Phone Message Transcript: October 21, 1997
[appearing on Anne's fan phone line]

"Hi, it's October 21, 1997. This is Anne Rice. I wanted to answer some of your questions before I go. I am going out the door to New York now, and I'll be in New York for the next few days. Again, a lot of what I'm going to give you is information that answers questions that people have been sending me.

Our next signing in New Orleans will be October 31, and it will be down town at Bookstar, and I don't know the rules of the signing. You have to check with the book store to see what they will allow. But we'll certainly do whatever we can to get things signed.

November 1st, the day after, is the Coven Party Ball that's run by the fan club, and you should contact the Vampire Lestat Fan Club to get in touch with them. They are running it at Tipitina's Warehouse and it sounds like it's going to be marvelous.

November 2nd, we have Leila Josefowicz, a world class violinist, in concert at trinity church on Jackson avenue. Please don't call Trinity, guys, because we have all the information about it. At this point, all the tickets have been given out, but if we have any extra we will certainly give them out at the door that night. It will be 8:00 at Trinity Church. OK, that's November 2nd. That's really our big Halloween weekend.

I won't be doing any signings in New York in the next few days, but I will be doing some TV shows and because you have asked me about it I going to tell you what they are. I will be on The Today Show, November 22nd at 8:30 am, that's tomorrow, no, no, that's not tomorrow. But anyway, maybe it is tomorrow, I don't know but it's Wednesday October 22nd. Let me not get fancy about this. Then, I will be on Rosie O'Donnell on Friday. We're going to tape it a day early; it's called taped live and then we will be on Rosie, and Rosie is broadcast at all different times. I'm not sure what time she is in your area so you need to check. I'll also be on Charlie Rose's show, and Charlie usually plays it the night that we are on, and we are going to do his show Thursday, October 23rd. So Rosie will be October 24th, Charlie will be October 23rd, The Today Show will be the 22nd.

Now, let me see what else we have here. We're going to do the Catherine Crier Report live which I think is going to be very interesting and that's going to be on Fox. I mean, this is terrible for me to do this unprepared, but I'll tell you, I was prepared a minute ago. What can I say. I really was. I was super prepared. But we are also going to do a CNN TV live interview on the 24th, Friday, and something else, talk back extra on October 24th on CNN. Now, let me find out some of this other stuff. I really feel like kind of an idiot. Here we go, the Catherine Crier Report is going to be Friday the 24th. It's going to be at 8:30 PM on Fox. So, you have to find out where that is in your area.

Now, let me see, I know what you think, you think I'm crazy, I don't blame you. Then, we come back to new Orleans and we'll be around. We don't have any other promotions scheduled.

Let's see. What can I tell you. You've been calling in and giving me wonderful feedback on the novel VIOLIN. I very, very much appreciate it. I really do, just your heartfelt responses whether you like it, don't like it, whether you found it to heavy, whether you found it too weird. A number of you said that it was very different from every thing else that I've written. In a way it is, but in a way it's not. I feel like the other books have been basically about the same subjects, death, guilt, regeneration. Oh, got to mention to you Leila Josefowicz, this absolutely marvelous violinist who inspired me when I was writing the book. I happened upon her music in my CD collection as they came in; as the guys gather CD's for me and I listened. Well, Leila has made a CD for me called "Violin for Anne Rice"; it's out now, it's really marvelous, just just marvelous, and she has on Tchaikovsky, Sebellius, Bizet, Saint-Saens, lot's of different classical composers, plus she has an updated rearrangement or new arrangement of Sting's "Moon over Bourbon Street" which is really good. So I'm quite thrilled by that. I mean, as a matter of fact, it's very strange but VIOLIN is about a woman who discovers her musical potential and her musical ability. She digs down in her soul through the tormenting of a ghost really, of a lot of ghosts, but principally, a ghost named Stephan who comes as a violinist and she finds, this woman finds, that she's able to have a whole life in music and oddly enough something like that has been happening to me--just a friendship with Leila, hearing her play the violin in my living room, knowing that she's going to be with me on a couple of these TV shows. All of this is tremendously exciting.

