Nina Hagen Shrine

NEXT Magazine – 2003
By Greg Saphiro
Studio Holger Scheibe

Start spreading the news, Nina Hagen – the planet's most electrifying and whacked-out punk diva – is resurfacing to celebrate the creative energy of our fabulous, freaky city.  Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Webster Hall…

Cosmic earth mother and quintessential European punk opera diva Nina Hagen is back!  The legendary rock maven (left) – who’s been ranked on a par with German legends Marlene Dietrich and Lotte Lenya, and has wowed the world with her music, her madness, and her activism (and there was that time she masturbated on Austrian TV!) – will perform in a brand spanking new show New York, New York at Webster Hall on Sunday September 8th at 9pm.  Joining the viciously vivacious Ms.  Hagen in her triumphant return – her first New York appearance in four years (!) – will be New York queer rock hellions The Toilet Boys (boasting a brand new member) and special guests ARI-UP (of The Siits) and Theo (of The Lunachicks).  This bounteous bonanza will be followed by an after-party which will feature a veritable who's who of clubland’s finest.  We recently caught up with Nina to get more details about where she’s been, what New York means to her, her new book, and what becomes a punk icon most. 

It’s hard to know where to begin with you – but I’ll try.  You have a book on the way titled That’s Why The Lady's A Punk.  Let’s start with that. 

[Laughs] Yeah! It’s coming out this September or October in Germany.  It’s a fat, huge book, very big format like a [coffee] table book, with stories that even I have not even known before, like how my mother met my father, and very interesting stories about my upbringing in East Germany. 

So it’s autobiographical?

It is very autobiographical, but on top of everything it is all my friends, my colleagues, people who walked part of the way with me; they are all being interviewed in the book.  And there will be loads and loads of pictures.  It will show me as a human being and as an artist.  It will show all my aspects as a fellow creature.  [laughs]

It’s been almost a year since the 9/11 attacks had such a devastating impact on America and New York. 

And the whole world. 

Absolutely.  And your show at Webster Hall is named after your 1980s song “New York, New York.” What does that mean to you today?

I had to change one line, because there is this one line, “New York City has the fanciest rule/when you want to live in this town you just have to be a fool.” I didn’t mean it, back in the 80s, as a bad thing, I just meant all the funny and life-hungry artistic people.  I changed it and now I say, “New York City has the fanciest rule, when you want to live in this town you just have to be so cool.” I don’t want to have any misunderstandings with my love and affection for New York and for my friends in New York I was devastated by this.  I was in an airplane that day myself, September 11th, flying from Berlin to Ibiza.  I thought someone was making an ugly joke and then we were glued to a TV.  It’s changed everything in the world. 

Your 1999 Internet-only album Om Namah Shivay contains your interpretations of traditional Indian spiritual songs.  Is this the material that you will be performing at Shiva Nights at The Slipper Room?

Yeah, all the songs I’ve learned at the foothills of the Himalayas on my many visits to India since 1993, when I met my teacher from India who was on tour in Europe, Sri Muniraji.  And also, I’m pulling out, in October, a new CD with some recordings of some of my best friends who I’ve met in India, and some are from Italy, some of them are from America, and from France, like an international band.  We went on tour with the Om Namah Shivay music, so we are bringing a live album out. 

How do you manage to balance the sacred side of yourself with your other outrageous stage persona?

Yeah, but my rock concerts, I consider them spiritual also.  Of course, they are more rock-cabaret and it includes all sorts of human emotions of true stories.  [I have a song] dedicated to my friends from Greenpeace and songs about the ugly side of life, the dark side-like a song about Anita Berber, who was a cabaret icon in the 20s, of the swinging Berlin, before the Nazi invasion.  So my rock music is also…  I can not say that it is not spiritual either. 

You sang on Dee Dee Ramone’s album, I Hate Freaks Like You.  What did his recent passing mean to you?

I was devastated because I was hoping he would be around for a long time.  But there was another master plan for him, apparently.  I believe that a soul is never lost, we [will] always be where we belong.  In the thereafter, it’s nice too.  I’m not afraid.  There is eternal life, that’s for sure.  When I go over, I will look out for him. 

Well, don’t go yet!

Oh, yes!! My son just had his 12th birthday and my daughter is 21.  I’m a working mom and I don’t want to go.  I want to stay as long as possible.  I enjoy getting old.  I’m 47 now and I didn’t have any alteration done on my body and I’m happy about that, because I don’t believe in plastic surgery.  It scares me.  It’s so scary.  I can make a ponytail and lift my skin up!

