Interview: Tony Parsons - part 2

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GR: There was that period when everything was vital and out there, like that period of punk when you were writing about it. I remember reading somewhere you said even then you wanted to be part of the mainstream, to try and reach that larger audience anyway. Do you resent that description I see everywhere, "Tony Parsons, former punk journalist'. It comes with your name.

TP: Yeah. I'm used to it now. I was going to say I get it more abroad but when I think about it I get it just as much at home. There was a piece in the Daily Telegraph two days ago and that was in the headline, so it still happens here.

It gives people something to talk about and it's a good hook, this guy who used to spend time with the Sex Pistols and the Clash and then writing books about family. If I was writing a story about me I'd be happy to see that link because it's an obvious contrast. I don't mind talking about it as long as its kept in perspective, that's the thing.

It was a really interesting time and that's why my next book is going to be about that. But it was a short period of time and it's over. You get get resigned to it, there's nothing you can do about what people say about you in the press. When you've promoted a few books and done your interviews you realise you have absolutely no control over this stuff and sometimes people have decided what they are going to write before they talk to you. I probably did exactly the same thing when I was interviewing people.

In his book Steven Pressfield says you have to separate yourself from that public perception, you can't let it matter too much because it affects the work. And what matters is when you sit down alone with your book or your painting or your musical instrument, not someone misquoting you or gets you wrong or doesn't see any value in what you do. You have to let it roll off. I know people who are affected by it because they can't stand that degree of public scrutiny. So I can't let it get to me for that, there are too many people I have responsibility to and who support me, so I can't let it get to me. I cut myself off and have a barrier.

When I was up in Edinburgh there were a couple of women standing outside my event and they were saying, "Oh look, Tony Parson is on here' and they were looking through me to see it. That was odd, you felt kind of separated from the public image to such a degree that people could actually look through the real you.

Most of my readers are great and I'm grateful for the readership. I really appreciate it when people like my books, and people think they know me and to a degree they do. But the relationship with readers is a much purer transaction than it is with the media because human nature being what it ...

I don't get it so much abroad but here, and especially in London, I am often being written about by people who were my contemporaries five years ago, because I used to work for the Sunday Times and the Telegraph and all those papers, and they are giving their opinions on me and human nature being what it is they're not always the most generous in giving assessments.

GR: There's probably nothing worse than an envious journalist interviewing a successful author. But you just go straight to your audience.

TP: Yeah, I was a single parent for quite a while and when I was doing that I wasn't looking to get my son to Oxford or Cambridge, or for him to find a cure for cancer. My only thing was survival. I wanted us to get through it, to survive the situation we'd been put in, and it was sometimes a struggle. I think that's not a bad attitude to have, a little bit of stoicism and think, 'Let's get through this'.

People close to me get much more upset about things that are written about me than I do because I refuse to let it touch me simply because I just want to get through, just promote this book, send it out in the world, do what I can to bring it to the attention of people and then settle into the new book. So I refuse to be down or find it too painful.

GR: Do people misunderstand that, they think you should always be giving a part of yourself away whereas you just have the next piece of work to do?

TP: Yeah, that's it really. The books really matter to me, they are how I make sense of my world and my life. I'm quite open with people but I will talk to journalists.

In the past I've probably done it too much. When Man and Boy came out a journalist I trusted asked if he could have a word with my son and I gave him my son's home number, he was like a 17-year-old kid but he did an interview. Other papers picked up on it and they turned it into a news story and he talked about his mum and he was dragged on to the front pages. That was my fault.

It was taken away from the journalist of course, as we know the journalist isn't the guy who makes decisions about the editorial content of the paper, it's done by the editor and his editor. You live and learn and I realised that it was a very naive thing for me to do. I need to be more protective than that. It's a by-product of scrutiny that people become more protective of that core, it's inevitable because you just want to survive and get through it.

GR: But having been a journalist you must see the other side of that. You did rock'n'roll stuff and you must have thought, how much of this am I going to give away in this story right now.

TP: Yeah, and I'm still a journalist. I write newspaper columns.

GR: But sometimes things hold you back?

TP: Well, I don't so much. You see my life, so much of it has been in the public eye.

GR: Is that a problem?

