Nardwuar vs. Corey Feldman (Part One !) Originally from June 4, 1999 !
Nardwuar: Who are you?
Corey Feldman: Mmm. Who am I? A very complex, diverse, strange kind of cat.
You are Corey Feldman!
That’s correct.
Corey, I was totally surprised to learn that music was in your blood. Like,
you, your dad was in the Strawberry Alarm Clock! That’s incredible!
Well, he was actually in like a second or third generation of the
Strawberry Alarm Clock. It wasn’t the actual Strawberry Alarm Clock that
had the hit. But it doesn’t matter; he was still a musician.
Did you steal any of his clothes out of the cupboard?
(laughs) No, I don’t think so.
Because your new CD has a very psychedelic feel to it. In fact, you
describe it as the Pink Floyd of the ’90s, and I just wondering, Corey
Feldman, if you like ever went into your dad’s cupboard and taken any of
his old incense and peppermints stuff, because the Strawberry Alarm Clock –
even if your dad was in a later version of it – were a pretty cool band!
Right, at their time, right, right. Well, you know, I’m into that whole
scene, you know, but unfortunately he didn’t dress like, you know, one of
those guys who was into the whole trippy scene, you know. It wasn’t like a
Lenny Kravitz or a Jimi Hendrix or, you know, that kind of a look. It was
more of like a Saturday Night Fever type look that he was into. He was more
into the disco look, I guess you would say.
Corey Feldman, are you related to Marty Feldman, you know, I-Gor from Young
Frankenstein?
Not at all.
Because that would have been cool! Marty Feldman, from those Mel Brooks movies!
Right. No, not in any way.
Now, your brand new CD, Corey Feldman’s Truth Movement “Still Searching for
Soul” is amazing!
Thank you.
It’s amazing, Corey. I was kind of scared what I learned about you!
(laughs)
Are you okay? Are you okay?
I’m doing just fine. What scared you exactly?
The song “De-Pressed.”
They build you up, then they tear you down, and expect you not to cry
They make you king, then steal your crown
Everyone will miss you when you die
They must not think we live and feel like other humans on this earth
You had it all, you took a fall and now you ain’t worth nothing at all
I’ve worked, I’ve tried, I’ve swallowed my pride
But fame takes a slip, and everyone abandons ship
Corey, who abandoned you?
Pretty intense words, huh?
Yeah!
(laughs) Now that I’m listening to it, I guess you’re right! No, um, well,
everybody abandoned me, you know, society, civilization, the entertainment
industry. Basically what I’m speaking of there more directly is the fact
that as a child I worked my butt off for the movie industry and for the
entertainment industry and then I had a little problem with drugs and I
became a slave for a couple years and then I got my act together and fixed
everything and, you know, resurrected myself but when I got better, there
was nobody there to be there for me anymore. Everybody had already
dissipated, and it was kind of like, “Well, he made his mistakes. See you
later.” And I’ve had to fight everyday since to regain the ground that I
had achieved up to that point.
Have you ever got into any fights with anybody over this? Like, is that why
you got into a fistfight with Dennis Miller on the set of “Bordello of
Blood”? Like, he was teasing you because you weren’t as famous as him?
Oh, no, no no. We actually never got into a fistfight either. That’s
probably a rumour. Um, the truth of the matter is, what happened between
Dennis and I was purely a match of intellects and it was kind of, you know,
more or less, it was a pissing contest. Basically, his ego got involved
because I wanted to make a joke which referred to him in a lesser way and
he wasn’t appreciative of that, even though he is a comedian and he makes
fun of everybody else as well as he’s made fun of me in the past, you know,
I wanted to take a shot at him in the film and he didn’t think it was
funny, and everybody else did so I did it anyway, and that’s basically
where the conflict came in because he couldn’t deal with it.
Now, completely on the other side, Howard Stern has been a big supporter of
you, Corey Feldman. You have been on his show fifty times?! Like, fifty
times!?!
Yeah, probably about that. Yeah.
You did something like lip-sync’ing on the Howard Stern show, Corey?