You have also gained renown as an activist for various causes, including PETA.  What response do you get from your activism?

Only good reactions.  We just made a little demonstration in front of the embassy of mother India in Berlin, because we were stressing the point of the law in India for animal rights laws.  It was a positive demonstration, nothing aggressive, very funny-activists came with big cow heads.  And the other day I was invited by children from 12 different states in Germany for a demonstration to save the ancient forest.  I love that the young people are bringing us back to that we all have to get involved and stressing the point to our government that we are able to preserve our world. 

You’ve long been regarded as a gay icon.  What have you gotten from the gay community?

God, so much inspiration and lovely friendships.  The gay community in Berlin, for example, and me, we have the greatest fun.  I’m working with many gay people in professional life.  My co-producer for my Internet TV show, which now will turn into a real show; most of my colleagues are gay people.  In a way, I’m gay too – I’m a happy camper.  And I say, always say and I feel it from my heart, that it’s nobody’s business who you fall in love with as long as nobody gets hurt. 

By Mr. Jimijam (James Riley3)
July 1987

The dressing room of The Bayou (R.I.P.) in Georgetown, Washington, DC.  I read in the music press earlier this year that Nina Hagen had left Los Angeles and moved to the island of Ibiza off the coast of Spain for artistic and spiritual reasons.

I have always been fascinated with her.  On June 6 of 1987, the PETA/Animal Rights concert happened at the Sylvan Theatre at the base of the Washington Monument, Nina was supposed to be one of the headline act along with the The B52S and LENE LOVICH.  On the day of the concert, Nina was a no-show, various announcers gave various answers to explain her absence.  I was bummed, I had even thanked her for some unknown reason on the cassette insert of my album FINAL DAZE with my band REVELATION which was released by OLIVE TREE records in 1986.   In July of 1987, Nina and her band did a month long US tour billed as the NINA HAGEN FOR PRESIDENT tour and a gig was scheduled to appear at The Bayou on July 8.  I decided to try to interview her and ask her about the PETA incident and to thank her for her music.  So I asked GORDON GORDON, my editor at THE WDC PERIOD, about it, so he called Bill Kitchen at Cellar Door Productions and then I called Bill, and then I called F.B.I. Management, and then the road manager for Nina, and then I had the interview.  It was so easy, I freaked out.  I give special thanks to Bill Kitchen and Steve Knouse for being so helpful.  Hey Gordon, Bill told me to say to you, “Hey I ain’t such a bad guy after all."  My friend James and I breezed down to the Bayou, breezed into the club, I love guest lists, we went upstairs and got our passes and waited for the show.  I talked to my friend JlMl SIN who is the guitar player for VACATION.  There was an incredible variety of people in attendance:  freaks, rockers, college kids, fashion plates, gays, suburban couples, and several bizarre people.  BIG BANG THEORY opened the show, but I missed them.  The lights went down and Nina and her band took the stage, behind the band was a giant backdrop that was painted to look like a graffiti covered wall, mostly the names of the original punk bands.  They opened with a hurricane fury, blasting out with a cover of the SEX PISTOLS’ "Holidays In The Sun".  They kept up the pace with a barrage of songs:  a BOB MAR LEY cover, JIMI HENDRIX’s "Foxy Lady", the MONKEES' "I’m A Believer", and the TUBES'  "White Punks On Dope", both in German, "Russian Reggae", and "New York, New York".  She introduced several new songs:  one for the Free South Africa movement, one for all of the B-Boys in NYC which was a  totally grooving funky fresh hiphop style song, and one for the Nazi fascists in her homeland, and the people at CBS Records, who she constantly referred to as "dirty fucking cunts".  The "fucking cunts" who never let her do what she wants; by telling her either who she should associate with, or what she should do on her album to help her career.  She talked about how in Ibiza, she was arranging to have a big circus tent set up so artists could have a place to create art twenty-hours a day.  She announced that she was running for President, then she let the band rip.  The band was tight, the musicians were former sidemen for LENE LOVICH.  Their chops were on target, you tell they enjoyed being on stage with Nina.  They launched into what seemed to be a spiritually inspired version of ‘Don’t Kill The Animals’ that dosed the show.  I went upstairs to wait for my turn to talk with Nina Hagen.