But other things have been happening as well. Not only am I going to see Leila Josefowicz at Carnegie Hall sometime in early November, but I've also been writing rock lyrics for a band I like very very much. The band's name is Cowboy Mouth. Now, Cowboy Mouth has not officially accepted my lyrics yet, but I've sent them three songs and I want very much to go with them. I like them because Fred Leblanc and the other singers really can sing. They have lovely voices, and Cowboy Mouth has a fantastic beat, it has a rolling throbbing beat that I really like. It's the kind of beat you hear in a lot of music today but when it's absent, it's really absent. Well, it's not absent in Cowboy Mouth; it's really there, and I'm eager to write a lot of lyrics for them. I mean, and to write a lot of lyrics period. I have seven or eight songs already written which I haven't shown anyone, and I write a kind of dense lyric that's very much like the writings of my books; it ranges from highly emotional to intellectual and philosophical. Some of my songs for example are called the poetry of crime in America, songs for CNN, sing a song of new Orleans, news byte babe, she's just a writer, things like that, and of course I dream of rock videos too. But anyway, this new rock career is very important to me. For years, I've been thinking of an opportunity like this. I've heard many many bands and they've been great bands and they've been professional and they've gone on to fame and fortune but I never heard a band that I really loved as I love cowboy mouth. Cowboy mouth is on the MCA label. They have four CD's out. They play often at house of blues and tipitina's in new Orleans and I've met the members of cowboy mouth and this is really a momentous kind of thing. The fact that it is happening right at the publication of a book like violin seems synchronistic, to say the least.

Another thing that has happened is that CRY TO HEAVEN, a book I wrote many years ago, has been transformed magically into a magnificent musical by Matthew wilder, a terrific lyricist and musician who's done both the lyrics and the music and it's all absolutely supernaturally beautiful, and Matthew Wilder's new cry to heaven is going to open in London a year from this October; it's going to open October 26th or 27th at queen theater in Shaftsbury street in London. Robert Stigwood is the producer, and of course Robert Stigwood is now one of my most favorite people in the whole world. I love talking through transcontinental calls to Robert; it's really fabulous. You know, as those of you who followed my meanderings and ramblings now how much I used to be fond of David Geffen. I use to call David Geffen my billionaire. Well, I think Robert is my billionaire now. I haven't heard from the magnificent David in a long time. He went on to make a studio and our lives went separate ways. But, I have Mr. Stigwood with all his glamour and charm and priceless commitment to cry to heaven; it's really great.

Anyway, that's the latest stuff that I know of right now. If we are on other shows, I'll pass it on to you. We're doing a lot of little radio things. I had a ball, by the way, on Walton & Johnson locally. Those of you in the new Orleans area who heard them., Oh, man, let me tell you how much fun I had. I loved it, and thank you for calling in, that was so cool. I want my own radio show. I won't be satisfied until I have my own radio show, and I'm writing lyrics steadily for singers, and I'm working and have finished ARMAND. Now, ARMAND is the vampire novel that will be published in the fall of 98, but before ARMAND comes PANDORA, in the spring, which is also a vampire novel. Both of these will be hard covers, both of these will be published by Knopf, both will be 98. Again, violin is out right now; it's only been out a few days. So we have no idea how it's really doing in the wide world, but the main thing I know from your phone calls is that it's doing well with you; it's doing will with you and that makes me supremely happy. Inevitably some of you will call in and say that you don't like it and I'm prepared for that. I'm brave. I want to hear from you. I really love you guys, and I just love talking to you and I love hearing your responses and getting your messages. I do watch the movies that you recommend to me. I don't have the notes right in front of me right now to mention the last few things but believe you me I appreciate it. You let me know about these obscure foreign films that normally we don't here about in new Orleans and I go out and rent them. Speaking of films, let me recommend again bulletproof heart with Anthony LaPaglia and Mimi Rogers. You've heard me talk about it before. Let me mention that brad Pitt is really wonderful in the devil's own, and people are calling in and saying that he's great in SEVEN DAYS IN TIBET, SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET, sorry. Also, the movie ANGEL BABY by Michael Rymer came from Australia and somebody at Warner's recommended this movie to me. If Michael Rymer ever teamed up with our vampire material at Warner's I think it would be marvelous, really really quality quality director, brilliant.

What else can I tell you? I've told you a lot, haven't I and I've haven't said anything profound or philosophical but that's in the book, that's in VIOLIN. I love you. Please leave me a message at the beep, and I can pick up my messages even when I'm in New York. I call in and get them on the phone. Take care and be good, and be safe and write your own stuff and sing your stuff and do your own stuff."