"I was just a baby," he said. "Twenty, I think. And all these friends had moved to California. And they brought back tales of gold and doubloons, and beautiful chicks, and good dope, and great clubs, and, you know ... record deals. And it filled a young man's head. It was really a great place to be in the '70s. Special. I don't know what it's like now. I mean, in my day, we didn't have a hit until our seventh album. But in those days you got airplay without singles, and you got to open for people at the Fillmore. Now it's like two albums and it's over. And you don't even know what you're doing until the fourth or fifth album.
"You can't make art under those conditions. It's just not art anymore. It's some bullshit, Hollywood, P.T. Barnum thing. I mean, I played the game. And I don't begrudge other people playing the game, you know, for a couple of years. But you gotta get in and get out. The whole key is to keep your sanity. But right now, in this day and age, I don't see why anyone would want to be in the music business. It's so horrible. My advice to young musicians is: Get a day job. Get into computers. Do something else. And just play the music alone at night in your room."
We all moved back to the living room for some fresh mango and pineapple slices.
"Being famous is not what it's cracked up to be," Greg continued. "I guess everybody goes through it -- on the way to rock 'n' roll -- but I didn't like myself. I look at other performers now, the young crop of bands with Number 1 records -- they always seem to me to be such dickheads. Because I look at them and I see the reflection of the worst parts of me.
"Like, you can approach a bass player," he explained. "They'll converse with you. And an actor will converse with you, but a movie star will not. They're incapable of leaving the limo to go into a 7-Eleven and buy a pack of gum. They can't pull it off anymore. Like Elton John couldn't do that. But Tina Turner could. I've been with her when she did it. Other people? Like, can you see, say, like, Liberace buying gum? People can't live a normal life. If they can't pass the gum test then they usually have serious problems."
By then the mango had disappeared. Elisa helped us carry the dishes to the sink and said good night.
For the rest of the evening Greg Kihn and I sat on his couch, shared a smoke, and watched the end of the Niners game. "Somewhere in New Jersey," I thought, "my brother David is watching television, his two young daughters sleeping soundly in the next room."
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