I have not interviewed anyone with the magnitude and fame of Nina Hagen before; so right when it was my turn to talk with her, I got butterflies in my stomach and all my questions flew out of my head.  lroquois, her husband was standing near me and he turned and asked me if I had a ‘fag’.  His question caught me off-guard and I was thinking “Wah!" but luckily my friend knew he meant ‘cigarette’ and offered him one.  Nina seemed to be lost in thought when I approached her, I asked if I could ask her some questions.  She looked up and said, ‘What is this?  This is crazy.  These are too crazy”, as she surveyed the crowd in the room and started laughing and the interview began.

JR3: I found out that you dig Yma Sumac, the female singer from Brazil, who was big during the 30’s and 40’s, and that you consider her one of your main influences?

NINA: Yeah I like it!

J: Yeah, I was listening to some other music before the show.
 
N: I hear it in the sixties, I hear it a lot at home.

J: What turned you on to her?

N: The record player !!! (laughter)

J: What did you like about her that influenced you ?

N: Its not describable, you can't describe, um, that.

J: The music and the singing remind me of being in the woods communing with the trees.

N: She’s unique in what she does.

J: Do you talk to trees?

N: Everything, I guess.

J: A lot of rumours have going around about the circumstances concerning your no-show at the PETA/Animal Rights concert on the Washington, DC mall on June 6. What was the real reason?

N: Yeah ! Because they only sent me one ticket and I never, go alone anywhere, either with my friend, or I go with my child or somebody, you know, who helps me and when I go overseas from Germany, I would never go just on my own and they just send me one ticket. Because they thought, you know, they would get me over, and so I don't do it.

J: My experience from the concert was that PETA was kind of bogus.

N: You know, I had a bad experience with some people from Germany, the animal liberation people, they make fake actions and just to get the press down there, and they get like, huh, prominent people like celebrities, er, down, to like, er, watch. And they say, “We just rescued these dogs and the press is coming any minute, please come by, so you can also make a statement.”  So I say, “Yes, of course, I’m coming…”And I get there and I found out it was a fake action and these dogs were already living with people and stuff, it was horrible and this one dog escaped and they had to search for: it all over the city. It was a stupid thing. And thought, you know, “I make this song with Lone two years ago, we went on a double tour and we featured the song and we made lots of video and stuff and also PETA made a video and it had its input and stuff. And I know that, um, you can talk to people and say don’t eat, please don't eat meat because it’s not good and lala.  It don’t make sense, no matter what you say, you can’t change things by saying them.  So I thought why should I go there, Lene can sing the song. She does it since two years, sing the song, sing the song also since two years by myself, yeah!  Because we, er, do, huh, different actions… So why just team up like a fucking hit team or something. She can get the message across and I'm there in spirit and if the animal people don't believe in my spirit and get mad at me and I don't come because they only sent me one fucking ticket.

Unidentified Woman:  Yeah, I was backstage at the concert and I was talking to Lene and all the people, and was asking where you were and they were saying you were delayed and. should be here any minute, you. know bullshit like that, and Lene did a great job with the song, and it got the B52S and all the groups on the stage.  It got to be very powerful at the end. They kept saying you were coming, you were coming, and they knew you weren't coming because I talked to the heads, the organizers, and…

N: Well, as Jesus, I am everywhere, like him, you know. (She says this in a meek questioningly way)  It was something for the animals and my spirit is in there too, because I feel for them even if I don't stand there and wave my arms.

UW: Have you always been a vegetarian, totally?

N: Nooo Just since 1983.

UW: Do you eat fish at all, sushi, anything like that?

N: Sure!

UW: Still?

N: Yes They live a free life, uh, I thank them for giving their protein for me. I don’t feel guilty. I’m sorry! (point blankly) Um, they live free and they have a good life, but you know the Indians, they even eat meat but they do it so nicely, like they thank the animal for the surrender (apprehensive about if that was the proper word) and I think that is wonderful.  They make the animal live in freedom and then one day they agree with the spirit of the animal that is now going to be going, er, another, er…

Someone interrupts with: But think that’s in certain, parts of the courtry, not all over.

N: But you know, to make an industry out of it is mean.  If you live near the ocean, then you catch fish and you grill it on the beach and make a party. There is nothing wrong with that, what's wrong with something is that they put waste in the ocean and they fuck up our beautiful planet.  That is what should be changed.

UW: What's wrong is they have factories and take animals and cut them up and just like making records, they wrap them up and send them out.

N: Yeah, Babylon will fall very soon, you shall witness very soon, very
soon.

J: Do you have a new album coming out or anything or are you just touring?

