Aug. 29, 2026
A Reaction To The Kurt Loder Episode Of The Questlove Show
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Castro In this QLS Mini, Open Mike Eagle and Cousin Jake briefly unpack their stress soundtracks, from comfort spins like XTC and R.E.M. to the way MTV and MTV News quietly raised a generation. Using their recent Kurt Loder Questlove Show interview as a springboard, they revisit formative moments like the Kurt Cobain and Tupac reports, the Real World era, and how Loder became a kind of Gen X Walter Cronkite. The conversation tracks how we used to “lean back” and receive culture versus today’s hyper-controlled feeds, while celebrating the dignity and care MTV News brought to covering cultures.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:00
Speaker 1: Questlove Show is a production of iHeartRadio.
00:00:14
Speaker 2: Mikey in the place to be. What up, man? How are you today?
00:00:18
Speaker 1: I'm doing well. How are you?
00:00:20
Speaker 2: Man, I, uh, you know, I'm a mixture of blessed and stressed.
00:00:25
Speaker 1: Okay. That seems to be the order of the day, I think, for a lot of us. That's where the needle is, you know, between those two.
00:00:33
Speaker 2: Are you feeling that, too?
00:00:35
Speaker 1: Well, yeah. I mean, you know, I don't know exactly when this is going to come out, but I'm in the middle of an album rollout. I'm technically on tour right now. You know, the wheels are turning. But, you know, I guess where I usually land is I am out of control busy.
00:00:53
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
00:00:54
Speaker 1: Constantly trying to keep these plates spinning more plates than i have arms but these are all things that i want to do yeah this is what we have for exactly so there's just no there's no reason to complain and and i feel i feel fortunate to have the opportunity to do a lot of them you know.
00:01:14
Speaker 2: Yeah and that's beautiful and i'm in a similar spot where i remind myself like what it is i do for a living which doesn't mean it's always pretty doesn't mean it's always enjoyable but.
00:01:23
Speaker 1: And it's certainly not stress-free.
00:01:25
Speaker 2: Right. And it dovetails into what I want to talk about today. But before we get to that, I did want to ask you, do you have, like, is there a song or two from your stress soundtrack when you're just having, I wouldn't even say a bad day, but you're feeling surges of.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: You know, I got, like, comfort albums I put on. But the thing is, like, my stress soundtrack is, like, it's, like, in my mind. Like, I don't even have to, like, go... to music, like songs will just pop into my head and I'm, I'm trying to like think of specific ones, but like my comfort bands is usually where I ended up going. So like my XTC, my REM, like that, you know, a lot of the stuff that's in my old school, like college rock bag is a lot of the stuff that pops into my mind. It's like comfort music, you know?
00:02:16
Speaker 2: It's funny you say REM and you were talking about XTC when we were in LA together in April. But the song that always stuck in my head, and it's such a woe is me, but I always hear Michael Stipe's voice go, it's been a bad day. Please don't take any picture. I just love that song. But it's like the same. It's not the REM that I seek out, but that just always pops into my head when I'm having one. Not even stress, but just like a can't get right sort of day. Yeah, man. But with that said, it's funny. You talk about XTC and REM and some 80s, some 90s. We had a conversation with Kurt Loder. who, you know, it's so interesting. Me as a 42-year-old, my context of knowing Kurt Loder firsthand was always through MTV News. And then I've learned, same for you. Yeah. And then I learned, you know, he has this incredible life before, you know, 1988, go figure, where, you know, he's one of the lead, you know, writers, staff writers at Rolling Stone and you know, contributed all these other places, did a biography with Tina Turner, a memoir. And unfortunately back in April, you know, you and I got to kick it for a few hours, but the day that we hung out was not the day that Kurt came through. And I wanted that. I was just like being in a room with like a slice of different people, but you know, a lot of folks with the quest love show, you know, leave comments of who they want to see on. And those comments, they don't, you know, they, they end up places. And a lot of times when we have production meetings, um, you know, we consider that. And obviously publicists are always pitching the show, but so much of the great wins of QLS in my five years as part of this have come from these midnight texts that Questlove sends of who he wants to speak to. And that's exactly what happened with Kurt Loder. You know, at some point in February or March, Amir hit Brittany and I, and was like, Kurt Loder, please, can we get him? And You know, that was fun because Kurt is not somebody who has a huge footprint online.
00:04:23
Speaker 1: Right.
00:04:23
Speaker 2: So I actually contacted, you know, one of his former book agents with what I did find. They gave me an email and I was like, you know, make sure like it's cool to give this email. And Kurt responded and it was amazing. Kurt is now in his early eighties. Doesn't look at, doesn't feel it, but just to spend a few hours with Kurt and, and, you know, his, his partner, Jennifer was a really, really cool experience. One of my highlights is, both from the LA trip where we got to finally meet, but also just this year in general.
00:04:50
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that you and Brittany did a lot of booking too. I mean, y'all wear a lot of hats.
00:04:57
Speaker 2: Talk about spinning plates. Yeah. I mean, and shout out to, you know, Laia. Laia and Amir did so much booking in the Questlove Supreme days. And, you know, I got to learn a lot under Laia and, But yeah, just in, you know, somehow our emails became the folks to pitch. And it's funny, like I get a hundred emails a month and it's, it's amazing because I laugh of, um, you know, my background of 25 years on the writing side, the same folks that, you know, I couldn't ever seem to find, you know, for years when I needed to like pitch a feature or something like that. Sometimes I could, sometimes I couldn't are the same artists that are being offered up to the show now, which is beautiful. but there's ironic poetry in there somewhere.