(laughs) Well actually I did a song that was much different style of music
at that time. Uh, I guess that was eight or nine years ago. And, uh, I did
a song called “What’s up with Youth?” which was basically about the state
of the children in our society, and, uh, it was a dance pop kind of thing,
much different from what I am doing now, but Howard quite enjoyed it. And
so did Paul Shafer – he came up to me at some point and said, “Hey, ‘What’s
up with Youth? I I like that song.”
Fifty times on the Howard Stern show! Incredible! And also, on your brand
new CD, Corey, you have Hunt Sales! How did you get Hunt Sales to play
drums for you, with you, on your CD? Hunt Sales, like, this is Soupy Sales’
son!
This is him, yeah.
He played with Iggy and Bowie! How’d you hook up with Hunt Sales!? Hunt
Sales! Hunt Sales!
(laughs) Hunt Sales – you know, it’s amazing, you’re actually the first
person that noticed that. Um, Hunt is an old friend of mine. We actually,
you know, we were going to AA meetings together for awhile and he was a
really nice guy and I became friends with him and his brother Tony, and,
uh, yeah, I just became friends with him.
Did he tell you any Iggy or Bowie stories at all?
You know, I never asked! (laughs) You know, the times we spent together we
were probably talking about what we were doing at that time. The time that
were hanging out, he was touring with Tin Machine so, um, he was telling me
that he was working with Tin Machine and how great it was and it was a
great experience and they were really thrilled to be doing that and, uh,
shortly after that was when he did the track on my album.
But you have Rick Springfield on your album too, don’t you?
Uh, Rick’s not on the album. Rick and I actually did write a song together
which has not been released yet. Um, however, he did appear on my birthday
show of a year and a half ago at the Century Club and he actually played my
entire set as my lead guitarist.
Well, Corey Feldman, back to the CD, back to “De-Pressed,” “You had it
all, you took a fall, and now you aint worth nothing at all.”
Right.
But you still got the part of the voice of the teenage mutant Ninja!
(laughs) Oh, yeah?
“Spiraling Downward Part 2”
It’s over for me, I’m washed out to sea. No hope of deliverance, from the
fate that I see.
My book has been read. The words have been said. If I don’t find
redemption, I’ll soon end up dead.
No, Corey, don’t do it!
(laughs)
You have albums to sell! You have your new album to sell, Corey Feldman!
(laughs) Well, you have to understand: the whole album tells a story, so
basically what’s it’s doing is it’s going through a very emotional,
traumatic outbreak of one human being through a twenty-four hour period, so
this guy starts off Sunday morning at the beach-
Sunday morning cruising down Sunset Boulevard-
No, that’s Sunday afternoon.
Oh, sorry! Excuse me for interrupting.
No, that’s just in the middle of the album. Basically, it starts off Sunday
morning at the beach; it ends up Sunday evening at the park. And it’s
basically everything that happens to him emotionally during that
twenty-four hour period.
Well, “Soul Search Part 2”
Sunday afternoon cruising down on Sunset Blvd.
Looking for a clue, when all I find is washed up movie stars, washed up
movie stars.
There’s one that looks like you. Maybe if you’re lucky they’ll let you
play the part.
With all of this I’m through. I used to believe until they ripped my soul
apart.
Corey Feldman, what roles were you passed up for?
(laughs) Oh, I’ve been passed up for plenty! Um, I don’t know if that’s
what I’m referring to there-
But “washed up movie star”-
But-
Surely there must be some allusion to that-
But
You know, Ricky Schroeder, he is rumoured to be the next Anakin Skywalker,
the next Darth Vader. Ricky Schroeder, the next Darth Vader,a contemporary,
a friend of yours. How does that make you feel? Like, does that make you
jealous at all?
Oh, no, I would be very happy for Ricky. I think he is a great actor and a
nice person. I would be thrilled to see him succeed actually.
Because you realize about the Star Wars jinx – you’ve met like Mark Hamill
probably at the 7-Eleven in Hollywood Hills, right?
You know, I’ve never met Mark Hamill actually.
Well, what roles have you, uh, tried to get – like, didn’t you try to hang
out on the set of Martin Scorcese’s Casino there?
That’s true. I did actually hang out at the set but that was because they
were filming in the lobby of the hotel I was staying at at the time. And I
came downstairs and they were all set up and I found out that Robert Deniro
was working and I had to meet him – I’m a huge fan of Robert Deniro, as
well as a huge fan of Al Pacino.