N: Yeah! I wrote a book it is called ‘Ich Bin Bin Berliner’, it comes out in September in Germany. And somebody is translating it into English and will come out on Bantam Books in America. ‘When I don’t know, because he is still translating it. I will have a record coming out, but a record where I decide what will be on it and what not. You know I have my own, what you say my own team. And when said today, I wasn't going to make a record, it was more or less for the person who is trying to get me a deal.  He was standing next to the stage (a lot of laughter), I wanted him to know that actually I really don't give a shit if I make another record.  I made seven records so far. You know as I said you can teach to the people about the good things:  like God and Jesus and the UFOS, and not being cruel to animals, but it doesn’t change, it does, well what should…the flow is gone. It doesn't necessarily change them, you know you might be talking talking-talking’ or ‘singing-singing and nothing is changing. So you always only reach a couple of souls, but that shall be wonderfully enough. Yeah! At least something like that happens.

J: So what are your plans until the fall of Babylon?

N: Well as, um, Jesus said, go and fish some more souls for me, please. So
that’s what we shall do. 

J: I was really amazed by the choice of covers you played in your show. What inspired you to cover Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Foxy Lady’? It was quite awesome.

N: Well, it is because he wanted me to do that. He told me from his UFO you know.  He says, “Please, I beg you… do it!”  Because the song is actually about God, you know, well, it is God in his female expression, yeah!  Goddess!  And so when he says I want to take you home, we want to go home to her, yeah, the foxy lady. So he said, “You gofta do it!” So I said, ‘Okay!”

J: So Nina did it. (everyone giggling)

N: (Using a fake voice) If you say so, you got to sing it just like I do, okay!  Yeah (laughter)  I didn’t hear it for a long time so I hear it again, so I do it, really. But we’re working on putting more songs in the set.

A guy asks in German: When was the last time you were in Berlin?

N: Yeah? In Berlin? I speak English, yeah, or otherwise nobody else can understand anything, (spoken like a mother correcting a child)  There was a big open air festival, rock marathon, it was one night before Michael Jackson played there. The people started a riot alter we were finished, and it was because they turned our sound down in the middle of the last song.

J: Why did they do it?

N: Because at ten o’clock we were sur posed to be finished, and it was ten o’clock and one minute and we weren’t finished, it was only the second verse, and so they turned it all down and the lights on, and then the people freaked out and they saw we wanted to go on. And of course, it was a good reason to start a riot, and then they burned the grounds.

J: So did Mikey get to do his show?

N: Yeah, but rained.

Manager announced everyone must leave the club.

J: Thanks Nina.

N: Yeah! Take care!

So we split the dressing room and the club, Nina and her crew get on their bus, and my friend and I go our separate ways. I went home quite happy.

NINA HAGEN and TROUBLE FUNK
AUGUST 6, 1986 WARNER THEATRE •Washington, DC

The mother of punk at a big show, but a $16 ticket price – I never saw so many geeks, fake freaks, arty poseurs, and suburban teen queens in my whole life – homeboys TROUBLE FUNK opened the show with their brand of drum heavy go-go music – the first twenty minutes were good to go but they began to get very repetitive as the guitarist tried to lead the crowd in a call and response chant, however white people just don't really get into it – TROUBLE FUNK seem to have lost something on their way up to the top – NINA HAGEN her band were hot, they somehow blend rock, punk, metal, techno, and opera into some kind of beautiful ear engulfing sound – her voice was like ten rolled into one, squeals, screeches, rumbles, growls, and operatic she changed outfits constantly, dayglo wigs, bondage wear, minis, maxis, metal breastplates with lights on the the nipple points they played very hot versions of ‘UFO’, WHITE PUNKS ON DOPE, SMACK JACK, a cover of Sweet's ‘BALLROOM BLITZ’, and a super freaked out version of Frank Sinatra's ‘MY WAY’ – but I do wished the guitarist played a little sharper, other than that, it was a fantastic show.

Shades – 1983 (or 84?)
By Mark Leach
Submitted by Sue Paleniuk

"I'm timeless." – Nina Hagen

Nina Hagen was born in East Germany in 1955.  She became a hippie in 1968 and also had her first religious experiences that year.  She became increasingly radical during the 1970's under the influence of Wolf Biermann and other activists. During this period she studied singing at the Studio For Music Entertainment, training an already compelling voice until it became a precision instrument.  She worked as an actress on TV and as a singer with pop bands, eventually becoming a huge popular success and a star, at least by East German standards.  Biermann, who had assumed the role if not the title of her step-father, was deported as an undesirable in 1976 and Hagen was allowed to leave soon after, having already been turfed out of the Communist Youth Association for her links with Biermann and other dissidents.  She lived in England for a time and became a close friend of Arianna of the Slits who introduced her to the principal players in the nascent English punk scene.  She lived in Holland too and became involved with the radical No-Name commune in Amsterdam and with Holland's rock superstar Herman Brood.  More recently she lived with musician Ferdinand Karmelk and he is the father of her child, a girl named Cosma Shiva.  Nina Hagen now lives in America and continues to record for CBS records, who have released three albums to date: Nina Hagen Band, Unbehagen and Nunsexmonkrock.

