River Phoenix: Young Man River

Suzanne tells me she left her adoptive parents in Michigan and came south for school. Since she's so independent of her family, I ask her about the symbiotic relationship River's supposed to have with his.

"The family's really close-knit--but he's used to spending a lot of time away from them, and me as well. Because I'm in school, I can't really travel that much with him. It sucks and it kinda doesn't suck. Because it gives us space." When the issue of Little Rivers comes up, a private grin is aimed at the guitar music in the other room.

"It's funny you should ask--because I'm ovulating right this minute."

Out on the bird-porch, River is plucking an immaculate Ovation guitar, the rich man's acoustic, doing a yeoman's job on The Beatles' "Blackbird." I bring up the family discussion with him,

"It's all fabric for the imagination of the press--and if it sells, then that's the slop they pick. Sure, my family's close and when I was growing up we were all we had. [But] I haven't talked to my dad in a couple of months--he's out of the country. My parents are on vacation, I drove them away. They took the hint and bought the tickets. They were heading in the Central America direction."

By mid-afternoon, the phantom Sky finally shows. With a maturated Brooklyn accent and a Smith Brothers black beard, he proffers a cooler filled with vegetarian sandwiches and mineral water. River unwraps a plastic pouch and sprinkles what looks like grass onto rolling paper.

"Smoking herbs. I'm trying to quit cigarettes. Don't ask me if this is helping. Anyway, so, yeah, my family's important to me. I think what's happened is that I've grown up enough so that my anxiety attacks have matured beyond the meaning of life' teenage trauma stuff. One day you just wake up and you feel your age. After the last tour, I woke up and it was like, 'Wow, I feel 20.' What a fucking relief."

***

Don't follow River if you're walking the streets with him. The body is ambulatory while the mind backtracks. He has led us, after a short time that includes a silent interlude of meditation under a "Walk" sign, to a small town square like the one in Back to the Future, When we finally make it into an espresso bar, I'm gently instructed not to mention the name of the place when I write about it and to order low acidic coffee.

We are discussing drugs with the unmistakable nostalgia of deal-a-meal people talking about desserts. River recalls the Children of God sermons from the years in South America.

"We heard Janis shot airplane glue into her veins the night she died, that's the kind of stuff the pastor would tell us. 'Cocaine-- the devil's dandruff,' I think I might wait till I'm 70 and then do it all at once. Just stay ultra-healthy till I'm 70 and then just go, Waaaaaaa--ooooo!'"

Michael the photographer and I share a few somewhat hyper-bolic tales involving LSD, "Yes, the Lord is very prevalent and real, isn't he, boys?" says River, who carries his own psychotropic lore.

"I've copped back some weird earplay about me and acid and I just thought it was a joke--I thought they weren't being serious. I thought it was this reverse psychology thing to get information out of someone--'I heard you took acid.' I would just laugh. It would frighten the hell out of me to be a creature walking around in the '90s taking acid.

"Acid doesn't really supply you with any answers. I grew up talking to people your age. My best friends, since I was 8, were your age. And I've heard every acid trip in the world. And I've been there. I've really been totally, completely able to under-stand and comprehend the experience--to the point where I've been stimulated vicariously. The thing is, right now, why throw a curve on life?"

River stops dead in his tracks to mull something over, then picks up the trail again. "I tell ya what. That's actually not such a bad rumor to have going around about you. . ."

By the time my carrot cake arrives, River's assailing his memory banks like a kid trying to kick open his own locker, unable to come up with the name of his favorite television journalist.

"The thing to do," Michael the photographer suggests, "is to go through the alphabet very slowly and you'll come up with the first letter of his last name." River gives it a whirl, but it's like throwing water on a drowning man. "No," he sighs. "No, I've already passed it."

"Then put it out of your mind and tell me about this Gus Van Sant film," I suggest.

"Gus Van Sant is a beautiful person. Every day of my life since I've finished My Own Private Idaho, at some point in the day, I find the conversation somehow goes back to that film because it was such a great experience. I just start getting all joyous about it and start blabbing about it, so...but if you can believe it, there's a project out there that I feel just as strongly about, even though there's a good chance I might not be involved."

He's talking about the Robert Redford project A River Runs Through It.

"It's a great script. Just the best script that I've read that's come out of Hollywood in a long time. I auditioned--me and about a thousand other guys. It was a nice audition and I haven't auditioned in a while. I thought I'd be nervous...you guys don't smoke do you?"

The Redford project has River in a lather. His eyes sweep the room for smoke, someone to bum a cigarette from. Eventually, he relents and buys a pack, smoking one with guilty little puffs aimed up at the place where the name of his favorite TV journalist has yet to materialize.

"I had a really good talk, good meeting with Redford but I think he's gonna find the guy. The guy who just is that image--that Montana mountain boy, fly fisherman image. That's what I think he should do, I believe so strongly in it, I just want the best guy for it. If I get it, great. If I don't, I wasn't right for it."

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Comments

  • Nice Post! My Partner was rcently talking about Art Blakey vs. Charlie Christian . This should prove helpful in the debate.

  • Love Jack White, he's a great guitar player and does a lot with a little (if that makes sense). I feel he really loves what he does, which shows in how many projects he takes on at once.

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