00:05:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a little bit of poetry in there.
00:05:44
Speaker 2: I feel you.
00:05:45
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, and not to derail too much, but it makes me think of this. Obviously, Amir knows a lot of people, and I think it is probably the case that there are plenty of people out there for whom he would love to have on the show, and they would love to be on the show, but because... we're talking about probably two very busy universes of people. Even once you have, or he has confirmation that somebody wants to be on the show, there's probably a lot of steps from there to getting it across the finish line. Like from having intention stated to having a date booked where somebody shows up at a specific time. I imagine there's a lot of extra carrying the football across the line that has to happen from there.
00:06:36
Speaker 2: There is. And I mean, one of the things is just, I pride myself on trying to, and I think this is true of Brittany or anyone down with the organization. We try to just take things off of Amir's plate. What's been really amazing this year is, you know, I was with Amir and Padma Lakshmi back in March. We were taping an episode, which ran cool episode. And while we were there, Amir got a text from Jamie Lee Curtis and he was like, Oh, she's in town and she'd like to talk. Wow. And then becomes the job of like, you know, camera, um, studio logistics. And we made that happen. And those are always cool. We always just run our pitches by, but I always say that with care because one of the things I try to be mindful of is QLS. It thrives because the podcast exists outside of press windows. So it's always interesting when somebody pitches the show and they're like, hey, if we could target it to run on this date when this album comes out or this tour is announced or in this Grammy voting window. But if that same conversation is happening in other, you know, it's not even about competition. It's just like, you know, if you're listening to X, Y, Z artists, you're probably only good for one conversation, you know, in one place, unless you are, you know, that you're a diehard fan. So we always just try to live outside of that. And the show has proudly since inception, not been about plugging things so much. We're not a radio show. I mean, it's designed in the spirit of, but as you very much found out as a guest last year, there were a few questions towards your album and, But oftentimes the discussion goes where it goes organically. And then if everything goes to plan, then the viewer, the listener is like, ah, I want to listen to this album. I want to see what this person's up to.
00:08:17
Speaker 1: It's informed by curiosity and genuine interest. And that's different than trying to coordinate with when a big release has happened. And it's a different type of show.
00:08:28
Speaker 2: 100%. And that's one of the things that I've had to learn. Because when you're just a media person, I'm not a brand. I'm not You know, the pitches that I've gotten over the years are always intended to focus on the thing that the artist is valuing at that moment. And you balance it with some legacy questions and some random stuff. But QLS is different and I really enjoy it. And I really love working with people that understand that. Folks that aren't texting me as the conversation's happening. When's he going to get to XYZ? I'm curious to think, like, what was your relationship with MTV or MTV News growing up?
00:09:04
Speaker 1: Man. I feel like MTV partly like raised me, you know, I was a latchkey kid, you know, early nineties, South side of Chicago when it was crazy outside. And I live with my grandparents and, you know, I had a TV in my room and they had cable and I watched a lot of, you know, kids stuff growing up, right? Like, you know, you'd watch Nickelodeon and your cartoons and afternoon or whatever, but But one of my go-tos was just to see what was on MTV. And I've always been such a music head my whole life. So it was so great to always have this channel that was just this world of music. I would watch everything from Yo! MTV Raps to Headbangers Ball. Anything. I would watch it.
00:09:53
Speaker 2: Was that Ricky Rackman? Wait, who was that host of- Did you.
00:09:55
Speaker 1: Say Ricky Rackman? Is that what you said?
00:09:57
Speaker 2: Ricky rack yeah yeah yes yes headbangers.
00:09:59
Speaker 1: Ball yeah yeah ricky rackman yep headbangers i remember when he cut his hair was a big deal he had the long hair with the headbangers ball but then when grunge happened he kind of had to adapt you.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: Know mtv was 24 hours but overnight was just a lot of like after midnight it would just be a mostly music videos.
00:10:17
Speaker 1: Right I actually don't remember what it was like overnight. Like I know on the weekends, like they had 120 minutes that would come on Sunday night at like 11. So I could only even see that if there was like no school the next day. But for the most part, I don't really remember what was on overnight on MTV.
00:10:34
Speaker 2: Were you a real world guy?
00:10:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, I watched. I saw a little bit of the first season. The second season, I was really kind of dialed in on.
00:10:43
Speaker 2: The second season, San Francisco?
00:10:47
Speaker 1: That sounds right that sounds right and and honestly it starts.
00:10:51
Speaker 2: In new york with kevin and heather right.
00:10:53
Speaker 1: Right and that's the one i was i was kind of in and out on i didn't really like i didn't understand what that was and i was like a kid so i was like wow why is this show about these adults having arguments like what is this um but there was something about the second one where is it that guy puck was he on.
00:11:11
Speaker 2: That was san francisco yep So that was the.
00:11:14
Speaker 1: One where, like, I had an in, and I was like, okay, I get this. But I never watched it after that. I think there was a Seattle season?
00:11:22
Speaker 2: Yep, with the slap. Yep. The original slap.
00:11:26
Speaker 1: But I feel like that was my last engagement with the real world.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: And it's funny, like, Laia, Amir, and I, and Brittany, we've all had some serious, like, rabbit hole between tapings on real world. And we all had intersections with various cast members. But similar to you, I think that's the glory years. Like I always say, I liked real world before you had to be a beautiful person on there.