TP: I could never deny I took drugs, and even when I had a nine, 10 or 11-year-old kid at that stage where I would have preferred that not be [known].

As you saw with Paul McCartney when his kids were growing up there was a period where he didn't want to talk about it and people said 'what a hypocrite'. But I could understand that.

But you are stuck with it. But as long as I protect my family and my work I don't really care what's said about me. I'm quite open with everybody, maybe because it's a degree of identification.

What I find difficult to deal with is the level of spite you get. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think I was ever a spiteful journalist. When Man and Boy came out it was reviewed favourably and people were very generous, but as time has gone on it has become less and less.

The Family Way got a completely different critical reaction to Man and Boy and to me there's no way it's not a better book. It's a much better book than Man and Boy.

But some journalist comes round from a London newspaper and there's just poison dripping when the piece appears and I think, "What have I done to upset this woman?" But as I say it upsets other people more, like my wife

GR: Well the tone in your voice there said it pissed you off.

TP: I don't think they think of the book as any ... It's about me. Like this week there's this huge feature on me in the Daily Telegraph. They did a huge feature because the number two at the paper really liked the book and so they sent a journalist round. But the piece is just poisonous.

GR: A woman journalist?

TP: Yes, older. A younger one would have been more generous. Yeah, in a way it does piss me off. If I'm like that, why bother talking to me? You asked to talk to me. I don't let it get to me. It would be like driving and envisaging a car wreck every time you are on the highway. You can't think like that because you've got to get my kids to school.

GR: You are writing another book now?

TP: Yeah, I'll really get into when I get back from New Zealand but I'm in the dreamtime and working out how to tell the story and the particular characters. I've written something but I'm not at the 1000 words a day yet. It's one night in the 70s and then the same characters one night 20 years later. A cross between American Graffiti and The Big Chill.

GR: It sounds terrifying. Have you got the big arc?

TP: I'm kind of happy with it. There are technical problems like, "What was 1977 like, what did it taste like, what did it feel like?"

GR: How old were you in 77?

TP: I was 23.

GR: That is old enough to see things and remember.

TP: But it's like, "What was happening in 77 as opposed to 79 or 82?" It was pre-Thatcher for a start. And you just want to capture it. I've got this little table and I pile it high with books, like for The Family Way it was pilled high with pregnancy books and IVF and abortion, and now its full of 70s books.

The most important things are the characters, when you've got the character they tell the story for you. Graham Greene said there is a point where the characters tell the story for you and I do believe that. If they live and breathe they'll tell you where to go.

GR: You've got the soundtrack? You have '77 on the turntable?

TP: I wouldn't have it when I'm writing because it sparks to many thoughts - and it's not something I'd listen to at the end of the day because I'd want to stop thinking about it. But you're right. There are a lot DVDs around and so you can get a lot of the look and the feel of things from those. But I'd treat it more like research than background noise, I'd put on something else that had nothing to do with that.

GR: A bit of Brian Eno ambience or something?

TP: I'm listening to a lot of the guitarists that I'd never really heard the first time, guys like Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, all these folkie 60s guitarist in bands like Pentangle.

I've always been a huge fan of the acoustic side of Led Zeppelin. I liked Jimmy Page on acoustic guitar, and this is where a lot of those songs come from, they've got a real folk and blues roots. So I'm listening to a lot of that. That's one of the things I like about getting older. I probably wouldn't have liked it when it came out, well I was only about 10, I was listening to the Monkees.

GR: Don't knock them, I've got a box set right by my stereo.

TP: Oh no, but it's nice to discover that [folk] stuff later. They were not rock'n'roll enough to make, they were folk purists and into the blues like Robert Johnson. I imagine they were a bit sniffy about the Rolling Stones because they were contemporaries. So I'm listening to a lot of that.

GR: As an older man with a clearer head you get perspective.

TP: I'm sure there were guys on the NME who knew them, I was just somewhere else. You know John Renbourn?

GR: Yeah.

TP: Well, this is a great version of Nobody's Fool But Mine (turns up stereo) Brilliant. Okay I'll let you stick the Monkees on and we can swap records over 10,00 miles.

GR: Tony, thank you for your time this morning, What are you going to do for the rest of the day?

TP: I'm going to have a cup of coffee, jump in the shower - and then I'm going to get to my book.

*The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.

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