Pete Doherty dissed me! One reporter's London odyssey

I went all the way to London to interview England's most notorious rock star and all I got was this stupid blog post.

It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. The plan was for me to sit down with Pete Doherty, the former lead singer for shambolic buzz bands the Libertines and Babyshambles, a skinny bloke whose tabloid renown as supermodel Kate Moss' ex eclipses his musical notoriety in this country.

The meeting place: a posh hotel in the Shephard's Bush section of the British capital where we would talk about his debut solo album, "Grace/Wasteland" (Astralwerks), which hits retail stores today. And Doherty might provide a little light diversion by doing something druggy or outrageous before our time together was up.

Of course, there is a ceiling to how much professionalism one can expect from Doherty, a fedora-wearing, Amy Winehouse-smooching, historical landmark-thrashing admitted crack and heroin addict. This is a guy known to make artwork out of his own blood and who's been in and out of rehab and jail so many times, wags in the British press have taken to calling him "Doperty."

But I had done my due diligence. I had seen the video of him drunkenly trying to kick the interviewer of a Brit documentary about the bad boy rocker called "Who the [expletive] is Pete Doherty":

I had observed an MTV reporter's interview enthusiasm turn into anguish as Doherty squirted what appears to be blood at him and the camera in a now notorious YouTube classic.

And I had, in earnest, prepared my questions for Doherty about "Grace/Wasteland" and his latest career incarnation. For the sake of transparency, I include some of them here:

• This album sounds like a mid-life crisis record -- and yet you are only 29. Why did you decide to forgo making rock to record what sounds like supper club jazz?

• What exactly are you trying to articulate with the lyrics "I am the rain/held in disdain/notions and potions just add to my fame" on your song "I Am the Rain"?

• How did you come to the decision to start calling yourself "Peter" instead of Pete? Can it be interpreted as a bid to be taken more seriously?

• Can you shed any more light on the video that shows Kate Moss chopping a mysterious white powder into lines and snorting it while she was in the studio with you?

Then two days before our appointed meeting on Mar. 2, this e-mail from Doherty's publicist hits my Blackberry:

"i hate to do this but I have to cancel pete's press day. he cancelled some press this weekend and i'm not confident that wednesday will run smoothly and i don't want to put you in a place where you're running around on wednesday trying to chase him down."

I was by turns angry and then accepting; I knew the job was dangerous and potentially futile even before I flew 11 hours from L.A. for the interview. And viewed in a certain way, the guy completely lived up to expectations. Pete Doherty is nothing if not rock 'n roll's most startlingly consistent whack job.

-- Chris Lee

Photo: Pete Doherty performs with Babyshambles. Credit: EPA

Comments

[spareme]

If those were your questions, you didn't deserve to interview him. If you'd done any research, you'd know that he's always called himself Peter.

[spareme]

If those were your questions, you didn't deserve to interview him. If you'd done any research, you'd know that he's always called himself Peter.

[Candy]

Great. Dude has an interview with LA freaking Times and he blows it. What else is new? It's pretty much expected of him.What an idiot! He cries about people not taking him seriously and others being too focused on his off stage antics, yet he keep doing stupid crap like this. He is his own worst enemy.He has a chance to finally break in America with this new record and he is already messing up. His new record is actually quite good, but he really needs to get it together.

[mark]

So you took a phone call from a publicist, and that's the story? That's quite the "Odyssey." You're a real Lester Bangs

[Jordan Catalano]

You gotta commit if you're gonna interview Ol' Pete. Just ask Mark Binelli at Rolling Stone:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/9519813/over_the_edge_with_pete_doherty

[Lady Lazarus]

Good.

If you approach a subject very unprofessionally, only take into account their personal lives or listen to tabloid fodder as though it's gospel, and can only be bothered to come up with juvenile questions to ask said musician, you deserve to get cancelled on.

[bilo4ever]

I am glad he blew you off. It is clear that you did not bother to do your part of the job and put any real research into Pete. If you did you would know that he is the current lead singer of BabyShambles and not the former as you wrote.

