This interview will make you beg Ric Ocasek for a Cars reunion.
Once, back when he was filming his beatnik cameo role in Hairspray, recalls Ric Ocasek, the director John Waters invited him over to his house for dinner. And it was just as he’d expected: “Very meticulous, in a nice clean Baltimore-brownstone way. John is a collector, but even his collections were meticulous, very in order and dusted.” Now, the ex-Cars leader looks around his own New York abode for a minute and shudders. “My house is a f--king mess, it’s outta hand. I should get rid of 50 percent of this sh-t, like those organizer people on TV.” And although it may feel as if a full-tilt Cars renaissance is taking place right now (their “Just What I Needed” classic is played countless times a day in Circuit City ads; Fountains Of Wayne just spoofed the band in its “Stacy’s Mom” song/video; a reunion tour is planned, which may or may not include Ocasek; and the singer just issued a Cars-retro solo set on Sanctuary called Nexterday), Ocasek has saved no vintage Cars collectibles, not even the swank enamel badges his old label Elektra would issue for each album.
Ric Ocasek: Yeah. In fact, I even met one of the Fountains Of Wayne guys – I think it was Adam [Schlesinger] – in a studio one day. They wrote me a letter and asked me to be in the video, and I said “No, but good luck.” It was a nice tribute. And they used a Cars sample – it’s gotta be, because it’s the exact same sound from that old amp and that guitar. I don’t think anybody could replicate it, so they must’ve just sampled it. I’m always flattered if somebody’s paying some kind of homage to the Cars.
TW: In “Moving In Stereo,” you sang, “Life’s the same, I’m moving in stereo / Life’s the same, except for my shoes.” What was different about your shoes?
RO: Well, you know, shoes are always changing. People never wear the same shoes all the time, so I guess that’s the point of that. But who really knows? It’s some pretty deep sh-t. Everything makes sense when you’re writing.
TW: Seriously. What the hell were you smoking that day?
RO: Oh, whatever was around. The same things I’m probably still smoking.
TW: It wasn’t that long ago that I saw in the paper, “Ben Orr diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.” Within a few weeks, his obituary ran. How hard was it to see your old Cars partner go through that?
RO: That was crazy. I went down there and saw him. He was very strong, considering he knew very well that he didn’t have very many days left. I wasn’t in touch with Ben a lot – I’d spoken to him once a year or whatever. And to make it more sad, he had a little boy who was about four at that point, and when I went to see him in Atlanta, his little boy was there, too.
TW: And it’s doubly tragic, because the time is perfect now for a Cars reunion. Fans would absolutely flip.
RO: Yeah, they probably would. But I don’t know that I would. Maybe if Ben was around, I would think about it. I know a couple of guys in the band still wanna do that kind of thing. But I dunno....
TW: So why did you license a song to Circuit City, of all things?
RO: Philosophically, I never wanted to do that. But after Dylan did Victoria’s Secret, I thought, “If Dylan’s gonna do it, and Lou Reed’s gonna do it, maybe I’ll just forget about what I said 30 years ago and I’ll do this, too.” So, I did it. And Ben’s estate gets a cut.
TW: You still married to the fabulous Paulina Porizkova?
RO: Oh, yeah, a good 20 years now. And it’s still like we met about two weeks ago. We’re in good shape, we’re phenomenal. We made some rules in the beginning about this relationship, ’cause we both worked – we made sure that we didn’t grow separately because of what we were doing individually. So I went with her when she worked, she went with me when I did. And we always had a very open communication – no f--king around, no lying, no calling each other f--kheads or bitches. We’ve got two children and it’s pretty cool. And I’m speaking for her, as well, but I think we’re pretty happy.