Talking to Kevin Rowland About Success, Drugs, and Fear

This is the VICE Interview. Each week we ask a different famous and/or interesting person the same set of questions in a bid to peek deep into their psyche.

Kevin Rowland is beloved by wedding DJs across the land. As lead singer in Dexys Midnight Runners, he was responsible for the perennial floor-filler “Come On Eileen.” Outside the British Isles, he and his band are thought of as one-hit wonders, but at home, they were household names, most famous for their classic trio of 80s albums and Rowland’s flawless collection of wide-brimmed fedoras and vintage tailored suits.

After they disbanded, Kevin Rowland had an unsuccessful solo career and eventually decided, after a 27-year break, that he’d bring back the old band. In 2012, Dexys—shortened from the original name—started work again. They’re about to released their second album, Let The Record Show: Dexys Do Irish Country And Soul, under this truncated guise.

VICE: What would your parents prefer you to have chosen for a career?
Kevin Rowland: I think my mom was happy as long as I was happy. I was a dreamer, really. I wasn‘t doing well at school. I had the feeling of being a failure and was finding it hard to keep up, so I thought a fresh start might be the thing. I think my dad was happy how it turned out. He‘s a different guy to me; he‘s into security, and he found it hard to get his head round me going into a business without security.

What was your worst phase?
Style-wise, definitely when I was about seventeen. I had left school, I had some money in my pocket, I was feeling good. The style of the time in the late 60s was short hair. The media called it skinhead, but no one else did. But as soon as the media got a hold of it, everyone started to grow their hair, but because my hair was curly, it grew outward. I hadn‘t figured out a way to deal with it as no one blow-dried their hair at that point, and straighteners weren‘t around. I just felt horrible and really self conscious about it. I ‘d been very up front in terms of style with my gang in Harrow—the Harrow Crew—and I was known to be at the forefront, style-wise. People would ask me about clothes, and all of a sudden I didn‘t feel like I belonged. I‘d go to a club and just feel awkward. I went into myself a bit, and when you go into yourself, you never look good.

How many books have you actually read and finished this year?
Not one. I‘m on the internet way too much. It‘s a distraction.

How many people have been in love with you?
I would say about seven. I‘m not in relationship now, and I‘ve never been married, so seven is probably about the right amount.

When in your life have you been truly overcome with fear?
Every time I go onstage or go into the recording studio to do a vocal. It‘s the days leading up to it that are the worst. It just feels horrible. I feel a relief when I wake up the morning it’s actually happening. I think, Today I can do it. Thank god I can get it over with.

Complete this sentence: The problem with young people today…
… is that it‘s very hard for them. They get demonized in the media about knives and crime, in the rags. But there was always violence when I was young. Kids carried knives; I saw someone get hit with a hatchet. All this stuff has been going on a long time, and they just make out that it‘s new. I‘d much rather be around younger people than people my age. I live in east London, and I know it‘s becoming a bit like Camden Market in parts, but there are still a lot of creative people around.

What would be your last meal?
Fried egg and chips, probably at [legendary Bethnal Green caff] E Pellicci.

Would you have sex with a robot?
Definitely. It‘s humans I have problems with.

What‘s the grossest injury or illness you‘ve ever had?
After a difference of opinions with a nightclub bouncer at my brother’s bachelor party, I got a broken jaw. I ended up in the hospital for two weeks, which wasn‘t terrible, but I had to have my teeth wired together for six weeks and had to eat through a straw. I was talking like a bad ventriloquist. So my teeth were pretty gross cause I couldn‘t clean them other than with salt water. So yeah: That was pretty gross.

What TV show or film makes you cry?
Born On the Fourth of July. Because it‘s got this guy, Tom Cruise, full of hopes and belief in what he‘s been told about the Vietnam War. He then gets paralyzed from the waist down in Vietnam, comes home, and the prevailing mood in the country is anti-war. So not only is he paralyzed for what he thought he believes in, he now has to come to terms with the fact that he was wrong; he got it all fucking wrong. He eventually finds himself by fighting against the war. It‘s beautiful. It makes me a bit tearful now talking about it.

Without googling, explain how global warming basically works.
I think it‘s something to do with all the chemicals, the gases that we’re producing, that are piercing a hole in the ozone layer, and now we‘re not getting enough protection from the sun. Blimey, I didn‘t even know I knew that.

What have you done in your career that you‘re most proud of?
It‘s possibly my restless spirit, but I‘m not that proud of what I‘ve done. I never listen to the 80s music, unless I‘m out and hear it, or maybe if someone posts something on Facebook. I‘d have to say this album, and that‘s the absolute truth from my heart, because I feel finally that I‘m a singer. I‘ve placed myself center stage, you know, with my voice as an instrument. I can get better, but I‘m more confident as a singer and do feel I nailed these songs.

What memory from school stands out to you stronger than others?
I got in trouble a lot at primary school, and I remember the head nun getting my mom up to the school and telling her I was misbehaving and that I was never gonna be any good. I remember my mom crying and getting punishment from my dad. It seemed like the end of the world, and the nuns were crying over me, for me, because I‘d done this thing. It was a hell of a guilt trip. It might sound like a small thing to anyone else, but to me it was massive. It was so big. I thought I was going to hell.

If you had to give up sex or kissing, which would it be?
I‘m presuming by sex you mean full sex? Yeah, I‘d give up sex, because kissing can be really sexy. Might be a tad frustrating, but sex complicates things. I‘ve had some great relationships that have been ruined by sex. But kissing? You know, you can kinda go there without fucking things up to much, committing too much, getting into expectation too much.

Do you think drugs can make you happy?
They definitely helped me initially. Ecstasy was amazing when I first took it. It showed me what was wrong with my life. I found I could talk to people, and they would talk back to me. Before that, I‘d been really uptight. My first pill was around 1987, after the first three Dexys albums. I didn‘t really knew where I was or what I was doing. I was going out to clubs, but I was just tense. Then, one night, I went out and took ecstasy, and it just completely relaxed me. I felt at ease and at peace with everybody. I went up to this girl, a friend, not a sexual thing, and said, “Hey, how are ya?” She went, “I‘m all right, why are you being so friendly?” I told her I was always friendly. She said, “You‘re fucking not.“

But I got addicted to cocaine, and my life became much darker than it had ever been. I had lots of demons and pain in me, but they really came out in the last three years of my cocaine addiction. And it just became my life; it took over. I was a maniac. I could not stop taking it, no matter what the reason. But I got into a program of recovery in ‘93, and that was like my protection. I‘m still in it, and I’ve been clean ever since. I‘m lucky. I‘m blessed.

If you won the lottery tomorrow, would you carry on doing what you ‘re doing, or stop working?
I’d definitely carry on. One hundred percent. For a short period of time in the 80s, I had the feeling of having a lot of money. It didn’t satisfy me. It just created a whole lot of other issues. I like what Jim Carrey said: “I wish everybody could be rich and famous and have their dreams come true, so they could find out that it’s not the answer.” That’s very true.

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