Bring the Sauce

Mike, do you miss L.A. at all?

"Uhhhm, not really - like when we were in New York, I really didn't miss it and was actually kind of scared to go back. When I finally did get back out for a visit to L.A., it was really nice. I missed, you know, seeing some friends, and especially spending some quality time with The R[ufus]."

After the tour, are you going to re-settle in New York?

"I'm not sure. I figure I'll be geographically confused for a while. It probably depends on what Tamra's gonna do, and then . . . just figure it out."

Is she traveling with you guys now?

"She was, and she just went back. Then she's meeting us in New York."

So, uh, how are things with you and Tamra, in that sense?

"She was in New York for pretty much the whole winter and the spring."

What I was afraid to ask Mike was, well, what I'm afraid to write here. Let's just say there were rumors - as Mike himself says on the new LP, he's a Scorpio, "so you know I'm very sexual." But Mike and his wife, Tamra Davis, have a strong relationship. She's a tough cookie. I'd still be crapping my drawers in Mike's guest house if she hadn't taken charge of the situation in the immediate aftermath of the big quake in January '94 ("Put your shoes on! Don't light a match!" - Mike, she says, jumped out of bed and started running). Then again, they were both working in different cities for quite a while and . . . Anyway, what's Mike's favorite band? Enuf Z' Nuf.

I was even more afraid of bringing up what might be the real reason Beastie Boys loaded up the truck and moved away from Beverly: Adam and Ione. I have never seen such a happy couple. And yet. Apparently he's been spotted in Olympia with Kathleen Hannah of Bikini Kill. That was a while ago, to be sure, but since that time I don't think he and Ione ("She's the cheese and I'm the macaroni") have patched things up. I just assumed that Adam had to get the hell out of here and go back home for a while. Certainly his best new songs (not raps but virtual blues) - "And Me" ("Once again I'm all wrapped up in me/My best friend's my own worst enemy"), "Instant Death" (wherein he returns home after the split to find his mom and best friend still dead and unable to help mend his broken heart), and even "Song for the Man" ("What makes you feel/That you have got the right/To look her up and down?/What makes this world/So sick and evil?") - are the saddest ones on Nasty.

Of course, Adam's publicist (Hello, Nasty!) said, "He won't talk about that," and in fact somehow it couldn't be arranged for him to talk to me at all. Not that over the phone I could have done much. My attempt to bring it up with Mike was . . .

Maybe you could help me on this, Mike, about Adam Horovitz moving back there, you know, and not being with Ione. I'm not sure how all that worked out, but . . .

[Spoken as Russell Simmons-style exaggerated septuagenarian Negro a la Fred Sanford or his friend Grady] "I'm not gonna address that! [turning to publicist Shelby Meade] You know what Bob just asked me about? [feigned indignation] Bob Mack, this interview is over! I'm putting my publicist on the phone."

[Pleading] No, I'm just trying to, it seems like -

[Confidentially] "You're not gonna go into, like, a whole thing on that, I hope . . ."

[Unconvincingly] Noooooo . . .

[Speaking to someone on his side of the line about his latest project, "a guide, only for people I know, it's gonna be - check it out - city-by-city, in this order: yoga centers, vegan or vegetarian food, record stores and maybe pawn shops/used equipment stores."] "That was Cey" [Adams, art director on both the debut and latest album].

Yeah, I noticed his name in the credits.

"It was actually really fun working with him after . . . [trails off]. Aw look, why did we end up moving back to New York? Yauch kind of like had the lead. He missed New York and took the initiative of being back there. Then, when it came to recording the record, it was like, okay, well, it would be fun for all of us. So we all three of us looked forward to being in New York for a little while to record. Then it was very much in the same way when we first came out to L.A., when we had no real plan on moving there but just ended up staying to make Paul's Boutique. It was much more analogous to that."

How much more fun was it to work in New York again?

"It's hard to say more fun, because there were a lot of things that were fun about being in L.A. and being in G-Son [Studio] with the basketball court in it, and our circle of friends. There was a lot of fun to that. But it was sort of nice to get back to, you know, a lot of friends that we maybe hadn't been around as much in a while. As well as our families. And, uh, just, you know, walking around together. Whether it's riding bikes or walking."