Nina Blackwood - VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTVs First Wave

For J. J.

Western civilization began on a Friday night in November 1982. The occasion was marked by spies in trench coats, hypodermic-wielding dancers in leather teddies, and a bullet cutting through the jack of diamonds. At least, that was what I saw the first time I turned on MTV. I was a thirteen-year-old who had stumbled onto the video for Twilight Zone by Golden Earring, but it felt like all music, art, and film had just served as a preamble to this moment in history.

If you grew up when MTV was a logical acronym instead of a cruel joke, you probably had a similar epiphany. It might have involved Michael Jackson teaching two street gangs to dance, Duran Duran trekking through the jungles of Sri Lanka, or even the Buggles singing, Video killed the radio star. But no matter how you discovered MTVs quick-cut mash-up of surrealism, new-wave music, and extreme haircuts, when you turned your TV off, suddenly ordinary life seemed a bit, well, banal.

Faithfully guiding us through this 24/7 rush of sensory overload were five stalwart VJs: Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J. J. Jackson, and Martha Quinn. Together, they were a five-headed Virgil, taking us through MTVs Inferno, past the circles of slow-motion table-flipping, girls in cages, and arty black-and-white cinematography. MTV was more fun when you watched with a friend, trying to figure out what was going on in The Safety Dance or Total Eclipse of the Heart. The presence of the VJs meant you always had a friend watching with you.

This book is the story of the pioneers: the original VJs. Before Alan, J. J., Mark, Martha, and Nina, the term VJ didnt exist. They didnt invent MTV, but without them, the channel wouldnt have become the cultural powerhouse that it did. They were proxy members of the audiencemusic fans that we could laugh with, learn from, or lust after.

They call themselves brothers and sisters, and being with them feels like visiting your family at Thanksgiving: they trade stories, bicker cheerfully, and elbow for position to get the first serving of mashed potatoes. After everything theyve been through, it would be understandable if they couldnt stand each other, but they treat each other with deep understanding and love. When they worked together on this book, only one thing cast a shadow on their collaboration: the absence of J. J. Jackson, who died in 2004 and is still very much missed.

These days, Martha resides in Malibu, California; Alan in Birmingham, Alabama; Mark in New York City; Nina in coastal Maine. But for a few years, they lived in the center of the universea better, shinier universe.

David Lee Roth was convinced that he was the hottest rock star in creation. Dave was the funniest guy on the planetto him. He laughed at all his own jokes. But his mind worked at three hundred miles an hour. These phrases would just fall out of his facehed be talking about people who were idiots, and hed say, You know, speed-limit IQ. Or regarding other bands that werent as amazing as Van Halen: Here today... gone later today.

When Dave was doing publicity for Van Halens Diver Down album in 1982, MTV assigned me the interview. I was ecstaticI couldnt wait to be the one to cut through Daves razzle-dazzle faade of one-liners and reach the true person underneath. I was determined to stay strong, and not fall for his schtick. I didnt get that his schtick is his genius. During the interview, he threw out his best DaveismsWhat you see onstage with Van Halen is what youre gonna find underneath the stageand I remained stone-faced. I refused to jump into the hot tub of fun that was Dave.

At one point, he said, If you take a Van Halen record and you stick it in your collection, itll melt all your other records.

Cut to me, dead silent. Finally, I said, Im trying to think what my Van Halen records are next to.

I thought if I didnt fall for his trickery, hed reveal his soul to me, and wed live happily ever after.

Before MTV, Van Halen were already pretty bigthey were playing arenas by then. But videos took them to another level. Pete Angelus had been Van Halens lighting director, but he started directing the bands videos. And that let people see the bands attitude: They were badass guys, they were cool, they were funny. The sense of humor was there in the songs, but you had to pay attention. The videos hit you over the head with it.

Five highlights from Van Halens Panama video:

1. David Lee Roth swinging over a stage, suspended by a cable, listening to a boom box.

2. Diamond Dave being dragged down a hallway by two cops, wearing only a towel, white athletic shoes, and handcuffs.

3. Eddie Van Halen sitting at a piano in a white tux, blowing smoke rings.

4. The lyric Model citizen / Zero discipline.

5. David Lee Roth wearing a T-shirt decorated with a picture of David Lee Roth.

Daves lyrics had a Tom Waits vibe: a storyteller with this weird attitude. He was great at painting a picture with a sentence, like in Panama, when he did that monologue: Reach down between my legs and ease the seat back... It was rock n roll, it was about sex, but it was also poetic and had a noir feel. Sure, there was a ton of ego, and he had a teenage boys sense of humor and fantasy, but I always believed that he was deeper than he cared to let on.

He was one of my big crushes. I interviewed him a couple of times, and I always used to wonder, Why doesnt Dave ever ask me out? Doesnt he see how much I get him? I wanted to be Mrs. David Lee Roth, but I had no idea how to make that happen. Recently I saw a picture of one of our interviews: I was wearing a Boy Scout shirt, buttoned up to the top, and a tie! A Boy Scout shirt! What was I thinking? With that shirt, and my hair super-short, I looked like a boy. No wonder Dave never asked me on a date. A magazine Circus , or maybe Creem printed an item that Dave and I were romantically linked. I cut that out and pasted it in my scrapbook. A rumor to treasure.

I connected with Dave at the US Festival in 83. Van Halen had a compound: They were paid around a million dollars to play, and they basically spent it on the compound. It was all kinds of trailers, and tons of booze. Dave was totally hammered: coked up and drunk. We did this interview where we just sparred back and forth. I asked him what he wore under his spandex pants, and he made an allusion to circumcision: All Jewish boys have this. You know about that, dont you, Goodman? And I was like, Yeah, Roth! The two Jews recognized each other and tacitly agreed that we were members of the same species. Still, he was being outlandish Dave, dancing with a drink on his head.

Excerpts from the US Festival interview, on May 29, 1983. Mark Goodman is in a yellow mesh shirt, while David Lee Roth sports tiger-print spandex pants and a torn fishnet top:

DAVID LEE ROTH, CHANNELING ROD SERLING: Dave Roth, trapped in a desperate struggle against time. Will he be able to take the stage, armed with nothing but a microphone and the will to survive? Dave Roth, somewhere at the US Festival.

MARK GOODMAN: Have you learned what software is?

DAVID LEE ROTH: I have! I just learned that a floppy disc isnt a record you left in the sun.... In about ten minutes, the tailor lady will come in and suck all the air out of my pants at the cuff. Well seal them off and be fully prepared for tonights presentation.