Madonna, Michael McKenzie, 'Lucky Star'
Lucky Star
While awaiting impatiently for the Sticky & Sweet Tour to start this coming Saturday, Madonna Tribe News keeps its readers entertained bringing you for the first time an interesting and exclusive interview to Michael McKenzie, who today is the creative director of www.americanimageart.com and that in 1985 penned the first ever book about Madonna, simply called Lucky Star and that had the chance to know in her first days of fame.
MadonnaTribe: Hi Michael and welcome to Dominatrices. You are known among
long-time Madonna fans for being the author of the
very fist book about the “Queen Of Pop”. You wrote and released “Lucky
Star” in 1984 when Madonna’s second album
“Like A virgin” was just released and your book is a testimony of the
big star we all know in the making.
How did you come up with the idea of documenting the rising of Madonna
to superstar, right as it was happening?
Michael McKenzie: I first met Madonna at a big time
record party that she had sucked into. I immediately thought she had a
lot of character and a lot of nerve, two qualities that both a singer
and dancer need really, when you think about it. I had photographed the
dancer Rudolf Nureyev and the singer Deborah [Blondie] Harry, both of
whom were heroes to Madonna. In fact, when I first photographed her,
about three years before I wrote Lucky Star, she came to my studio, met
Deborah Harry there and was a blonde about three weeks later.
Ironically, when I began writing Lucky Star many people in the music
business felt Madonna had no chance, that she sounded like an
Afro-American but she was white and would disappoint both audiences. I
thought Elvis Presley solved that controversy a long time ago and I just
thought she had electrifying star qualities, was really driven and, as I
said before, had nerve. And I had seen many young stars go from zero to
60 before so I was pretty confident that I was right on Madonna.
MadonnaTribe: Not everybody could foresee at the time Madonna was about to become
such a huge star, what were the special traits that you perceived in her? raw talent, strong will, ambition?
Michael McKenzie:Madonna had style – she could make a
hot fashion statement with things she found in a thrift store – or the
garbage even! She was also one of the country leading young modern
dancers, very trained in technique, very versed on the street and very
talented: all the makings of a great stage performer. When she gave me a
tape of songs and it turned out she could sing, I was won over
completely and it was fun to, in essence, bet on her then watch her go
through the roof as I was writing the book.
MadonnaTribe: You first met Madonna she was just starting to move from dance to
music and was trying out the name Emmy, what do you remember about
that specific
period?
Michael McKenzie:She took the name Emmy because she
always wanted to win an Emmy Award. Huh! Now there could be a Madonna
Award. She was on the club scene and I was too and what was interesting
is that she would go from one club to the next, always know the d-jay
[most of whom thought she’d be their gf] and always be at her flirty
best. Drugs were very prevalent in clubs in the 1980s and the other
thing I noticed about Madonna was that she never took drugs, drank or
smoked – yet that crowd went for her even though she was ‘straight’, a
tribute to her charm, and smarts.
MadonnaTribe: How did you approach the writing of that book? Did you have any
impurity from her?
Michael McKenzie:I knew Madonna for a few years at
the point I was writing the book and had had a lot of input from her and
her circle of friends and managers, many of whom I knew independently
of Madonna and were my friends as well. That said, I still tried to keep
the book in an objective framework reporting on what I saw and knew and
as I look at that book 25 years later it still looks good to me. That
was a format – black and white and red in an unusual size – that had
never been seen before and I wanted it to be new. of course, within a
year the format was copied by a dozen others and Madonna books, many of
which were just bad re-writes of my book, came out every week. She is a
very smart person, very focused and very drive. People mistake that for
being ‘harsh’ or ‘self centered’. Personally I think she is a good role
model for women.
MadonnaTribe: One of the amazing aspect of your book Lucky Star are the great
photographs of early Madonna published in it.
Not only the great cover shot by Deborah Golding but all the inner
photos of Madonna posing as a dancer and often times
pretending to be a rocker or the images with the Breakfast Club. Where
did you get those from?
