He has met lots of interesting artists, but most of his interviews are devoid of value, don't communicate anything, uncomfortable to watch, he often comes off disrespectful and patronizing. The bombardment with factoids is super random too, he picks stuff from old magazines and many answers to that are "what are you talking about, no idea where you got that from". Or "omg, no way, who told you that", but it's always some irrelevant trivia.
I understand that some people find his persona entertaining, he is an iconic interviewer in some sense, but not a good one.
I disagree, a lot of the interviews are quite humanizing and entertaining to watch (entertainment has value) and plenty of them being up early musical influences and encounters which might not be covered as much elsewhere (sometimes even forgotten by the artist themselves)
I think researching a guest for an interview is more about understanding what they are doing and trying to convey, less about digging into obscure facts. Obscure facts may be interesting, but not when it's 100% of the interview.
His newer videos have shifted towards this "adorable weirdo" persona, but he used to be really tactless and I am sure he knew what he was doing.
I never saw him as patronizing and disrespectful. That is unless you put artist and celebrity on a pedestal where you think the common rabble shouldn't be asking certain questions.
If he were to come up to me and asked me all of these really interesting questions that he really shouldn't know to ask I would be flattered I would be like how the hell does this guy know all this about me... But I've always wanted to be asked...
His newer videos are probably okay, but his 90s interviews have questions like "do you still want to commit suicide?" [1], "from my research I got rumors that you slept with such and such person..." [ibid.], "there is a rumor that your cock is shaped like a soup can" [2] etc. How is this respectful, appropriate, relevant? He's also plain rude with the artists he dislikes for some reason. See Beck [3] or the Strokes. He often interrupts people and doesn't let them answer his questions.
If the goal is to break the interviewee, there are more clever and subtle ways to do that.
He has met lots of interesting artists, but most of his interviews are devoid of value, don't communicate anything, uncomfortable to watch, he often comes off disrespectful and patronizing. The bombardment with factoids is super random too, he picks stuff from old magazines and many answers to that are "what are you talking about, no idea where you got that from". Or "omg, no way, who told you that", but it's always some irrelevant trivia.
I understand that some people find his persona entertaining, he is an iconic interviewer in some sense, but not a good one.