Were you able to get your name out there? Just to say, “Hey, look, I’m
ready to do stuff”? Like, lala, back to the question, what roles were you
passed up for? What things have you had difficulty with there, Corey
Feldman?
Well, you know, there’s been a lot of things that through the years I would
have liked to do, you know, Star Wars being one of them. Obviously I would
have loved to have the chance to do even Ewan McGregor’s part in that film.
Um, you know, there’s so many roles I would have loved to do. Devil’s
Advocate I would have loved to do, Keanu Reaves’ role. Um-
Were any you offered? They just, like, like-
No, actually it never came up because what happens is they kind of pick
whoever’s hot at the minute and that person gets the offer before it ever
goes out for, you know, the option for us to talk to them.
Well hwo do you feel, Corey Feldman, about guest starring on the show like
the Crow, that has guest stars like Ralph Malph, Donnie Most? Is this an
honour?
(laughs) Is it an honour? Well obviously it is not an honour but at the
same time I don’t compare myself to other people. I don’t say well this
person has done this so I that shouldn’t, or that person has done that – to
me, it’s about if they respect me and they appreciate what I have to offer
and I feel that there is something challenging and interesting for me to
do, then I’ll do it.
Where do you draw the line tyough, Corey Feldman? What have you refused to
do? Just refused to do?
Well, basically a lot of stuff lately. In the last two years, you know, I
took all the time off to do my album, because I basically got caught up in
a cycle of B-moves which is not something ever thought I would end up
doing, and certainly it was never part of the big picture, and what
happened was when I got out of rehab, I was very broke, so I had to pay off
200,000 dollars in debt as well as keep myself alive. With that kind of
pressure, I had to do several B-movies basically to just keep myself going,
as any human being would, um, I had to survive-
Have you done any porn at all, Corey Feldman?
No, I’m not into that.
Were you offered any porn?
No.
Because you are in Ron Jeremy’s “Freak of the Week” video! “Freak of the
Week” with Ron Jeremy! Where did you meet Ron?
Uh, Ron and I have known each other for many years. He’s a Hollywood, uh-
Leg-end.
Yeah. I mean he’s kind of always around. He’s at all the parties and you
know, what have you. But no, I certainly wouldn’t do porn.
And there’s also “Porn to Rock” that’s happening. You know, there’s that
recent gig “Porn to Rock” at the Dragon Fly that happened?
What is that?
It was like all these porn stars that were actually singing.
Oh. Well-
And didn’t you actually break up with a porn star? Didn’t you date Nikki Dial?
(laughs) How’d you hear about that?
You, you dated her and then afterwards you forced her out of porn. After,
after, after you broke up with her she left porn, so you must have had a
good influence on her then.
Well, what happened was it was – we dated for a very brief time, and I am
somebody who has a lot of morals and, uh, she was a really nice girl and it
seemed that she was really unhappy with what she was doing, and I told her
that if I was going to remain friends with her in any way that, you know,
she should take better care of herself and make herself happy, and so I
basically influenced her to do what she felt was right for her which was
not to do that which was making her miserable.
So Corey Feldman is to blame – or to take credit for – Nikki Dial’s recovery!
Exactly. But she went back to it afterwards. In the end I achieved nothing.
(laughs)
Soul search Part 2
I fly and fly and fly but my wings won’t let me soar.
I cry and cry and cry but my heart shuns the door.
Now god has taken me back to the place I started from, why would he think I
need this?
Did I do something wrong? Killing Innocent children? Mutilation, lies, deceit?
What did you do wrong, Corey Feldman?
(laughs) I love the way you put these questions. That’s great. Um, well,
what I’m saying is I’m taking the blame for society as a whole, you know,
when I say killing innocent children, mutilation, lies, deceit, I’m
speaking of the society that we live in, you know, everybody wants to point
the finger at everybody else and then you’ve got look around you and
notice, look at what terrrible condition this world is in. It’s kind of
like when people want to take something that I say like what’s happened to
me recently where, you know, something that was completely contorted and
taken out of context became a headline, and I had nothing to di with the
truth of that statement, and why would it be so significant anyway? Because
the whole point is there are people out there killing each other and now
we’re bombing people in Kosovo, so what do I matter in the big picture
anyway?