00:11:50
Speaker 1: Right.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: You know, like when it was real and then all of a sudden.
00:11:52
Speaker 1: It was just regular ass people.
00:11:53
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. But, you know, as far as MTV news, it's, it's real interesting listening to this Kurt Loder interview and watching it. His voice is so soothing to me. It's one of those voices that's like, you know, Rosebud and Citizen Kane. It takes me back. And I'm just, I'm curious for you, you know, when you're consuming all that television, and I was very much a latchkey kid as well, do you have any memorable reports of that?
00:12:19
Speaker 1: Ooh, okay. So what I used to do a lot was just tape MTV. I would just videotape it. Like a two-hour tape, and I would just tape a two-hour block of it, and I would just watch it back over and over again. And there was this one, I remember... where there was an MTV news break. And for some reason they were doing a story about this guy. This, I guess some DJ had made this remix of, uh, like George Bush speeches. Like he had just made a song and the song was called hard times. And they kept dropping all of these, like, you know, speech accused from George Bush speeches. And for some reason, this was a news story. Um, And I'll never forget it because it was like one of those things when you're a little kid and you're watching what is to you the presentation of what's important in the world, right? You're like, oh, okay. And I'm thinking like this is a big deal. And I think back on it now. I'm like, I don't know how that segment happened. I don't know who that person is, who's that DJ. It's all so interesting to think back on and see how ultimately... insignificant this particular piece of information was but because i'm a little kid and this is the news and this is kurt loder i'm like oh this is.
00:13:44
Speaker 2: This is interesting Was it Kurt that teed it up?
00:13:47
Speaker 1: I do believe it was Kurt. I do believe it was Kurt. I don't think this was a Tabitha Soren. I think this was Kurt Loder.
00:13:53
Speaker 2: Shout out to Tabitha Soren, too. She was amazing. My IG Discover Reel has been bringing up a lot of Tabitha Soren, checking Mariah Carey's publicist in that interview a lot.
00:14:04
Speaker 1: Oh, no, I don't remember that.
00:14:06
Speaker 2: Oh, it's quality. She asked a Tommy Mottola question, and they're like, all right, interview over. And Tabitha, I love this just as a journalist. She was like, I've worked on this story for weeks. Wow. And Mariah's sitting right there. And it's just good, awkward television.
00:14:20
Speaker 1: So the publicist is sitting on camera with Mariah?
00:14:24
Speaker 2: Off camera. You hear the voice of like, we're going to wrap now.
00:14:27
Speaker 1: Interesting. And they left all that in.
00:14:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's like Honey era Mariah. It's like 96, 97, 8. But you know what's funny? Somebody on our YouTube page left a really resonant comment and they were like you know kurt loder was older than i think the audience that mtv presented itself as yep but he covered this whether you want to talk about grunge or hip-hop or metal with such dignity and respect and i just you think about it over time and it it seems so i don't want to say foreign but like i feel like if you were to be mtv now the fact that they went with somebody with this authoritative, very straight ahead delivery, but always putting love and respect in there is just so cool to me.
00:15:20
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think that, especially when I think back on it now, it's like, yeah, like that, they picked the Walter Cronkite for that generation. Right. So the whole deal with the old school newscaster is that like he was kind of calming you while potentially delivering you devastating information uh that seemed to be traditionally the role of the the lead news anchor right especially like in the evening news so it felt like he was the you know generation x version of that where yeah in mtv you have this entire spectrum of crazy characters or sarcastic sardonic voices but when it came to the news it was like oh this is the voice you can trust you know.
00:16:08
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah they're gonna literally interrupt beavis and butthead to give you some news at 50 on the hour and yeah and i always just thought kurt was like a cool dresser i always just like and i always i always and it speaks to the conversation like he's done some press over the years but he was somebody and amir made this point and amir made the walter cronkite comparison in his intro But I'm like, does this guy live in the studio? Not because he seems like a workaholic. Right. But I'm just imagining him in the box. Right.
00:16:37
Speaker 1: That's the only place I ever saw him was on the green screen with the spinning satellite dish.
00:16:43
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's interesting. You know, Kurt writes a lot of film reviews now. I haven't read his memoir with Tina Turner, but after this episode, I've been reading a lot this year. I'm going to buy that book and read it. But I got to give Kurt Loder a documentary film recommendation. And I'm not a me first person, but I was like, there's not, I won't say bucket list, but I was like, that's something that I will.
00:17:16
Speaker 1: That's a win.
00:17:17
Speaker 2: That's a win. Exactly. You know, but yeah, I mean, you mentioned like devastating news. I'm curious, like, do you have memories of whether it was Kurt or somebody else of learning the kind of watershed moment developments, whether it's somebody passing or otherwise that stick with you.
00:17:34
Speaker 1: It's on the nose, man. But the Kurt Cobain passing, I'm what? 13 or something.
