve Jones and back again. It’s been an amazing ride, obviously and it’s taught me absolute humility and gratitude. There’s nothing there that I would crown myself about but it’s been an amazing experience. And it’s happened because I got sober thirty-nine years ago when it was not cool. In 1981, the eighties were all about coke and hair spray. I started RAD – Rock Against Drugs. I went to Washington and said, listen, let’s get a bunch of rock stars together and MTV is saying drugs suck and that happened. So I feel very, very good about that. As much as I feel about albums and movies I think that was one of the major things in my life and it’s all in my documentary.”
It will be a rare thing for me to see something the day it comes out. This streak ends on July 10th as I will be watching with full attention.
We got to his music, towards the end of our conversation and I couldn’t help asking about that day in July – 1985 at Live Aid. My love of The Power Station and all things, John Taylor, Andy Taylor and Tony Thompson still burns after all of these years. Michael broke down the story behind him playing that show and subsequent shows with the band and also recording a song that was a part of the Commando Soundtrack. That part of the interview will be something that will always be special to me.
Des Barres continues to put out quality music. In fact, his cover of Anarchy in the U.K. has been raising money for the Poor People’s Campaign. More information can be found HERE in the video’s description.
To hear my entire conversation with Michael Des Barres, click on the link to your favorite place to listen to podcast:
-Tommy Marz
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