Like didn’t you once make a comment on like some awards show about an
actress from the movie T2 and you got a lot of heat for it in the press? Do
you remember that at all, Corey Feldman?
Well, what happened was, actually that was written jokes that I was asked
to perform, and unfortunately those jokes were not funny.
What was the joke?
(laughs) I don’t remember. I think it had something to do with the way she
manipulated the gun in her one arm and, you know, the physical symbolism of
it, but it was just stupid. There were also other bad jokes to do with
bimbos and things like that but unfortunately I took all the heat. The
writer of the show and the executive producer of the show took none of the
heat and it just made me look bad. It was a very embarrassing situation and
it was, you know, not something I like to remember.
Well, something that was exciting was your movies with the Canadian Corey
Haim! Like, you guys were like Abbott and Costello! Some incredible movies
together!
Thank you.
Were you upset in “Blown Away” that all of Baywatch’s Nicole Eggert’s sex
scenes were with the other Corey, Corey Haim, and not you, Corey Feldman?
Well they actually weren’t.
Like they were all – weren’t they were all with Corey Haim, not you. You
didn’t get too much.
No, that’s not true. I did a sex scene with her too.
But not as much as Corey Haim. He got the one-
Well he was engaged to her at the time!
But I mean were you a bit upset by it. I mean, this was Nicole Eggert!
(laughs)
Nicole Eggert!
(laughs) No, not really. It really didn’t matter to me. As a matter of
fact, I’m not one who likes to do too much nudity and sex scenes anyways.
Have you ever shown your cock at all, Corey, in a movie?
No.
Never? Like, wha, wha, like, like, your rates go up if you have to that, right?
Yes.
Do you-
That would be big time money.
Do you know if there are any bootleg recordings from the “Call the Coreys”
hotline around? What was “Call the Coreys”?
Um, basically that was a 900 number which was actually quite lucrative and
uh basically would go in for an hour-
This was you and Corey Haim? You and Corey Haim?
-and we would record certain messages. Yes. Yes. But separately. It was
both of us but it was separate.
And you would record messages?
Yes.
And like what would happen when you phoned this number?
Like people would call up and they would hear a new story for the day, or
they’d leave their questions and we’d answer them. Things like that.
And you made a bit of money off of it.
Yeah. Sure.
So have you thought of bringing that back?
No.
How is Corey Haim? What’s he up to now?
Corey Haim’s good. Um, he’s, uh, basically just getting his life together
and, you know, resurrecting himself, as a human being, and with his career.
He was in the Edison Twins, a great Canadian production of many years ago,
that he actually brought up in his incredible “Me, Myself and I” biography?
(laughs) Wasn’t that incredible? “Me, Myself and I”? Did you enjoy that?
That was outrageous! What did you think about that? What stands out for you
in that, Corey Feldman? Corey Haim’s “Me, Myself and I” biography – that
was outrageous!
Uh, you know, truthfully, I haven’t seen the whole thing, so I wouldn’t be
able to comment.
But just in the parts that you’ve seen – did it accurately portray him?
I didn’t, you know, from what I saw, I didn’t think it was biogrifull, I
didn’t think there was anything biogri-biographical at all in that.
Just pure outrage!
“Spiraling Downward Part 1”
I’m spiraling downward, I’m spiraling down.
Were you in rehab with Corey Haim?
Uh, no.
How into drugs were you, Corey Feldman?
Very. (laughs) I was at the bottom of the barrel.
Because in your song “Depressed” from the Truth Movement CD , you mention
River Phoenix.
Mm hmm.
What was it like doing drugs on the set of Stand by Me with River Phoenix?
I never did drugs on the set of Stand by Me with River Phoenix.
In the book River Phoenix: A Short Life, Brian J. Robb says:
“For Corey Feldman, Stand By Me was a film of many firsts: ‘I smoked pot on
that film for the first time, and drank for the first time ever.'”
Right, but I didn’t do drugs. That was before I was – you know, I didn’t
even know what real drugs were. I did try pot for the first time, but it
didn’t even work, and actually that was with River. That was both of us
together.
