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A Conversation with Ben Taylor (continued)
PM: It may be just the news as such, or my own ears, I don't know, I hear more about your dad than your mom, and I don't know where her music has gone or is going or what she's up to.
BT: My dad stays on the road and hits it pretty hard and continuously, and is continuously more in the public eye. My mom hates touring, and she hates press, so that's why. But she continues to make really phenomenal albums.
PM: Man, yeah, she's an amazing artist.
BT: She is.
PM: So I've come to know just a little bit about you. There's not so much, really, on the net, and I'm happy to be, hopefully, adding to it. But I saw that you've apparently done some pretty high profile modeling.
BT: No, actually, I know that a lot of people come to ask that question in interviews, because they get it from somewhere, but it's actually not true.
PM: It's not true.
BT: No.
PM: There's just some pictures of you out there, Calvin Klein pictures or something. And I went, what's this about?
BT: That was a publicity attempt for an album that thankfully never came out.
PM: Oh, that was part of the Sony deal.
BT: Yep. That was just an idea from them, trying to create buzz around me.
PM: I see.
BT: But that was just sort of a one time affair. And then another time I did it for some sort of similar thing, just because a friend of mine was going to do it as well, or something like that. But I've actually never been paid for any of that, so I can't consider that I've ever done it professionally.
PM: Got it.
BT: And I've never ever done more than a couple days of it, either. I think you have to be miserable and uncomfortable, too, to qualify as a model.
PM: [laughs] Yeah, right. That's my understanding. Yeah, you got to smoke a hell of a lot and not eat a damn thing. Although you're thin enough to do it. I guess that's just the genes. I mean, you've got your dad's torso. But are you also running or working out or--
BT: I do a lot of fitness, but usually hotel room fitness.
PM: Right. Push-ups and sit-ups, and--
BT: More sort of Yoga and martial arts.
PM: Ahh, okay, more the eastern way.
BT: Yeah.
PM: So as far as locale, have you spent your life mostly at Martha's Vineyard, or where else have you spent a lot of time?
BT: I mean, aside from traveling around, which has comprised, easily, 30% of my life, I'd say that I split my time pretty equally between Martha's Vineyard and New York.
PM: Have you ever seen my buddy Richard Julian play in New York, like at the Living Room or any place like that?
BT: No, I haven't, actually. I don't know who that is.
PM: Oh, yeah. Watch for him. He's opening for Norah Jones a lot at the moment.
BT: Oh, right on. Right on.
PM: Yeah, he's really, really funny and really good.
BT: Cool.
PM: There was a quote of yours, allegedly in Vanity Fair, it said something like, "It's a dream come true. I wish I were religious so I could have a god to thank for it." If that's a real quote--
BT: What was I talking about?
PM: I think you were talking about the good things that had happened to you so far.
BT: Well, that's certainly true. My life is good.
PM: But the part about not being religious enough to have a god to thank, does that apply?
BT: I mean, not a god that I've concentrated on or honed in on enough to give a name to. I don't have an organized religion that I was raised with, no.
PM: Or any spiritual trips in your life at all?
BT: No. I mean, I'm a spiritual person. But I dedicate that part of myself energetically more to the elements and just the nature of everyday life.
PM: Right. And about nature, you seem to be a huge nature person, a wilderness person. Is that not so?
BT: Yeah, I really am. If I could right now, rather than being on my fifth month of touring or something like that, I'd definitely be camped out in the woods or in the desert somewhere.
PM: So you've traveled extensively all over the world, right?
BT: Yeah, especially South America.
PM: Oh, y habla Espanol bien?
BT: Not exactly.
PM: Ah. Where in South America?
BT: Mostly in the jungles, just sort of tripping out, and not much in the cities.
PM: No shit.
BT: Yeah. continue
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