party chat

Ad-Rock Says James Murphy Broke His Refrigerator

Adam Horovitz of The Beastie Boys attends EPIX premiere of Amar'e Stoudemire IN THE MOMENT on April 18, 2013 in New York City.
Adam Horovitz. Photo: Jennifer Graylock/Getty Images

Last week, at a screening of Frances Ha, we tried to get Ad-Rock talking about the Beastie Boys memoir he’s writing with Mike D. We got a little bit on that front, but were mostly just treated to his random thoughts on Sting, James Murphy, and The Face magazine. Here, a slightly condensed version of our conversation, including commentary from his lifelong friend, actress, and “Fight for Your Right to Party” star Nadia Dajani. She’s a delight.

How’s the memoir coming?
Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock): We haven’t started yet. But we’re gonna.

Do you keep a diary or journal or anything? Do you have notes?
AH: No.
Nadia Dajani: But I have early scrapbooks, and I’m gonna give him a bunch of stuff. I saved a lot.

Like what? Magazine clippings, or?
AH: I got stuff. [To Nadia.] You have a memory, which I don’t.
ND: And I wrote everything down in early journals.
AH: Do you think that Sting [who was at the event to support his daughter, Mickey Sumner, who stars in Frances Ha] is thinking about weird sex right now?

It’s funny, when he and Trudie Styler [his wife] were on the carpet, all I could think was tantric sex. [They’ve talked openly about having it.]
AH: Or maybe ask him about the thing from the seventies that was like the Scorpio/Virgo, like the signs in the sex positions … the asterisk signs … the aster-al —

Astrological.
AH: Boom. I said asterisk.
ND: But also, [sex] for fourteen hours? I will set you on fire. Like, you gotta have time for breaks for snacks, YouTubing, some e-mailing. But then you’re going to talk to the world about how you have sex for fourteen hours? I’ll punch you in the face.
AH: Hey, mazel tov.
ND: I mean, if you can get it.

So you haven’t started the memoir yet, but you’re getting all the stuff out.
AH: It’s gonna be great. We got a long deadline, so we’re good.

When’s the deadline?
AH: I don’t know.
ND: Do you guys have a deadline?
AH: I don’t know. I’m assuming they will want it at a certain date, what with the money and all.

So what do you have — photos, magazines?
ND: I do have a lot of photos, and color slides, most of which I haven’t even looked at.
AH: We’ve been friends since kindergarten, off and on.
ND: Off and on. You jerk. Yeah, we grew up across the street from each other, and our older siblings were in school together and —

So you have the archive.
ND: I have some. The truth is — this is the truth, all snark aside: If I had known what their band was going to be, I probably would have really kept things. But who knew that they were gonna do so well?
AH: I’ve got a lot of stuff.
ND: You do? I felt like you lost a lot of stuff in moving.
AH: I still got stuff.

Was there a point when you started saving stuff because you thought you might do this one day?
AH: I always saved stuff that I thought was like — you know, [if] you’re gonna be in a magazine? That’s cool. When I was a kid, I collected The Face magazine, the British magazine. And then we were in The Face magazine! And so I got it. It was us, LL Cool J, some other motherfuckers in there, and I got so excited and opened it up and we’re in the gatefold, I’m in the crease. And I look like this [makes a face].
ND: You look like the circus clown whose face is deformed?
AH: And I have a nervous smile. It’s so bad.
ND: Was that your lip phase?
AH: Worse.
ND: He used to do this thing in the beginning where he would talk with his lip up, like that.
AH: Billy Idol.

About fifteen minutes later, Horovitz sees James Murphy and says, “There’s James Murphy. He owes me $150.” Dajani notes that Murphy’s giant tote looks like a diaper bag.

Why does he owe you $150?
AH: Well, he stayed at my apartment a long time ago and broke the refrigerator and didn’t get it fixed. I had to fix it.

How’d he break it?
AH: I don’t know! It was just broken. He stayed at my place, and I moved back in and the refrigerator didn’t work. I was like, “Dude, what’s up with the refrigerator?” He was like, “Oh yeah!” What kinda shit is that?
ND: The moral of the story is Don’t let James Murphy, with a diaper bag, near your house.

I actually did notice that bag.
ND: Al lright, I got a thing for you. Would you rather, blindfolded, reach into James Murphy’s diaper bag, or —
AH: Sting’s pants?
ND: Listen to Sting talk about his fourteen-hour tantric sex. Go!
AH: Sting.
ND: I did not think you were gonna choose Sting!
AH: Because I could fall asleep listening to Sting, and I could have a nice, long nap.
ND: But anything you could touch in James Murphy’s diaper bag is going to stay with you for a long time.

Sting is Mickey Sumner’s dad.
AH: Mykki Blanco?
ND: That’s Sting’s daughter! Oh, snap! That’s Sting and Trudie’s daughter.
AH: She has a reggae record. Someone told me she had a reggae record, years ago.
ND: No, they have another kid that’s a musician
AH: You know the rapper Mykki Blanco.

Yeah.
AH: Okay, just throwing that out there.
ND: Imagine your dad was Sting and you had to read about your dad having tantric sex for fourteen hours. I’d kill myself.
AH: Imagine if your dad was Stephen Tyler!