00:17:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:17:41
Speaker 1: I'm right in the wheelhouse for, you know, I, I really like, I loved grunge music. Like I loved it. And it, you know, I, I was in a hood. I didn't have friends around me who were like interested in that shit at all. But like, like I said, I used to watch, headbangers ball. I was just obsessed with music and pop culture. I saw that shift happen from when it was the big hair and the leotards and the girls draped over the car hood. I saw that get phased out. And that was so fascinating to me to see like, whoa, okay. And now it's like, This grimy kid in high school with the long sleeves. He looks dirty and messy. Like, yo. And I got really into that. You know, the Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, all of that. Alice in Chains. And so that passing was like it felt like one of those world changing events. Like there was like a small group of girls in my school who were like, you know, proto emo. I don't even know what you would call them back then. but they were just completely like they were crying all day because of how hard this, this news hit them. And I feel like, you know, I don't know if everybody saw it or found out that way, but if you were a fan following that music, you were watching MTV. And so like, it is, it stands to reason, this is how you would come about this information was from Kurt Loder and his very soothing voice.
00:19:17
Speaker 2: And they talked about that. Yeah, and what's interesting, I mean, I remember that 94... Like, I watched MTV before, but 94 is the summer. I just remember being glued to the TV. You mentioned Soundgarden. That was the year of Black Hole Sun was the big single. And that video... Scared the hell out of me. Still to this day. It was a freaky video. Yeah.
00:19:37
Speaker 1: With, you know, little eyeballs. Yeah, it was a freaky, freaky video.
00:19:41
Speaker 2: Same summer as Regulate being on and John Mellon's pants, Wild Night. Like, what?
00:19:46
Speaker 1: Three sides of the brain.
00:19:47
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah. Yeah, and literally, I think MTV News cut. That might have been how I learned of the Bronco chase, like in the middle. Okay. Wow. But Kurt personally delivered the Kurt Cobain news and they talk about it. The thing that I always remember, and I don't believe it was Kurt Loder. I think it was either Chris Connolly or Tabitha Soren was Tupac. Yeah.
00:20:07
Speaker 1: Shout out to Chris Connolly, too. I feel like I did see a lot of Chris Connolly on MTV News as well.
00:20:13
Speaker 2: He was great. John Norris and Serena Alcho, all the names. But I remember my mom walking in as I was one of those people processing Pac's death. And my mom started crying, which always, always sticks with me. And I looked at my mom and I wasn't crying. I was just really affected. But I'm 12 years old and my mom cried. And to this day, my mom was just visiting me over the weekend i asked her i was like why are you crying and my mom knew the song dear mama and my mom's crying because she said he loved his mom very.
00:20:47
Speaker 1: Much wow that was that was her that was how she associated him and her mind.
00:20:53
Speaker 2: And i just think of what true compassion and empathy in a pop culture aesthetic looks like. And I always think I'll carry that memory with me the rest of my life, especially with what I've since done with my career in my life. But I always think of my mom with that. Yeah. And I'm just curious, like the idea of that lean back experience with whether the videos or the shows you're watching and the news you're getting is completely decided for you. Now, when I feel like we hold our controllers to everything, be it your phone, be it your laptop, be it social media, Is there anything that is akin to that experience we're talking about?
00:21:31
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny. You just said that. I've thought about, where do I get my bad news now? Because I don't go looking for bad news. And honestly, I have a New York Times subscription. So they send... I get breaking news alerts to my email. And it's like, that is... It's like... it's almost like my email inbox is the media that I don't control.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
00:21:55
Speaker 1: Like I'll, you know, sign up for this or sign up for that. And then that gets fed to me, but I don't choose when, you know, that I think that's, that in my life is probably the closest. Cause I'm never like actively going and looking for the tragedy does happen. And I used to, it used to be Twitter.
00:22:17
Speaker 2: Right.
00:22:18
Speaker 1: When Twitter felt like a, reliable place to get clear information on things. I would just go see what's trending. And oftentimes you see somebody's name trending and you click it and find out that something awful has happened.
00:22:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:22:32
Speaker 1: You know?
00:22:32
Speaker 2: No, that's a really good point. And it's funny because I get those same emails and I've tried to like, you know, it's like the boy who cried wolf. Like I try to look, manage my subscriptions and just take down a little bit of the trigger warning of like, Hey, can we not send me alerts to start with this person's name or, uh, you know, if somebody passed away, you know, don't, but you can't, you can't. And I actually get mad when on the weekend, the New York times, you know, they go from hard news to sending you like, Hey, how do you clean your grill? Yeah.
00:23:02
Speaker 1: With the same like presentation. It's like, y'all got to switch this up.
00:23:07
Speaker 2: That's weird. Right.
00:23:09
Speaker 1: You think somebody fell off a bridge or something? No, but it's just like bread recipes or something.
00:23:14
Speaker 2: Well, I encourage everyone, I mean, obviously we're the show between the show, but check out the Kurt Loder conversation. There's some cool intercept. Amir had mentioned in passing Old Dirty Bastard, and I thought, I mean, that's a famous report that did not involve tragedy. But, you know, I mean, obviously ODB is no longer with us, but Kurt Loder, I think, guided the little MTV production of obviously the famous... Actually, it's funny. I have a replica somewhere behind me of the WIC card that ODB gets out of the limo and goes in to use the benefit.
00:23:44
Speaker 1: Classic material. Shout out to Toure. Toure, I think, was... I think he was the host for that segment, I believe.
00:23:53
Speaker 2: Oh, touche. Yeah, we'll make sure we get that right.
00:23:56
Speaker 1: I believe so. I could be wrong, but I believe Toure. That was Toure's segment.
