On Saturday, July 12, at UCLA's Pauley Pavillion, some of America's greatest rock 'n' roll bands gathered onstage to pay homage to one of Britain's greatest rock 'n' roll bands: The Who.
At the VH1 Who Rock Honors charity concert extravaganza, which airs on VH1 this Thursday night, the Foo Fighters (awesomely and unexpectedly joined by token Brit Gaz Coombs of Supergrass), Incubus, Tenacious D, and Pearl Jam all performed Who hits, followed by a sensational show by the Who themselves.
Of course, guests of honor Daltrey and Townshend easily upstaged all of the "opening acts" half their age, but aside from them, there was one other band that stole the show--or at least best captured all the pinball-wizardry of the Who at their most iconically unhinged and OTT.
Who, you ask (heh heh)? Oh, just that wacky pack of gong-banging, puppet-wielding, fake-blood-spraying Oklahoman oddballs, the Flaming Lips.
And you know any band that attracts kooky comedienne Margaret Cho and her sidekick/upcoming The Cho Show reality co-star Selene Luna is a band that puts on a show of truly Tommy-esque proportions. Here's Margaret and Selene on the preshow red carpet, giving the Lips some much-deserved lip service:
So Yahoo! Music had the honor of getting some one-on-one lip service from lead Lip Wayne Coyne himself, in his trailer right after the Lips' VH1 Who Rock Honors dress rehearsal. (Highlights from this practice run included a bunch of stand-in UCLA students attempting not to drop Wayne to the ground as he rolled atop their outstretched arms in his famous plastic bubble, and The Office's Rain "Dwight" Wilson sitting in the audience dressed like another Dwight--Reginald Dwight, aka Elton John--in full silver lamé Pinball Wizard attire.)
Wayne is always a big talker, so our trailer conversation naturally covered everything from an unrealized pipedream involving Amy Winehouse duetting with the Lips on "Acid Queen," to the many reasons why the did Lips chose not to recreate Ann-Margret's Tommy "baked beans" scene onstage, to the special surprises the Lips did whip up for their weird and wonderful Who tribute, to how Wayne expected more staid spectators to react to his group's Flaming spectacle.
So we rolled out wordy Wayne's interview in five fabulous chapters. Below is part 1 in which Wayne is talkin' 'bout our generation, discussing his first Who memory from back in the old AM radio days. He also reveals which songs the Flaming Lips perform on the Rock Honors show (spoiler alert: you will really enjoy seeing them, hearing them, and feeling them on Thursday night). Then click on the links below for parts 2-5, as well as pics from this Who's-who event!
WATCH PART 2 OF WAYNE'S INTERVIEW