Mickey Turner is an icon of 80s pop music and the excess that accompanied it. His first album “Love Hurricane”  reached the top 100 Billboard music charts with the breakout hit “Hit Single” peaking at #3 for 4 weeks.  His sophomore album entitled “Heat Zone” didn’t do nearly as well which some say sealed his fate as a music artist. We were contacted by Mickey’s management receiving a small painting that has been identified as an authentic Vermeer offered as “gratuity.” Our curiosity peaked about what Mickey was doing, if he had a third record in store for us and if there would be any more highly publicized troubles with the law.  Here are 5 questions with Mickey Turner.

QUESTION 1:  Your image has been carefully curated to enhance your brand. Who does your hair?

MICKEY: Uhm, yeah I try to have a good style. Michael has the one glove but I have two you know? Sure they’re tube socks cut but like anyone can do it at home. Not everybody can make a diamond glove. I’m all about DYI. As for my hair, Myster Tominaga does my tips. His name is actually Myster not Mister. I call him Myst for short. He used to design hairstyles for manga characters in Kyoto. If he is busy then my manager’s maid Esperanza helps. She has a degree from the Vidal Sassoon Technical Institute and is really good.

QUESTION 2:  In your promo photos for Heat Zone, you hold a guitar that’s in the shape of the Space Shuttle Challenger. What was the inspiration for that?

MICKEY: The Space Shuttle challenger.

QUESTION 3: It’s been speculated that your career is funded by your manager’s black market sales of paintings. Why is this a form of payment for your publicity?

MICKEY: I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I have a publicist and I just go where she tells me. My manager has Mr. Lombard has a lot going on, which is why he’s successful. It’s like they say “steady hands don’t do idle things and make money” or something. You know that phrase?

QUESTION 4:  You have remained politically neutral in your career. Do you feel an obligation to speak out for the marginalized?

MICKEY: Have you heard my song “Win (Chimes)” It’s about as political as you can get. Like I come from punk rock roots man. Courtesy Flush and Mickey Turner and The Man were all about tearing down the system man.  Like the system and the man and going the distance and that whole thing… and all of it. That song is about leading a rebellion against liquor store owners who charge way too much for batteries. And a video store that always has Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the new release shelf so he can charge 5 extra dollars for it. All tricks of the systemic man, man. Do you call that middle of the road? Er…what did you call it? I don’t vote.

QUESTION 5:  Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

MICKEY: Probably getting ready to release my greatest hits album. I hope by ‘90 or ‘91 I’ll be getting my star on the Hollywood walk of fame near Vine or at least something towards La Brea. The Beatles are by Le Brea. So is Elvis.

QUESTION 6:  You once said in an MTV interview that your father, a doctor in Beverly Hills, left you something really monetarily valuable when he died. Something you keep hidden to this day. What was it he left for you?

MICKEY: I can’t really talk about it. But let’s just say it’s worth a lot of money. It has to do with when he was a doctor in Beverly Hills. He had a lot of famous celebrities as patients and he’d help them a lot. Got them out of a lot of stuff that wouldn’t look good in the press. He had a big back door and made house calls a lot. They gave him stuff that he kept and bundled together. I have it all and am just looking for the right thing to do with it. It’s the only thing I have that connects me to him I guess so I’m not looking to get rid of it. Only if I desperately need money which even then I’d probably just get a second job at Tower music or Islands in Burbank.

QUESTION 7:  Have you seen the new Batman yet?

MICKEY: I haven’t. I’m anxious to see Prince in the movie and Jack Nicholson as the joker. I’m still not sure Michael Keaton can pull off a dark masked hero. He’s still Mr. Mom to me. But then again they laughed at Bruce Willis doing action movies. I have been wanting to do more acting myself and usually do the action movies and stuff. I’d like to do a period piece maybe set in England or something. Like a knight or a king some sort of crazy web or plot all surrounding power around a throne made of swords. That’d be rad. The Abyss looks cool too. So does the new Indiana Jones and James Bond. Good summer for movies. Maybe I can do a whole soundtrack to a movie like Prince. That’d be rad. But no one has asked me to do any music for movies ever since I said that thing about how I thought Led Zepplin should have been an instrumental band. Who knew that would make so many Hollywood music people angry. I think I’m blacklisted.

QUESTION 8:  How did you meet your new girlfriend supermodel Evennescia, and are you planning on getting married?

MICKEY: We’ve only been together for a few weeks so it’s still a bit early I guess to think about that. I hear a month is more reality in Hollywood so we’ll see. We like each other a lot and have used the same bathroom so there’s nothing more to hide I guess.

In terms of how we met….we met on the set of a Richard Marx music video. She was in the video and I was next door and just sort of came over to check out their craft service table. Struck up a conversation about Capris Suns and how hard it is to get the little straw in the thing to drink it. I guess we connected at a simple level while everybody else was Hollywood glam and stuff. We started hanging out like every day. She gets me. Even when I get arrested she still is there for me. I should thank Dick Marx for even sort of introducing me to her even though he didn’t actually introduce me to her. There are a lot of people who think I’m like some boy Yoko - trying to come in and ruin her career. Like I”m oil and she’s sparkling water. So far neither of us has gotten in the way of each other’s career. Mostly because she’s the only one with the career right now. I’m taking a break. A 4-year break, writing my next album The Live Album. She’s a huge influence on it. So we fight on purpose just to have material. She’ll throw something at me and I’ll yell at her or cry and then she has some practice for her intense acting scenes and I have songwriting material. it’s really working out. Lyle Lovitt once said that there’s no such thing as a weird relationship so long as the two agree it’s not weird. I believe that.

QUESTION 8:  What is the song “Girl” about?

MICKEY: That’s a good question. It’s actually about a girl. I knew her for about one day. Best day I ever had though. Went to the zoo and other stuff. She never knew my middle name which I always thought was cool. Actually, I never knew her last name… or her first name either I guess. I just called her T.J. But now when I sing it it’s about Evennescia. Like I’ve applied all new meanings to all the words so it makes sense to be about her in my heart when i sing it live now. Actually, I haven’t sung it lives in like 6 months but when I do…

QUESTION 10:  Any last words about your new album?

MICKEY: Hmmmm that sounds like a funeral. I guess…. last words? This will be my deepest album yet so it’ll be more like a rebirth than death. Lyrics and melodies that will be nothing like I’ve done before. I’m writing all the lyrics myself and sometimes I don’t rhyme because I don’t want to. You know? So get ready. The best of Mickey Turner is yet to come. Also, my manager is asking if anyone wants to buy a Kandinsky.

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