00:24:00
Speaker 2: Thank you for checking out this mini, everyone. Please, I encourage... everybody you know send questions you might have mailbag questions we did one of those last week um while we were in the studio with amir you got questions for the show suggestions god forbid anything you want me to talk about or my like we're here this is a 360 but um go to questlovesupreme.com or dm us at the qls on ig um or leave a thoughtful youtube comment we are here and we are grateful until next time mike all right talk soon
00:24:48
Speaker 1: Questlove shows a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Questlove Show is a production of iHeartRadio.
00:00:14
Speaker 2: Mikey in the place to be. What up, man? How are you today?
00:00:18
Speaker 1: I'm doing well. How are you?
00:00:20
Speaker 2: Man, I, uh, you know, I'm a mixture of blessed and stressed.
00:00:25
Speaker 1: Okay. That seems to be the order of the day, I think, for a lot of us. That's where the needle is, you know, between those two.
00:00:33
Speaker 2: Are you feeling that, too?
00:00:35
Speaker 1: Well, yeah. I mean, you know, I don't know exactly when this is going to come out, but I'm in the middle of an album rollout. I'm technically on tour right now. You know, the wheels are turning. But, you know, I guess where I usually land is I am out of control busy.
00:00:53
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
00:00:54
Speaker 1: Constantly trying to keep these plates spinning more plates than i have arms but these are all things that i want to do yeah this is what we have for exactly so there's just no there's no reason to complain and and i feel i feel fortunate to have the opportunity to do a lot of them you know.
00:01:14
Speaker 2: Yeah and that's beautiful and i'm in a similar spot where i remind myself like what it is i do for a living which doesn't mean it's always pretty doesn't mean it's always enjoyable but.
00:01:23
Speaker 1: And it's certainly not stress-free.
00:01:25
Speaker 2: Right. And it dovetails into what I want to talk about today. But before we get to that, I did want to ask you, do you have, like, is there a song or two from your stress soundtrack when you're just having, I wouldn't even say a bad day, but you're feeling surges of.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: You know, I got, like, comfort albums I put on. But the thing is, like, my stress soundtrack is, like, it's, like, in my mind. Like, I don't even have to, like, go... to music, like songs will just pop into my head and I'm, I'm trying to like think of specific ones, but like my comfort bands is usually where I ended up going. So like my XTC, my REM, like that, you know, a lot of the stuff that's in my old school, like college rock bag is a lot of the stuff that pops into my mind. It's like comfort music, you know?
00:02:16
Speaker 2: It's funny you say REM and you were talking about XTC when we were in LA together in April. But the song that always stuck in my head, and it's such a woe is me, but I always hear Michael Stipe's voice go, it's been a bad day. Please don't take any picture. I just love that song. But it's like the same. It's not the REM that I seek out, but that just always pops into my head when I'm having one. Not even stress, but just like a can't get right sort of day. Yeah, man. But with that said, it's funny. You talk about XTC and REM and some 80s, some 90s. We had a conversation with Kurt Loder. who, you know, it's so interesting. Me as a 42-year-old, my context of knowing Kurt Loder firsthand was always through MTV News. And then I've learned, same for you. Yeah. And then I learned, you know, he has this incredible life before, you know, 1988, go figure, where, you know, he's one of the lead, you know, writers, staff writers at Rolling Stone and you know, contributed all these other places, did a biography with Tina Turner, a memoir. And unfortunately back in April, you know, you and I got to kick it for a few hours, but the day that we hung out was not the day that Kurt came through. And I wanted that. I was just like being in a room with like a slice of different people, but you know, a lot of folks with the quest love show, you know, leave comments of who they want to see on. And those comments, they don't, you know, they, they end up places. And a lot of times when we have production meetings, um, you know, we consider that. And obviously publicists are always pitching the show, but so much of the great wins of QLS in my five years as part of this have come from these midnight texts that Questlove sends of who he wants to speak to. And that's exactly what happened with Kurt Loder. You know, at some point in February or March, Amir hit Brittany and I, and was like, Kurt Loder, please, can we get him? And You know, that was fun because Kurt is not somebody who has a huge footprint online.
00:04:23
Speaker 1: Right.
00:04:23
Speaker 2: So I actually contacted, you know, one of his former book agents with what I did find. They gave me an email and I was like, you know, make sure like it's cool to give this email. And Kurt responded and it was amazing. Kurt is now in his early eighties. Doesn't look at, doesn't feel it, but just to spend a few hours with Kurt and, and, you know, his, his partner, Jennifer was a really, really cool experience. One of my highlights is, both from the LA trip where we got to finally meet, but also just this year in general.
00:04:50
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that you and Brittany did a lot of booking too. I mean, y'all wear a lot of hats.
00:04:57
Speaker 2: Talk about spinning plates. Yeah. I mean, and shout out to, you know, Laia. Laia and Amir did so much booking in the Questlove Supreme days. And, you know, I got to learn a lot under Laia and, But yeah, just in, you know, somehow our emails became the folks to pitch. And it's funny, like I get a hundred emails a month and it's, it's amazing because I laugh of, um, you know, my background of 25 years on the writing side, the same folks that, you know, I couldn't ever seem to find, you know, for years when I needed to like pitch a feature or something like that. Sometimes I could, sometimes I couldn't are the same artists that are being offered up to the show now, which is beautiful. but there's ironic poetry in there somewhere.
00:05:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a little bit of poetry in there.
00:05:44
Speaker 2: I feel you.
