Nina Hagen Shrine

Circa 1985
Typed by Geoffrey Faustman @ Planet Bearth

 

*DL: ……This is her latest album right here [Holds up copy of "Ekstasy"] Nina Hagen in Ekstasy, Nina Hagen…

[Nina enters from stage left]

NH: Hi!

DL: Have a seat. Good Lord! [referring to audience's frenzy over Nina's appearance.] Now, I said you had pink hair and you had pink hair on the album. Obviously you are not wearing pink hair tonight. [Nina's hair is long and black, pulled back in an "I Dream of Jeannie" style ponytail.]

NH: No, I just came from Greece and from Spain and I wanted to uh, wanted to look more Greek and more Spanish because we just shot a video down there for "Spirit in the Sky", the old-hippie Norman Greenbaum hit from the sixties.

DL: Yeah, uh huh, so you changed your hair for that purpose?

NH: Uh huh, I always change…[cut off by DL]

DL: Now is it…do you mind if I touch it, the hair part?

NH: [Shakes head no] Uhn't uh..

DL: [touches hair] This is not yours is it?

NH: It's um, no.

DL: How much that we see is actually your hair?

NH: Well, I have like such a tail myself. [holds hands about a foot apart]

DL: Now, will you be turning it back to pink soon?

NH: Maybe.

DL: Uh, huh. And would that cause that, is it a conscious decision? Do you wake up one day and say, lets go pink or how does…

NH: See, I was traveling on our tour bus through Europe and I was thinking I want to have long blonde hair.  And my stylist and the woman who changes my costumes while I have my show on stage….

DL: What's her name?

NH: Tricia.

DL: Tricia.

NH: She's a Hair Stylist and she can do extensions which is very in, in London.

DL: Now what does that mean, "extensions"?

NH: Extensions is you suddenly have long hair when you have short hair [audience laughs] and you can sleep with it and you have it forever [audience laughs] as long as you want to.

DL: O.K., now back up here a second. Tricia could take my hair just as it is and–

NH: [interrupts brilliantly, then very innocently but matter-of-factly says] Make you look like Boy George…

[audience rolls with laughter which DL ignores]

DL: [stumbles over own words, kinda dumbfounded by Nina's and audience's response] No, no, but she, she can make short hair long?

NH: Yes she can.

DL: And in a short period of time or does it take like a couple of weeks?

NH: No it takes like half an hour.

DL: How do you do that?

NH: You iron them on with some glue and with some hot, ah, fire.  [audience laughs] She puts fire on your hair.

[DL cracks up]

DL: O.K., so then its perfectly safe?

NH: [nods]

DL: Enough about your hair. You look great, you're stunning, you make a real stunning appearance.

NH: I like your look myself, too.

DL: Now you're more than just a musician, you're a…..explain what kind of performer you are.  You're…

NH: Okay, it's beyond words of course.  [audience laughs]   You have to see my show to believe that I'm the only unique Nina Hagen on this planet.

DL: Uh, huh. Major, major star in Europe and as well here in the United states? Are you as….

NH: Oh, I have a following where ever , whenever I am on tour they come.  It is always sold out.

DL: You're touring the United states right now.

NH: Yeah, right now and I play on Saturday in New York.

DL: And tell the people who may not have seen one of your shows what kind of…

NH: I'm Opera Singer. I can sing Brecht/Weil.  I create my own lyrics. I have a great band. I have a drummer from East Berlin. I, me , myself, I'm also from East Berlin. I grew up in the Bertold Brecht/Kurt Weil tradition also in the old hippie tradition, when I was eleven I was a big fan of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin and they're still my heroes. I sing songs about UFOs God, love , sex, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven…. [audience laughs]

DL: But all this information is on the tickets when the folks pick them up, also.

NH: No.

DL: We have a bit of you…is this from a video or is it you in concert?

NH: That's both.

DL: Do you know where this is filmed?

NH: Yes, it was Rock in Rio, the biggest open air festival after Woodstock.

DL: Was is in Brazil?

NH: In Brazil!

DL: This is Nina Hagen performing here folks. Watch closely and we'll come back and chat a little more.

[shows live "Universal Radio" video]

DL: There yah go. Um, we're talking about you this afternoon, getting ready for your appearance, and it came up you have seen a UFO in Malibu.

NH: Yeah, that was fun!

DL: How long ago was this?

NH: That was when I was pregnant with Cosma who's four years old now.  That was in the middle of the night and it was great, I was mesmerized. I couldn't think anymore. It was a great feeling. It was hanging over me. It was the beach where Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan also have their houses. The beach that was overwhelmed by the Ocean last year. It was showing all kind of colors, a real Light show.

DL: How big was it?

NH: Ten Metres, big and round. And uh…..

DL: Glowing?

NH: Glowing and different colors: yellow, green, pink, turquoise. And every color made me feel different.

DL: Was it doing any hair extending?

NH: No.

DL: Ah, I'll tell yah what, we have to do a commercial.