Richard interviewed on KLOS radio.

Slight thing I should mention here . . . there are two DJs who did the interviewing, and not being from Cali, I don't know who is who. So I just put their questions with a blank "-". Also, thanks go out to Mark Tomaino and all at Midnight Insanity for having the audio in MP3 format so I could bring this transcript to you.

And without further ado . . .

-Richard, probably best known to people as the creator and one of the stars of the long running classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Welcome to the show

R-Hello . . .

-Nice to have you here.

R-Nice to be here.

-Now, um . .

R-On this sunny morning in California.

-It is a nice day, isn't it.

R-Beautiful day.

-Yes, sir. Now uh, you come to us through the gentleman that we released our cd through. We released a cd last year

R-Yes . . .

-with Oglio Records, and that is currently your record company. This CD that you have come out with, we'll get into, but what is it?

R- Apartment Jazz. Is what I call it.

-Ok...

R-I couldn't find any way to describe the music and people, you know, their eyes glazed over as I was trying to describe it, and then I came up with something snappy . . .

-Apartment Jazz.

R- Like when people said 'house music'. Do we really know what 'house music' means? I don't think so. Acid funk, they say? What does it actually mean, nothing. Truthfully, it's just kind of an idea. So I thought I'd call it Apartment Jazz. And a friend of mine said "Oh, I know what you mean. You mean elevator music with soul, don't you." I said, "That's right, but we're not going to call it THAT, thank you very much!"

I had that feeling that it sort of conjured up an image of a loft in New York with the windows open and a great muslin curtain blowing and a saxaphone wailing in the street. (imitates a sax, which sounds suspiciously like a muted trumpet) That kind of feel, you know. Actually, no, that's a trumpet, isn't it.

You know what I MEAN . . . you know where I'm COMING from.

-Certainly do.

-we're going to play some cuts, and them maybe later you could perform some for us.

R-Alright.

-First, if you wouldn't mind, a couple of Rocky questions.

R-Ok.

-Ok the one you've been asked the most, and of course I would be remiss if I didn't ask it- but when you were writing this thing, did you have any idea- I mean, how can you have a formula for writing a cult classic, but did you have any idea of what this would become.

R- No, I know that Los Angeles isn't theatre-oriented, and therefore I have to explain that there is theatre-mainstream theatre, and then there is fringe theatre. And fringe theatre is when actors do something for five weeks, and it may be at lunchtime, it may be late-night- it's generally in a small venue- you play to probably 60 or 100 people tops, and it was a fringe theatre event. And it played to 62 people per night for five weeks. And that was, I thought- that was it. At the end of that five weeks. We would have exploited our target audience.

-What were the critics saying

R-(still on the last question) Whoever they were . . . (laughs)

-What were the original reviews?

R- I couldn't have written better reviews if they said "Go ahead and do 'em yourself."

-Wow.

R-Fabulous. But there was something about it, even when we were rehearsing, and we were up on top of the building, Royal Court Theatre, in Sloane Square-which is a very famous theatre in England. And uh, eat during the day and again, nice sunny summer weather when we were rehearsing-and I'd come down the stairs and you'd hear somebody at the piano like Tim Curry running through one of the songs with the musical director, just the piano. And you'd see smiles on people's faces in the building. There was a good feeling. They knew something happy was happening up there, you know. And that was, I think it kind of knocked on. You know you say the smile you send returns to you, that kind of feeling was right through the building. It was excellent, actually.

-So after the five weeks

R-Very groovy. (laughs)

-Yes. So After the five weeks, then uh you played it somewhere else, or went to another theatre?

R- We transfered to a cinema, which we converted into a theatre that was further down the King's Road, and that was a lovely old cinema. It was really like an old Bio-Scope cinema, bout 1900, 1905, 1910, something like that. And uh, very early days of cinematography, anyway. And uh, that seated about 300 . . .

-so you're getting up there now.

R-Started to move up there. And then we moved to yet another even FURTHER down the King's Road where we finally settled down for our seven year run, playing to about 600 people a night.

-was it during the seven year run that it was the idea for the movie?

R-It was very early on, strangely. We weren't even out of our first year when they said 'we've done a deal with Fox and we're gonna make a movie' and not only that, but we're allowed to keep all the original actors that were in the fringe theatre event and you go 'Hello! Thank you very much!' (laughter)

-We all get to go!

R- Oh good. You don't get lost in the shuffle.

-Now, at what point were you beginning to be floored by the fact that this thing continued to grow. And even to this day, continues to move and grow.

R-It's interesting. I was very dispassionate about it. I didn't jump up and down and say "oooh, I've got a hit". I kind of watched it from the sidelines.

-Really.

R-Yeah. I don't know WHY I did that. I think maybe it's part of my nature. And part of my background as a kid. I think I always used to underplay excitement, in case . . . in case the toys got taken away, I think. I think it was a bit like that. If I got too excited, then I might upset with it, it may not go through. So I just stood, I kinda stayed to one side of it.

-Were you happy with the movie?

R-At the beginning I thought uh, you've got to remember that the show used to run without an interval, for 90 minutes. Hour and a half, right on the money. Hour 25, if you were REALLY rocking along. But generally speaking, about an hour thirty. And when we made the movie, we wanted to make a 90 minute movie. We wanted it to be running at an hour and a half. And we did. But it's so slow. And we've even got an extra scene in it. And I thought, if it's so slow and it's got an extra scene in it, how come it takes up the same space of time as the show, which rocks along? And I don't understand that. To this day I don't kind of understand that. And why have we left these gaps between the lines? I say a line (pauses for effect) and there's a gap, and then the other person says the line back. And I went, 'why didn't we pick up the cues? Why didn't we rock on with this?' and I thought- it's too slow.

And now of course, the fans say 'Did you, Mr. O'Brien, uh, uh, did you uh, leave the gaps between the lines so that we, us, the audience could say lines?' "Oh yes, of course." (laughter) "It was part of the plan"

-Being that it began in that simple setting, and that it began with you- what is it to you?

R- It's a good pension fund, that's what it is to me.(laughter) No no, it's more than that. It's more than that. It keeps- when you're um, all you are is basically a minor celebrity and personality, you need to keep your name up there, somehow or other, to keep vibrant, alive, employable- all those kind of things. And it's very good as that. It's also ESPECIALLY good for getting five minutes of somebody's time. Cause if you've got that behind you, you want to phone somebody or knock on somebody's door- what a great calling card. "I'm the guy that wrote the Rocky Horror Show" "Oh, really? Let's talk. I'll give you five minutes" And at the end of that five minutes I might get shown the door again, from the other side- but at least I get the five minutes.

-Tim, was he happy with the movie?

R-Yeah, I woulda thought so. He's stunningly good. I mean, we were very lucky to find Tim. And he was lucky to find the show. It was a very lucky happenstance, or whatever you wanna call it. It was great.

COMMERCIAL BREAK - PART 2