l
Michae
M
ichael Des Barres doesn’t want to
sound jaded like he’s seen it all
before. But at a sage-like 71, he
has, in many ways. So don’t fault the
Renaissance man for his cynical view of
most pop stars’ careers: “They pretty much
have a formula now,” he chuckles. “Young
kid writes some songs, has some hits, buys
his mom a house, becomes drug-addicted,
gets sober, and now works with rescue ani-
mals. And I say ‘Bullshit’ to that time-worn
cliche.”
In fact, he’s spent his entire life fighting
against such a staid, predictable existence,
ever since he landed his first roles in films
like To Sir, With Love and unleashed his raspy
rock and roll pipes in the early-‘70s glam jug-
gernaut Silverhead. He would go on to
appear in over 100 TV shows, including the
classic Seinfeld “Smelly Car” episode, where
he played a restaurant maitre d' who, like
Jerry, is also physically repulsed by his
valet’s overpowering BO. He also appeared
in 30 movies and released three albums a
piece with not only Silverhead, but
Detective, and under his own name. He did
all of this while fronting punk supergroup
Chequered Past, and The Power Station after
its original frontman Robert Palmer opted
out, playing 1985’s historic Band Aid in the
process.
Currently, he maintains a new backing
outfit called The Mistakes, has a recurring
role as Murdoc on the new MacGyver reboot,
anchors a daily show on that hippest of
Sirius XM radio stations, Little Steven’s
Underground Garage, and also doubles as an
otherworldly video-game creature in the
Dishonored franchise. Just don’t ever make
01•2020
the mistake of casually addressing him as
‘dude.’ “Because if anything, I am not a dude
— I’m not a bass player in some blues band,”
growls the London-born, Los Angeles-based
luminary, an actual European Marquis, the
26th in the long, historic Des Barres line.
IE: How did you meet Little Steven and
become one of his most trusted
Underground Garage allies?
MICHAEL DES BARRES: Very easily. In the
early ‘80s, he did a series of albums that very
politicized, and we toured with him. And
when I say ‘we,’ I’m talking about
Chequered Past with Clem Burke and Nigel
8 illinoisentertainer.com january 2020
Michael Des Barres
Harrison from Blondie. We were opening for
him, and we’ve been friends ever since. And
when Andrew Loog Oldham left Little
Steven’s Underground Garage, Maureen — his
wife, who I’d become friendly with over the
years, because they're absolutely the most
fantastic couple, ever — whispered in his ear
one night, “Get Michael!” So that’s when my
radio career began, which has been SO satis-
fying.
IE: And there are rules you have to follow
with airtime. You can’t just start playing,
say, a new Vaccines song you like.
MDB: What it is, is, Steven has a playlist,
rock & roll music that he adores and that he
thinks the audience will like; a very specific
audience. So we do not choose the music
unless we have specific features, which I do.
Every week I deal with one iconic artist, and
then I play their songs once a day. But essen-
tially, it’s a 5,000-song playlist which we
stick to, and I’ve found over the years that if
I’m in a band that people enjoy, then I’m
gonna play those songs — I’m not gonna
play somebody else’s songs. It’s the same
thing with the radio station — you tune in
because you want to hear Howlin’ Wolf, The
Temptations, Ry Cooder, or Jefferson
Airplane. Or Janis, Elvis, and Sam Cooke.