[casey]

Aaaaand this is why Peter continues to act like a two year old. It's because so many of his fans make excuses for his unprofessional behavior. It's called being an enabler and it's not doing Peter any favors.. Do you want him to sell records or do you not? Either he wants a successful career or he doesn't. Either he wants people to take him seriously as a musician and artist, or he doesn't.Which is it? It's time for him to get his act together.

[Kerem Tirmandi]

Congratulations, you managed to include every single Pete Doherty cliche in your article!
You deserve a cookie

[TrilbyHat]

You obviously anticipated publishing a story that painted Peter in a bad light and you got to do exactly what you wished, so why are you whining? Your preconceived notions about who his is as an artist are reason enough for him to not want to give you the time of day. I would say he was the lucky one canceling on you.

[JT]

MIssing pressers, hmm. I'm afraid Peter really isn't as clean as he is saying. I hoped for his sake, and selfishly for the sake of his music career, he had gotten it together. He has strong demons, he doesn't look clean in the new video. The only time I have seen Pete look truly sober was the clip of him qued up for an Oasis album interviewed by MTV (I think he was 15) and the 2005 news night BBC interview. Such a good guy, such a huge talent, such a massive problem. Still love him though.

[Yeah]

I hope you did more research than YouTube interviews and gossip websites. Like maybe actually listen to his music? By the way, I don't like your questions much, wouldn't have been so great for a paper as big as the LA Times. Maybe it's just me, but the questions seem slightly insulting/ridiculing and downright uncomfortable to answer.

[sarahjane]

Judging from the questions you had in queue, doesn't seem like there'd be any point in interviewing him.

[ngl]

Thank god Peter cancelled on you! What a waste of an article. Shouldn't call yourself a journalist.

[Ben Crompton]

This article is the biggest load of b*llocks ive ever read...

[n0z1e]

And the world revolves around you? How very dare Mr. Doherty cancel on you how very dare him indeed! I would like to say the albums doing pretty good in the charts with or without your interview is it not? Any harm done to Mr. Doherty? Your questions would not have gone down to well perhaps you would like to re-write them? And Kate moss most likely did the powder way before Mr. Doherty was a twinkle in her eye! Twinkle? However an interesting read thank you! Just for future reference not just lead singer but co founder and founder of both the bands mentioned! When I was a school one thing stayed in my mind research research research

[Trevor's Favor has a Flavour]

Can I have your job please? I'm currently looking for a lazzy position writing bollocks.

[victoriaaa]

You should do your research.
He's often referred to himself as Peter and it wasn't him who wrote 'I Am the Rain'
Your questions are pathetic, you didn't deserve to have that interview with questions like that.

[Jesica Hill]

Thank christ that interview didn't take place. Based on those premeditated questions, it would have been a complete waste of Peter's time. As for him having to cancel on you - get over it. It sucks you had to fly all the way to London and all....but it's not his fault that your entire career is based around asking people who actually have talent about their talent. He's on tour and I'm sure he has a crazy schedule. At least he gave you notice.

[seriously?]

So you went there, and before you went, you watched the worst videos there are... Some preparation huh? How can you call yourself a reporter when you do'n't check the background objectively? To me, it looks like you had your mind made up about him already... Maybe you should try to get a job at... I don't know... The Daily Mail?

[Tom Jameson]

What kind of dumbass reporters do you have in L.A.? Asking about song lyrics because you don't understand them and buying into stereotypes/creating preconceptions does not constitute good interviewing. It constitutes lazy ill-researched predictable interviewing. And forgive me, but is this even an 'odyssey' at all? Don't come back to the UK, we have enough terrible journalists of our own.

[marie]

Sounds like someone's got a case of sour grapes.. Maybe Peter got wind of the kind of disrespectful, ridiculous questions that you ask in interviews and that's why he cancelled.

[La Dolce Vita]

I do not belive any of it. Peter is not the type to be disrespectful to interviewers or people. Lots of you guys are just trying to put him into a bad light cause you think that is what people like to hear about him.

[Arika]

Thank god, Peter (Yes, Peter not Pete!) didn't show up! Judging from the questions you prepared, it was going to be a pretty poor interview.

[rain]

There may be a reason why Peter didnt turn up. Your questions are pathetic, and pointless....maybe. I also thought 'i am the rain' s meaning was obvious.

" I knew the job was dangerous"

hahah, its shepards bush, not iraq!