00:05:45
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, and not to derail too much, but it makes me think of this. Obviously, Amir knows a lot of people, and I think it is probably the case that there are plenty of people out there for whom he would love to have on the show, and they would love to be on the show, but because... we're talking about probably two very busy universes of people. Even once you have, or he has confirmation that somebody wants to be on the show, there's probably a lot of steps from there to getting it across the finish line. Like from having intention stated to having a date booked where somebody shows up at a specific time. I imagine there's a lot of extra carrying the football across the line that has to happen from there.
00:06:36
Speaker 2: There is. And I mean, one of the things is just, I pride myself on trying to, and I think this is true of Brittany or anyone down with the organization. We try to just take things off of Amir's plate. What's been really amazing this year is, you know, I was with Amir and Padma Lakshmi back in March. We were taping an episode, which ran cool episode. And while we were there, Amir got a text from Jamie Lee Curtis and he was like, Oh, she's in town and she'd like to talk. Wow. And then becomes the job of like, you know, camera, um, studio logistics. And we made that happen. And those are always cool. We always just run our pitches by, but I always say that with care because one of the things I try to be mindful of is QLS. It thrives because the podcast exists outside of press windows. So it's always interesting when somebody pitches the show and they're like, hey, if we could target it to run on this date when this album comes out or this tour is announced or in this Grammy voting window. But if that same conversation is happening in other, you know, it's not even about competition. It's just like, you know, if you're listening to X, Y, Z artists, you're probably only good for one conversation, you know, in one place, unless you are, you know, that you're a diehard fan. So we always just try to live outside of that. And the show has proudly since inception, not been about plugging things so much. We're not a radio show. I mean, it's designed in the spirit of, but as you very much found out as a guest last year, there were a few questions towards your album and, But oftentimes the discussion goes where it goes organically. And then if everything goes to plan, then the viewer, the listener is like, ah, I want to listen to this album. I want to see what this person's up to.
00:08:17
Speaker 1: It's informed by curiosity and genuine interest. And that's different than trying to coordinate with when a big release has happened. And it's a different type of show.
00:08:28
Speaker 2: 100%. And that's one of the things that I've had to learn. Because when you're just a media person, I'm not a brand. I'm not You know, the pitches that I've gotten over the years are always intended to focus on the thing that the artist is valuing at that moment. And you balance it with some legacy questions and some random stuff. But QLS is different and I really enjoy it. And I really love working with people that understand that. Folks that aren't texting me as the conversation's happening. When's he going to get to XYZ? I'm curious to think, like, what was your relationship with MTV or MTV News growing up?
00:09:04
Speaker 1: Man. I feel like MTV partly like raised me, you know, I was a latchkey kid, you know, early nineties, South side of Chicago when it was crazy outside. And I live with my grandparents and, you know, I had a TV in my room and they had cable and I watched a lot of, you know, kids stuff growing up, right? Like, you know, you'd watch Nickelodeon and your cartoons and afternoon or whatever, but But one of my go-tos was just to see what was on MTV. And I've always been such a music head my whole life. So it was so great to always have this channel that was just this world of music. I would watch everything from Yo! MTV Raps to Headbangers Ball. Anything. I would watch it.
00:09:53
Speaker 2: Was that Ricky Rackman? Wait, who was that host of- Did you.
00:09:55
Speaker 1: Say Ricky Rackman? Is that what you said?
00:09:57
Speaker 2: Ricky rack yeah yeah yes yes headbangers.
00:09:59
Speaker 1: Ball yeah yeah ricky rackman yep headbangers i remember when he cut his hair was a big deal he had the long hair with the headbangers ball but then when grunge happened he kind of had to adapt you.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: Know mtv was 24 hours but overnight was just a lot of like after midnight it would just be a mostly music videos.
00:10:17
Speaker 1: Right I actually don't remember what it was like overnight. Like I know on the weekends, like they had 120 minutes that would come on Sunday night at like 11. So I could only even see that if there was like no school the next day. But for the most part, I don't really remember what was on overnight on MTV.
00:10:34
Speaker 2: Were you a real world guy?
00:10:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, I watched. I saw a little bit of the first season. The second season, I was really kind of dialed in on.
00:10:43
Speaker 2: The second season, San Francisco?
00:10:47
Speaker 1: That sounds right that sounds right and and honestly it starts.
00:10:51
Speaker 2: In new york with kevin and heather right.
00:10:53
Speaker 1: Right and that's the one i was i was kind of in and out on i didn't really like i didn't understand what that was and i was like a kid so i was like wow why is this show about these adults having arguments like what is this um but there was something about the second one where is it that guy puck was he on.
00:11:11
Speaker 2: That was san francisco yep So that was the.
00:11:14
Speaker 1: One where, like, I had an in, and I was like, okay, I get this. But I never watched it after that. I think there was a Seattle season?
00:11:22
Speaker 2: Yep, with the slap. Yep. The original slap.
00:11:26
Speaker 1: But I feel like that was my last engagement with the real world.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: And it's funny, like, Laia, Amir, and I, and Brittany, we've all had some serious, like, rabbit hole between tapings on real world. And we all had intersections with various cast members. But similar to you, I think that's the glory years. Like I always say, I liked real world before you had to be a beautiful person on there.
00:11:50
Speaker 1: Right.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: You know, like when it was real and then all of a sudden.
00:11:52
Speaker 1: It was just regular ass people.
