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21 Questions with 
Christopher Kennedy

By Christopher Kennedy

A&C Interviews

Please explain what just happened.

I was just told to “Keep it secret, keep it safe!”

 

What is your earliest memory?

Tripping over the hose and breaking my collarbone for the first of four times.

 

If you weren’t a musician / writer, what other profession would you choose?

I’d make a great king.

Describe a typical work day.


I have a day job so I can make money for food and toys.

 

Is there a time you wish you’d lied?

No, lies are too much work.

 

What would you say to yourself if you could go back in time and have a conversation with yourself at age thirteen?

Start going to a therapist—now, please.

 

If you could have only one album to get you through a breakup, what would it be?

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.

 

What are three websites—other than your email—that you check on a daily basis?

dvdoutsider
bearalley
spyvibe

 

 

From what or whom do you derive your greatest inspiration?

My wife and kids.

 

Name three books that have impacted your life.

Dracula, by Bram Stoker.

Modesty Blaise, by Peter O’Donnell.

Alone in Berlin, by Hans Fallada.

 

If you could relive one moment over and over again, what would it be?

Star-gazing in Big Sur.

How are you six degrees from Kevin Bacon?

I’ve played two-hand touch football with Gwen Stefani, who’s married to Gavin Rossdale, who acted in the film Constantine, which also starred Keanu Reeves, who starred in the Matrix with Laurence Fishburne, who was in Mystic River with Kevin Bacon.

 

What makes you feel most guilty?

Disappointing the ones I love.

 

How do you incorporate the work of other artists into your own?

Involuntary osmosis.

Please explain the motivation/inspiration behind 1950s Radio in Color – The Lost Photographs of Deejay Tommy Edwards.

I wanted to pay tribute and give the proper recognition to Tommy Edwards, the 1950s Cleveland deejay responsible for perhaps the most important photographic and written documentation of the 20th century music that has ever been produced.

 

What is the best advice you’ve ever given to someone else?

You don’t have to be in pain.

 

 

List your favorite in the following categories:  Comedian, Musician, Author, Actor.

Comedian: Martin Short.

Musician: Brian Wilson.

Author: J.D. Salinger.

Actor: Montgomery Clift.

 

If you had complete creative license and an unlimited budget, what would your next project be?

Find the perfect property; design and build a modern home.

What do you want to know?

Why is yawning contagious?

 

What would you like your last words to be?

I love you.

 

 

Please explain what will happen.

Jack Klugman loves my book.

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Discovered by musician CHRISTOPHER KENNEDY in 2006, Tommy Edwards's candid photographs capture the birth of rock 'n' roll at its flashpoint: Elvis Presley while he was still dangerous; a raw and incomplete Chuck Berry before his star ascended; and some beady-eyed, high-voiced kid named Roy Orbison. It wasn't just the architects of rock music whom Edwards had in his viewfinder. There were also pop and country music s biggest stars, mysterious, unknown hopefuls, and vulnerable, deglamourized Hollywood celebrities. Edwards's passion for photography immortalized hundreds of pioneers of rock 'n' roll and pop culture in the radio studio, a setting that was often unseen. His photos offer a rare look behind a closed door.

Between 1955 and 1960, popular Cleveland deejay Tommy Edwards photographed the parade of performers who passed through the WERE-AM radio studio for on-air interviews, shooting more than 1,700 Ektachrome slides. Following his death in 1981, most of the collection vanished and was presumed lost. The few images that remained were often reprinted and rarely credited to Edwards, labeled photographer unknown. Until now.

In 2009, Kennedy located the only surviving copy of the T.E. Newsletter collection, Tommy Edwards's self-published weekly two-page recap of Cleveland radio and record news for music business insiders, spanning from 1953 through 1960. The wealth of information and dates contained in the newsletters are the photo collection's indispensable companion piece, and Edwards's anecdotal quips are interspersed throughout the text of the book.

1950s Radio in Color gives Tommy Edwards his due recognition as the deejay responsible for perhaps the most important photographic and written documentation of twentieth-century music ever produced. Featuring over 200 color photographs, this book will transport readers back in time, allowing them to step into Edwards's shoes for a moment and to feel the wonder and excitement he must have felt every day while witnessing a cultural revolution.

Kennedy is a passionate music fan and an accomplished songwriter and musician, having released five albums with the band Ruth Ruth. He discovered this collection during his determined research into the long-lost rock n roll film, The Pied Piper of Cleveland, which is rumored to contain some of the earliest footage of Elvis Presley. He is still looking for the film.

One response to “21 Questions with 
Christopher Kennedy”

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    May 15, 2012 at 2:51 pm

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