Terry Gross

Yeah, yeah.

And I think that was true of Lester Bangs.

Were you capable of being unmerciful?

Yeah, and unmerciful isn't something you usually strive to be in your life.

But as a critic, you have to be honest.

And sometimes that means unmerciful.

But that's still a harsh word to use for a 15-year-old who's starting in a very harsh business.

Yeah.

Lester Bangs also warned you about not making friends with musicians or publicists.

You probably really wanted to be the musicians' friends, but did you try not to be?

Like, how did that work out for you?

You followed David Bowie around off and on for a year and a half.

Yeah.

And wrote a piece.

Was it a cover story?

Well, you know, that kind of fits in a way with the fact that he had so many characters that he embodied.

And when he said to you, I want to see the mirror you hold up, do you think he didn't really know who he was in some ways?

Remind us how he died.

One of the things that you portray in the movie Almost Famous is the teenage girls and young women who followed the bands and partied with them afterwards and went to their hotel rooms afterwards.

And people would call them groupies, but the leader of the group of girls in Almost Famous says, we're not groupies.