OTHER TECH

6. You told me once you have some celebrities in your lil black book, ever get invited to any cool celeb parties? Yes, quite a few in NY, LA, and Las Vegas, among other places, but I really can't talk about any of them, sorry. Let your imagination take it away...

7. Most embarrassing thing that happened while doing an interview or just chatting with a star? A few things spring to mind:

• I did an interview with Paul Simonon, bassist of the Clash, where my tape recorder didn't work the entire time. I didn't realize it until he left the room, but it may have explained why he seemed to look at me a bit oddly during the whole chat. Or maybe that was just him. (Though he did keep glancing at the recorder...)

• I sat down with a well-known girl group in Las Vegas a few CES shows ago where the singer clearly couldn't stand to be in the room with me and gave goofy, nonsensical answers to my questions, but another member of the group and I bonded over muscle cars. (She and I still email and chat.)

• The first time I ever spoke to Mark Knopfler, one of my all-time heroes, was a disaster for the first half hour. In the margins of my notebook I was even writing to myself, "help!" But after he took a minute to get a cup of tea, it became one of the best interviews ever, and we bonded over a lot of things, including Scotland. We've since done a few things in person and it's been a pleasure ever since.

8. Which moment with anybody will you remember the most when your old and gray? Hmm, wow, that's tough to narrow down. It's an honor whenever somebody says to me "I've never been asked that before" because I hate going over the same ground with people in interviews. I have research files like you wouldn't believe.

Meeting Pete Townshend last year and talking with him about Neil Young, among other things, was an honor and a thrill. We had a genuinely involving conversation for 15-20 minutes.

Sitting with Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil for an hour talking about the bigger issues of the world, the environment, and our favorite music.

There are also David Bowie and Frank Zappa stories I'll have to get into another time...

Besides all that, I guess it comes down to the girls - the Pam Anderson thing, hanging with Tera Patrick at her place in NY (she and my wife actually got along quite well!) and riding in limos with her, and getting hugged by Sheryl Crow at Woodstock 99.