00:11:53
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. But, you know, as far as MTV news, it's, it's real interesting listening to this Kurt Loder interview and watching it. His voice is so soothing to me. It's one of those voices that's like, you know, Rosebud and Citizen Kane. It takes me back. And I'm just, I'm curious for you, you know, when you're consuming all that television, and I was very much a latchkey kid as well, do you have any memorable reports of that?
00:12:19
Speaker 1: Ooh, okay. So what I used to do a lot was just tape MTV. I would just videotape it. Like a two-hour tape, and I would just tape a two-hour block of it, and I would just watch it back over and over again. And there was this one, I remember... where there was an MTV news break. And for some reason they were doing a story about this guy. This, I guess some DJ had made this remix of, uh, like George Bush speeches. Like he had just made a song and the song was called hard times. And they kept dropping all of these, like, you know, speech accused from George Bush speeches. And for some reason, this was a news story. Um, And I'll never forget it because it was like one of those things when you're a little kid and you're watching what is to you the presentation of what's important in the world, right? You're like, oh, okay. And I'm thinking like this is a big deal. And I think back on it now. I'm like, I don't know how that segment happened. I don't know who that person is, who's that DJ. It's all so interesting to think back on and see how ultimately... insignificant this particular piece of information was but because i'm a little kid and this is the news and this is kurt loder i'm like oh this is.
00:13:44
Speaker 2: This is interesting Was it Kurt that teed it up?
00:13:47
Speaker 1: I do believe it was Kurt. I do believe it was Kurt. I don't think this was a Tabitha Soren. I think this was Kurt Loder.
00:13:53
Speaker 2: Shout out to Tabitha Soren, too. She was amazing. My IG Discover Reel has been bringing up a lot of Tabitha Soren, checking Mariah Carey's publicist in that interview a lot.
00:14:04
Speaker 1: Oh, no, I don't remember that.
00:14:06
Speaker 2: Oh, it's quality. She asked a Tommy Mottola question, and they're like, all right, interview over. And Tabitha, I love this just as a journalist. She was like, I've worked on this story for weeks. Wow. And Mariah's sitting right there. And it's just good, awkward television.
00:14:20
Speaker 1: So the publicist is sitting on camera with Mariah?
00:14:24
Speaker 2: Off camera. You hear the voice of like, we're going to wrap now.
00:14:27
Speaker 1: Interesting. And they left all that in.
00:14:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's like Honey era Mariah. It's like 96, 97, 8. But you know what's funny? Somebody on our YouTube page left a really resonant comment and they were like you know kurt loder was older than i think the audience that mtv presented itself as yep but he covered this whether you want to talk about grunge or hip-hop or metal with such dignity and respect and i just you think about it over time and it it seems so i don't want to say foreign but like i feel like if you were to be mtv now the fact that they went with somebody with this authoritative, very straight ahead delivery, but always putting love and respect in there is just so cool to me.
00:15:20
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think that, especially when I think back on it now, it's like, yeah, like that, they picked the Walter Cronkite for that generation. Right. So the whole deal with the old school newscaster is that like he was kind of calming you while potentially delivering you devastating information uh that seemed to be traditionally the role of the the lead news anchor right especially like in the evening news so it felt like he was the you know generation x version of that where yeah in mtv you have this entire spectrum of crazy characters or sarcastic sardonic voices but when it came to the news it was like oh this is the voice you can trust you know.
00:16:08
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah they're gonna literally interrupt beavis and butthead to give you some news at 50 on the hour and yeah and i always just thought kurt was like a cool dresser i always just like and i always i always and it speaks to the conversation like he's done some press over the years but he was somebody and amir made this point and amir made the walter cronkite comparison in his intro But I'm like, does this guy live in the studio? Not because he seems like a workaholic. Right. But I'm just imagining him in the box. Right.
00:16:37
Speaker 1: That's the only place I ever saw him was on the green screen with the spinning satellite dish.
00:16:43
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's interesting. You know, Kurt writes a lot of film reviews now. I haven't read his memoir with Tina Turner, but after this episode, I've been reading a lot this year. I'm going to buy that book and read it. But I got to give Kurt Loder a documentary film recommendation. And I'm not a me first person, but I was like, there's not, I won't say bucket list, but I was like, that's something that I will.
00:17:16
Speaker 1: That's a win.
00:17:17
Speaker 2: That's a win. Exactly. You know, but yeah, I mean, you mentioned like devastating news. I'm curious, like, do you have memories of whether it was Kurt or somebody else of learning the kind of watershed moment developments, whether it's somebody passing or otherwise that stick with you.
00:17:34
Speaker 1: It's on the nose, man. But the Kurt Cobain passing, I'm what? 13 or something.
00:17:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:17:41
Speaker 1: I'm right in the wheelhouse for, you know, I, I really like, I loved grunge music. Like I loved it. And it, you know, I, I was in a hood. I didn't have friends around me who were like interested in that shit at all. But like, like I said, I used to watch, headbangers ball. I was just obsessed with music and pop culture. I saw that shift happen from when it was the big hair and the leotards and the girls draped over the car hood. I saw that get phased out. And that was so fascinating to me to see like, whoa, okay. And now it's like, This grimy kid in high school with the long sleeves. He looks dirty and messy. Like, yo. And I got really into that. You know, the Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, all of that. Alice in Chains. And so that passing was like it felt like one of those world changing events. Like there was like a small group of girls in my school who were like, you know, proto emo. I don't even know what you would call them back then. but they were just completely like they were crying all day because of how hard this, this news hit them. And I feel like, you know, I don't know if everybody saw it or found out that way, but if you were a fan following that music, you were watching MTV. And so like, it is, it stands to reason, this is how you would come about this information was from Kurt Loder and his very soothing voice.
