I just found out Beck has been doing some weblogging on his latest Philadelphialess tour (The Feztival doesn’t count). He’s a good writer and offers some insight into dealing with the press.
usually what interviewers do is find something that somebody said somewhere about you that wasn’t particularly nice, then ask you “a lot of people think or say blabedy blah about you, what do you think about that?” its the tactic they’re taught in school; to find the ‘conflict’, flesh it out and get their story. which is ok when you’re doing a story about a kid who gets stuck in the bottom of a well, but with someone who’s writing some silly little songs and prancing around a stage, its kind of overkill (unless you’re mainlining drugs of mass destruction or you’re locked in heated oasis battle).
Sorry Beck, you’re the best but answering goofy questions from uninformed journalists is not a huge burden. Most of the Beck interviews I’ve read have been great.