Duran Duran On Fame: “As Crazy And Wild As You Could Imagine”
Duran Duran have spoken about fame, the challenges that come with success, and their latest album in a new interview with The Independent.
Talking about adjusting to sudden success as a young band, bassist John Taylor reflects, “We had to learn quickly how to write hit songs, how to play arenas. Then you’ve got the drugs and the booze and the girls and the late nights, which is really what creates the pressure. If everybody was just doing what they were supposed to, it’d be a pretty easy job. But when you find yourself staying up every night, to get into the studio five days a week is a real challenge. It’s really fun at first, all that attention everywhere you go. And then it kind of gets to be a bit of a drag. And you almost don’t mind when it fades away.”
“I wasn’t motivated by ‘I gotta get out of this place’,” John says, “I just wanted to go to New York” – with the lessons of punk guiding him. “It opened the doors for people like me. It was just – You’re young, you’ve got good hair, good luck out there.”
John went on to discuss the band’s longevity, “If you’re going to stay in the game, you’ve got to get really good at what you do. When you’re 22 and cute, you don’t have to be that good. You just need to be 22 and cute. But in your 60s, you’d better know what you’re doing, and you better put a show together. People don’t want to see you tired and saggy – they want to see you looking good.”
The band see the success of recent album, Future Past, as vindication for their fanbase, “It’s all validation for our fans,” John says. “It’s not always been easy being a Duran Duran fan, you take a lot of stick.”