Michael McKenzie: At the time I was pretty much the
coolest young photographer in New York so everyone cool wanted to work
with me. I actually took up art and photography to pay my way through
writing school and the photography took off but I knew I would always
segue back to writing. I do many things but in my heart I am basically a
writer who does other things too. I had worked with Truman Capote, one
of my favorite writers, and his method for books was gathering
interviews then weaving strong quotes from others through his story. I
pretty much write that way and the photographs in the book were also put
together that way: a picture tells a thousand words of course.
MadonnaTribe: The book is also great for how you use the Martin Burgoyne stylized
images of Madonna, that were also seen on the Burning
Up maxi single. Did you happen to know Martin well?
Michael McKenzie: Martin was living with Madonna at the
time and he was young, talented and very good looking. He and Madonna
made quite the pair. He did a fantastic job as art director for Lucky
Star and I had gotten him a job right after that to do a Batman photo
book. Unfortunately Martin passed away at 22 or I would have done many
projects with him.
MadonnaTribe: The book was so successful that it was translated into various
languages, including Italian and French and later in 1987
reassembled as “Madonna” with some updates on her career. Would you
write a new biography about her today? And if yes,
how would you make it different from the many that are out there?
Michael McKenzie: It is funny that you ask because I
am re-visiting my first book which was on Saturday Night Live! I wrote
it while I was still in school and it sold many many copies. I am
thinking now to do an art book entitled “The Art of Saturday Night
Live!” and discussed this with lone Carmichael who, of course, is the
heart, soul and creator of the show. I think “The Art of Madonna” would
be an interesting book, all the costumes, artists, photography, lyrics –
for me art is about great and creative, not just about painting and
both Madonna and SNL! are art to me.
MadonnaTribe: Speaking about biographies and books Madonna’s brother Christopher has
released his version of the story of “his life with his sister”.
Did you read the book and what do you think about it?
Michael McKenzie:I didn’t read that book but I think
Madonna went out of her way very early on to help get careers for both
Christopher and her sister, whose name I can’t remember. But being
related to someone, even that closely, doesn’t guarantee stardom. Being a
star is a magical thing and there are no formulas or transfer rights.
MadonnaTribe: A lot of people and critics are caught up in the idea that the
“Madonna Phenomenon” was simply something related to style and image.
But we really think
that after all it’s about the music and hot songs she has come up and
that making her one of the most enduring acts in pop music. What do
you think about that?
Michael McKenzie: Madonna revamped a dying record
industry given sex appeal to the dance scene, which had become dreary
disco, and sex appeal to the rock industry, which was becoming a bad
version of itself. People are always jealous of goodlooking people. They
tried to say Marilyn was just a dumb blonde but her reputation has long
outlived the critics who knocked her. Same for Madonna. She’s the real
deal.
MadonnaTribe: What are you doing at the moment and what are your current projects?
Michael McKenzie: I am working with the artists and
writers I admired my whole life and just released a monumental sculpture
of Hope with my friend Robert Indiana who did LOVE in the 60s. The
piece supports Barack Obama, who Madonna has also supported. I am
working on several books, one about HOPE, another about Five Star
Lifestyle and the third on Saturday Night Live! I am making art and
writing books, same as I did since I was a kid – and finding time for my
own kids, Leif [5] and Simona [7] who like myself and their mom, my
wife Teresa, love art, music, writing and dance.
MadonnaTribe: We always ask people who met Madonna what is their fondest memory
of her? Do you have one?
Michael McKenzie: The funniest really was a mutual
friend of ours who ended up being a bigwig at MTV took his New Years Eve
to videotape an early Madonna performance and his pay was 1/2 of the
gate for the show. But only 30 people showed and I think 10 paid so he
made 25 bucks! He was so angry he never kept the tape. Imagine what that
would be worth now! Goes to show you, don’t give up.
MadonnaTribe: Michael thanks for being with us
Michael McKenzie:Thanks to you.
My best to all the readers. You are THE HOPE GENERATION and our trust is in you.
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