Interview

BLASBERG: Is it weird having Kate around?

MOSSHART: We get along great, despite people making up stories that we don’t. Of course we do—we always have.

BLASBERG: So she’s not some skank who stole your style? And your haircut? She has bangs now, too, you know.

MOSSHART: What are you talking about? That’s hysterical.

BLASBERG: Your tour just wrapped. You seem to me like a person who would get off on lonely moments on the road.

MOSSHART: I do. But not always. I’ve been doing this since I was 14. There have been times when I’ve felt ill, physically and emotionally. Only recently have we gotten control over it. We’ve learned to space things, which is something Jamie and I have really had trouble with. We get excited, and then we’re here and then there, all over the world, and not looking after ourselves.

BLASBERG: Can you work on your music on the road?

MOSSHART: No, but we do other things. We do art. We can’t work on a bus when there are loads of people around.

BLASBERG: Or when your bus driver has stolen your tour bus with all your things on it and ditched you in Texas, which is what happened on this tour. That is still one of my favorite stories of all time. Regale me with it again, won’t you?

MOSSHART: After our California gigs we stayed in a Hilton near the airport in l.a. because we were flying to our next tour stop in Austin, Texas. Our bus driver was supposed to meet us in Texas a few days later. It was a Sunday when he should have arrived, but he didn’t. Three tons of black metal vanished into thin air, with all of our things in it. It was surreal. Well, the manhunt was called off when the bus—but not the driver—was found behind a Best Western in L.A. by our friend Lalo Medina, who kept me abreast, minute by minute, like an episode of Cops, as 10 armed policemen and a helicopter arrived on the scene and entered the bus.

BLASBERG: What happened to your stuff?

MOSSHART: Lalo, the coolest dude alive, very nicely packed it up and sent it to us. The weird part was that all of the driver’s things were on the bus, too—his jacket still on the back of the seat and the keys still in the ignition. He left the motor running, and the generator died when the gas finally ran out. The bus was pitch-black and couldn’t be started—Lalo had to pack the bus up using a flashlight.

BLASBERG: Do you think the driver’s dead?

MOSSHART: I wish I knew where he was. He’s not dead, because I keep hearing he’s stolen more buses. I think that’s his thing. I also was told that he went on a three-day coke bender with a hooker—apparently that’s also his thing.

BLASBERG: Stealing buses and doing coke with hookers? Sounds like a great guy.

MOSSHART: Those are my fans! Those are the people I want to reach out to!

BLASBERG: You’ve obviously reached them, because I’m here! If you weren’t playing music, what would you be doing?

MOSSHART: I don’t know. I’ve thought about this—I say write books, or draw pictures. But there’s this side of me that truly loves and is obsessed with and addicted to performing. It’s hard for me, because when I don’t play for a while, I crave it.

BLASBERG: What do your parents make of all this?

MOSSHART: I get along great with my family. My parents are really proud of me and my brother, who’s a chef here in New York. I don’t see my
parents often, but they’re very supportive, especially as I get older. They know I’m not going to stop doing this.

BLASBERG: Do they want you to move back to America?

MOSSHART: Probably. But I can’t. I have responsibilities and ties to London that I’ll be dealing with probably forever.

BLASBERG: When are you going to be rich? Your songs are on Gossip Girl!

MOSSHART: I don’t know. It would be nice if we were though, just for a minute, so we could pay off this house and be free.

BLASBERG: Just sell a bunch of jingles to a beer company. Sell out!

MOSSHART: We don’t want to. We just did this collaboration with Yves Saint Laurent, for a fragrance. They used our song “U.R.A. Fever.” That was cool.

BLASBERG: I guess YSL is a little more classy than beer, but probably not as much money. What about cigarette ads? Would you give them a jingle?

MOSSHART: If there were cigarette commercials, I would have done a few by now.

Derek Blasberg is a Missouri-bred, New York–based fashion journalist and writer. He is one of V magazine’s senior editors and is a contributing editor at style.com and several international editions of Vogue.

To learn more about Alison Mosshart, check out The Kills' MySpace page and the official Web site for Dead Weather.