Back in the early 1980s I’d been covering Marshall Crenshaw on a consistent basis and I heard he was gonna be on a hew talk show called Late Night With David Letterman. So I taped it on my VHS and while I got pissed because the elevator races ate into time Dave could have spent talking to Marshall, I still forgave him because… well, because he was very funny.
As the years went by I saw Late Night and later Later in person essentially whenever I felt like it because of my work in advertising.
But back to the show. So I watched Late Night for about three months and got addicted and called up Creem and asked em if I could interview Dave for them. They said sure, but I had to set it up myself. So I called Letterman’s office and they told me to call his manager Jack Rollins and so I did. Jack, he was exceptionally obnoxious over the phone, told me to drop off some stuff I’d written.
I did and then I waited a week, called back and this time I just got a secretary who said it was OK with Jack if it was OK with Dave. So I called back Dave and got an assistant who put me on hold for 45 minutes before advising me that Dave was not interested. “How about Paul?” I asked and the phone went click.
Quite simply the worst mannered and most humorless bunch of pricks I’ve ever dealt with. And while I was a huge fan then and while I am not a huge fan now, I certainly still admire the man but as he heads into retirement please let me advise Mr. Letterman to go fuck himself. Click.