“For his part Phoenix claimed” – this is again Brian J. Robb speaking –
“For his part, Phoenix claimed to have lost his virginity during the making
of the film [Stand by Me], although according to Feldman, Phoenix was
getting into more than sex early in his life. I went into his room and I
saw a joint and he said, “Oh, it was someone else’s… I had been doing it
too, but it was one of those things we didn’t really want to let each other
know what we were doing.”
Well, what it was, the truth is that basically him and I tried it together
first. This is kind of a story that nobody’s ever been told before but,
what happened was – now I don’t know because his family was kind of hippies
and they were part of the whole peace vegetarianism movement which I think
is great. Um, but that was the environment he was raised in so for him it
was okay. Um, but what happened was, one of the sound guys actually on the
movie, we were in his room hanging out one day and we saw a bong up in the
closet, and we were both like, “What’s that?” and he explained it to us.
So, we decided we wanted to try it, so we gave it a shot, and we both
coughed a lot and had sore throats, but, uh, even though we were kind of
bouncing off the walls of the hotel, neither of us seemed to be too
affected by it. It didn’t seem to change our state of mind in any way. Um,
and then several months later, after the movie was completed, uh, I saw him
on the press junket in New York, for Stand by Me, and that was when we were
staying a couple of rooms away from each other, and I could smell the pot
coming all the way down the hallway, and at that point he told me that it
wasn’t actually his; it was somebody else’s.
Did you hang out with River much, Corey Feldman, during his “heroin years”?
No. Not at all.
Because you were addicted to heroin when you were 15 years old?
No. I was addicted to heroin when I was 17 years old.
But you didn’t snort it. Or you did. How did you take it? Did you – you
never used-
I did snort it. Yeah.
You did not use a needle?
Never.
When was the first time you did coke? Was that with Sean Astin on the set
of The Goonies!
(laughs) No! Who said that?
Cyndi Lauper did the title track for Goonies, so I thought that might have
inspired you to do some coke with Sean Astin on the set of The Goonies.
Now where would you get a correlation like that?
What happened to the kid from Indiana Jones-
Wait a minute! You didn’t answer my question.
Oh, just introspection. A equals B but B equals C, so A must equal C. One
of those type thing, Corey Feldman, and we’re speaking here again to Corey
Feldman. Corey Feldman, live from…. where are you now, Corey Feldman?
Los Angeles.
What did happen to the kid from Indiana Jones who was in The Goonies with you?
You know, I don’t know. He grew up and he changes his name to David. That’s
all I know.
How does it feel, Corey, when people come up to you, and hug you ’cause you
were in Goonies?
Um, I love everybody that has love for me. How is that?
Corey, did you have a weapons charge against you at one time?
No.
Have you ever spent the night in jail?
No.
Good. That is the name of a Standells song, another ’60s psychedelic rocker.
(laughs)
“Have you ever spend the night in jail? Well, I have.” That was written by
Ed Cobb, you know, Standells contemporaries of the Strawberry Alarm Clock,
which is amazing because your dad was in a later version of the Strawberry
Alarm Clock and you again are Corey Feldman, so you never have been brought
to jail, you know, like not even for the night?
Well, no, I mean, I’ve spent several hours in jail during, you know, the
arrest back in 1989, or 1990 rather, um, but not since then.
Did they separate you from “gen pop”? You know, were you separated from
“general population” when you were brought into jail, Corey Feldman?
Well, I was only put into a holding cell. I never actually went into the
system.
But like it’s a “status” thing to beat people up when they’re in jail,
especially when they’re an actor of some… repute as you are. I mean, you
weren’t there with other cellmates and stuff that might have went, wha, you
know, make a run at you?
Um, I guess I got lucky!
Robert Downey Jr, he wasn’t in there at the same time, was he?
No, that was years later.
Now where did you meet John from Vegas Records? Where did you meet John
from Vegas Records? That’s your record label that the new CD that you’ve
put out, Corey Feldman, the Truth Movement, is on. He was a social worker.
Was that where you met him, like, through jail and recovering and stuff
like that?
No, but boy wouldn’t that make a great story. (laughs)
That’s what i was thinking, he might have been your social worker and you
went to him and he said, “Corey, do some music!”
