A 4-page article on Rooky Ricardo's Dick Vivian hit the virtual pages of GQ magazine yesterday.
Titled "The Man Who Will Save Your Soul," the story features Dick's insights into running a record store, his thoughts on the digital music industry, and a candid glimpse into his private life. A Rooky's customer came up with the idea for the article "three or four years ago," Dick told us yesterday. "He would come into the store and he was so in love with the store. He worked for GQ at the time and he really wanted to do an article," Dick said. That customer left his job at GQ before he could write the story himself, but he tipped off another writer named Byard Duncan. Byard got GQ's approval to do the story, and a few months ago contacted Dick to set up the interview. Make that interviews, plural. Dick says the story required four interviews with Byard over a period of roughly a month and a half. Three of the interviews took place in the shop at 448 Haight, and one at Dick's home. "The first one, I didn't know how it was going," Dick admitted, noting that he was unsure how he would ultimately be depicted. "I didn't want to come across as negative as I can be." By the final interview, however, his guard was down. Dick discussed his junior high school woes ("I went home crying every day"), the two true loves of his life, and the salvation he found in music. "The fourth [interview] at the house just got a little emotional. I never had talked about my private life with anybody like that." Reading that section of the story for the first time yesterday was "kind of weird," but overall Dick was very happy with how the piece turned out. He was also pleasantly surprised by the photo of himself that accompanies the story. "I wore the right colors," Dick said. "I didn't realize that the red and blue would [look good] against the GQ colors." More than anything, Dick is glad he was able to make a point about the joys of non-digital music. When you listen to a physical record, you're giving the music a chance, he explained. You might not like the first song on the album, but perhaps you'll like the fourth. With digital music, when you can so easily fast forward, you're more likely to miss out on those happy discoveries. Sure, buying a record may never be as easy or convenient as downloading a digital album, but in Dick's opinion it's far more worthwhile. "It's kind of like dancing," Dick said. "I used to teach dancing, and [students] used to say to me, 'I just like to jump around.' And I would say, 'Trust me, if you just jump around on the right beat, you'll have a lot more fun.'"
Titled "The Man Who Will Save Your Soul," the story features Dick's insights into running a record store, his thoughts on the digital music industry, and a candid glimpse into his private life. A Rooky's customer came up with the idea for the article "three or four years ago," Dick told us yesterday. "He would come into the store and he was so in love with the store. He worked for GQ at the time and he really wanted to do an article," Dick said. That customer left his job at GQ before he could write the story himself, but he tipped off another writer named Byard Duncan. Byard got GQ's approval to do the story, and a few months ago contacted Dick to set up the interview. Make that interviews, plural. Dick says the story required four interviews with Byard over a period of roughly a month and a half. Three of the interviews took place in the shop at 448 Haight, and one at Dick's home. "The first one, I didn't know how it was going," Dick admitted, noting that he was unsure how he would ultimately be depicted. "I didn't want to come across as negative as I can be." By the final interview, however, his guard was down. Dick discussed his junior high school woes ("I went home crying every day"), the two true loves of his life, and the salvation he found in music. "The fourth [interview] at the house just got a little emotional. I never had talked about my private life with anybody like that." Reading that section of the story for the first time yesterday was "kind of weird," but overall Dick was very happy with how the piece turned out. He was also pleasantly surprised by the photo of himself that accompanies the story. "I wore the right colors," Dick said. "I didn't realize that the red and blue would [look good] against the GQ colors." More than anything, Dick is glad he was able to make a point about the joys of non-digital music. When you listen to a physical record, you're giving the music a chance, he explained. You might not like the first song on the album, but perhaps you'll like the fourth. With digital music, when you can so easily fast forward, you're more likely to miss out on those happy discoveries. Sure, buying a record may never be as easy or convenient as downloading a digital album, but in Dick's opinion it's far more worthwhile. "It's kind of like dancing," Dick said. "I used to teach dancing, and [students] used to say to me, 'I just like to jump around.' And I would say, 'Trust me, if you just jump around on the right beat, you'll have a lot more fun.'"