00:19:17
Speaker 2: And they talked about that. Yeah, and what's interesting, I mean, I remember that 94... Like, I watched MTV before, but 94 is the summer. I just remember being glued to the TV. You mentioned Soundgarden. That was the year of Black Hole Sun was the big single. And that video... Scared the hell out of me. Still to this day. It was a freaky video. Yeah.
00:19:37
Speaker 1: With, you know, little eyeballs. Yeah, it was a freaky, freaky video.
00:19:41
Speaker 2: Same summer as Regulate being on and John Mellon's pants, Wild Night. Like, what?
00:19:46
Speaker 1: Three sides of the brain.
00:19:47
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah. Yeah, and literally, I think MTV News cut. That might have been how I learned of the Bronco chase, like in the middle. Okay. Wow. But Kurt personally delivered the Kurt Cobain news and they talk about it. The thing that I always remember, and I don't believe it was Kurt Loder. I think it was either Chris Connolly or Tabitha Soren was Tupac. Yeah.
00:20:07
Speaker 1: Shout out to Chris Connolly, too. I feel like I did see a lot of Chris Connolly on MTV News as well.
00:20:13
Speaker 2: He was great. John Norris and Serena Alcho, all the names. But I remember my mom walking in as I was one of those people processing Pac's death. And my mom started crying, which always, always sticks with me. And I looked at my mom and I wasn't crying. I was just really affected. But I'm 12 years old and my mom cried. And to this day, my mom was just visiting me over the weekend i asked her i was like why are you crying and my mom knew the song dear mama and my mom's crying because she said he loved his mom very.
00:20:47
Speaker 1: Much wow that was that was her that was how she associated him and her mind.
00:20:53
Speaker 2: And i just think of what true compassion and empathy in a pop culture aesthetic looks like. And I always think I'll carry that memory with me the rest of my life, especially with what I've since done with my career in my life. But I always think of my mom with that. Yeah. And I'm just curious, like the idea of that lean back experience with whether the videos or the shows you're watching and the news you're getting is completely decided for you. Now, when I feel like we hold our controllers to everything, be it your phone, be it your laptop, be it social media, Is there anything that is akin to that experience we're talking about?
00:21:31
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny. You just said that. I've thought about, where do I get my bad news now? Because I don't go looking for bad news. And honestly, I have a New York Times subscription. So they send... I get breaking news alerts to my email. And it's like, that is... It's like... it's almost like my email inbox is the media that I don't control.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
00:21:55
Speaker 1: Like I'll, you know, sign up for this or sign up for that. And then that gets fed to me, but I don't choose when, you know, that I think that's, that in my life is probably the closest. Cause I'm never like actively going and looking for the tragedy does happen. And I used to, it used to be Twitter.
00:22:17
Speaker 2: Right.
00:22:18
Speaker 1: When Twitter felt like a, reliable place to get clear information on things. I would just go see what's trending. And oftentimes you see somebody's name trending and you click it and find out that something awful has happened.
00:22:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:22:32
Speaker 1: You know?
00:22:32
Speaker 2: No, that's a really good point. And it's funny because I get those same emails and I've tried to like, you know, it's like the boy who cried wolf. Like I try to look, manage my subscriptions and just take down a little bit of the trigger warning of like, Hey, can we not send me alerts to start with this person's name or, uh, you know, if somebody passed away, you know, don't, but you can't, you can't. And I actually get mad when on the weekend, the New York times, you know, they go from hard news to sending you like, Hey, how do you clean your grill? Yeah.
00:23:02
Speaker 1: With the same like presentation. It's like, y'all got to switch this up.
00:23:07
Speaker 2: That's weird. Right.
00:23:09
Speaker 1: You think somebody fell off a bridge or something? No, but it's just like bread recipes or something.
00:23:14
Speaker 2: Well, I encourage everyone, I mean, obviously we're the show between the show, but check out the Kurt Loder conversation. There's some cool intercept. Amir had mentioned in passing Old Dirty Bastard, and I thought, I mean, that's a famous report that did not involve tragedy. But, you know, I mean, obviously ODB is no longer with us, but Kurt Loder, I think, guided the little MTV production of obviously the famous... Actually, it's funny. I have a replica somewhere behind me of the WIC card that ODB gets out of the limo and goes in to use the benefit.
00:23:44
Speaker 1: Classic material. Shout out to Toure. Toure, I think, was... I think he was the host for that segment, I believe.
00:23:53
Speaker 2: Oh, touche. Yeah, we'll make sure we get that right.
00:23:56
Speaker 1: I believe so. I could be wrong, but I believe Toure. That was Toure's segment.
00:24:00
Speaker 2: Thank you for checking out this mini, everyone. Please, I encourage... everybody you know send questions you might have mailbag questions we did one of those last week um while we were in the studio with amir you got questions for the show suggestions god forbid anything you want me to talk about or my like we're here this is a 360 but um go to questlovesupreme.com or dm us at the qls on ig um or leave a thoughtful youtube comment we are here and we are grateful until next time mike all right talk soon
00:24:48
Speaker 1: Questlove shows a production of iHeartRadio.