No, but you know, why not? We canpa skunh it! (laughs)
I think it’s pretty incredible, that you are on Vegas, a ska punk label, a
label with the band The Scholars, a ska label! How the hell did this
happen? How did you end up on a ska punk label, Corey? Because when I first
phoned the label, John’s like, “You realize, Corey’s record’s not ska
punk.?” And I’m like, “That’s fine.” (laughs)
Is that normally what you do? You know, you only do reviews of “SAk Punk”?
No, I love everything! But he was just assuming that anybody would be
phoning the label, you know, that I would think they were ska punk or
whatever, nah, it doesn’t matter. How did you end up on that label?
Well, what happened was actually, um, through another ska punk label, Drive
Thru Records, which actually is doing a merger now with MCA, so they’re in
pretty good shape. They’re friends of mine, and we met through another
friend, so it’s kind of like a big family of friends, and basically they
had asked me to do some stuff for them, they wanted me to appear on their
Christmas album, as well as they were working on another kind of comp
album, and we had talked about the idea of me doing my album through them
and unfortunately at the time they didn’t have the budget to complete the
album so they told me they would introduce me to some people and see what
kind of interest there was, so I met two or three different independent
labels that they were friends with and, uh, John was the first to make a
good offer, and there you go!
That’s great to get on – thank God for ska punk revival, Corey Feldman
Hopeless
I’m standing here all alone . My scarf’s wrapped so tight, to avoid the
frightening chill of a world all alone
I’m a child never grown, a kid who never had any time to grow
They bought me , then sold me till I burned.
Now it looks like all their backs are turned on me.
I can’t see anyone who will ever believe in me.
If nobody else will, it’s time for me to care.
Corey Feldman, what is going on there? On your new CD, The Truth Movement,
Corey, you thank your “parents for bringing you into this world.” But
that’s it! Is this referring to that?
Um, yeah, I suppose so. I mean, you can take it and look at it that way. I
mean, the fact that I did not have a normal childhood and I didn’t have
parents who were ever there for me, growing up, so I suppose, you know,
that’s all kind of a nutshell of what is going on.
Like you thank them for raising you, but you don’t thank them for anything
else because they let you go into film?
Um, well, I wouldn’t say it was as cut and dry as that. I mean, basically,
they whored me out. They prostituted me. They made me their slut. (laughs)
They sent me out to work and, you know, collected the money, spent the
money and used me up.
But you did have some fun doing it though, right?
Well, I mean I had fun because, listen, I enjoyed doing movies as a kid
because I got to get away from the abuse of my home life. I was abused at
home, so when I got to go to work it was great because it was a lot of nice
people who enjoyed spending time with me, um, and, as far as the acting
part of it, I always liked acting because I always had a great imagination
so I would, you know, when I was at home, I would put on different costumes
and run around as different characters like Superman or Batman or whatever.
Why did you end up suing your parents, Corey? Was that the reason?
Yeah. Well, I didn’t actually sue them. What I did was I fought for the
right to be on my own so that they didn’t have control over my career or my
money anymore.
Was this kind of like the Gary Coleman thing where he claims that his
parents and business manager blew 18 million dollars. Like, 18 million
bucks! And like now Gary’s like a security guard. I mean, you’ve recovered
but is the same sort of thing, like, you believe, Corey, that children
should not be in movies because that is child exploitation?
I totally believe that. I totally believe that. I think that, you know, if
I had my druthers, I mean, you’re never going to stop children from being
in movies, but I think there’s a couple of things that could be done to
protect the children. Number one, I don’t think they should build a child
into a star where he receives the amount of adulation that is going to
screw up his head for the rest of his life. Do you understand what I mean?
I don’t think that children should be put on a pedestal when they’re only
children, you know, they should remain children and have the right to be
that. The other thing is that I believe that, um, I believe that the plans
are all screwed up when it comes to the politics of the business, because
in most fields, if you work in a field for twenty-five years, you have the
right to retire. In this field, you don’t have the right to retire if you
start working at three years old, even though you’ve worked the same amount
of time, you don’t get the right to relax and get the money and take the
benefits, you know.
But you do get to take the cocaine though!
(pause, laughs) What’s your point?
[…] Transcribed Interview Part One ! (June 4, 1999 ) Transcribed Interview Part Two ! (June 4, 1999) […]