"I am on my way to becoming the first superwoman, the first female Buddha.  That is to become like Jesus, then you can walk over water and heal sick people in the name of Jesus." – Nina Hagen, Sounds July 3, 1982.

Nina Hagen and her band played three nights in Toronto at Larry's: a Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with the Wednesday off so Hagen could rest her voice. Early on the Tuesday evening I went to the soundcheck in order to set up an interview, but Hagen didn't come to the club until the show started.  Instead I talked to Julianna, Hagen's film and video director and the closest thing she has to a day-to-day business manager right now.  Between us we agreed Thursday afternoon would be the best time and that the interview would be at Hagen's hotel.  The Victoria Hotel is a rather innocuous looking structure, sandwiched between other buildings near the foot of Yonge Street.  It is not a particularly splendid or expensive hotel and I had never heard of it before.  The band hated it, and said so to Julianna.  She convinced them to stay at least that first night before moving to other more expensive accommodation by saying that Hagen loved the hotel because it reminded her of Berlin.  The guys in the band responded that they thought it was more like the Soviet Union, but they stayed.  The Victoria is, in fact, a European style hotel with one old cage-style elevator  and public washrooms and shower facilities down the hall for most suites.  When I found Hagen's room I asked her about Julianna's statement that the hotel reminded her of home.  Sher said no, she hadn't seen much resemblance.  I noticed that her room was spacious, unlike those shared by the band, and that she had her own bathroom.  I began to suspect that Julianna had learned a few tricks from Hagen's former management firm of Glotzer in New York.
 
Nina Hagen is charming and talkative but not really what could be classified as an easy person to interview.  Her mind darts about quickly, like a child who has difficulty thinking of more than one thing at a time and makes up for it by not thinking about anything for very long.  Hagen believes that we should all think less and pray more.  With her strong accent and less than complete knowledge of English coupled with her almost constant smoking of the herb, talking to Hagen was equivalent to interviewing the average Jamaican reggae star.  Just as well, therefore, that this was not a one on one interview because Hagen would wear out any writer working alone.  One reporter was already there when I came in and another writer and photographer arrived later.  We took turns asking our own favorite questions and Hagen kept handling them with ease, changing the subject when it suited her and ignoring questions occasionally.  I began to feel  that we were marauding Indians uselessly circling a wagon train and that our questions – whether they were shot, pitched, rolled or trickled towards Hagen – were hitting the mark about as often as the Indians' arrows did in all those western movies.  This is a typical example:

Shades – "Do you think you'll have more children? 

Nina Hagen – (whispers chidingly) I don't think.  God knows.

Shades – Would you like to have more children? Nina – I don't like, I love. 

Shades – Ok, would you love to have more children? 

Nina – I love children. 

Shades – I'll take that as a yes.

But there was good humor throughout the room because we were all fans of her talent and when we asked for autographs at the end she applied herself to the task with delight.  She said, though, that she didn't ask people she admired for autographs, "When I met David Bowie I didn't say give me an autograph, I said give me a kiss!"

Nina – "I'd had a hit with a German marching song that I'd done as a piss-take, so I showed up first on TV in East Germany with a band of longhairs, guys, and I was really freaky dressed and suddenly we were number one band.  And then I did many kinds of things, galas with orchestras, a show at the Entertainment Palace in East Berlin where they have ballet and many artists from foreign countries.  I was singing I Never Say Goodbye by Gloria Gaynor (laughter) and Motion Man by Tina Charles and Nashville City Limits from Tina Turner.  I was writing songs then but they'd didn't allow me to sing my own songs on TV.  It's like a censor, you have to give them the lyrics and they have to say yes or no. Shades – Did they ever say yes to one of your lyrics? Nina – Yes. One.  It was about sneezing and being ill and have a cough and laying in bed and waiting for the boyfriend to bring some candy.

Shades – Why did you decide to come to America?

Nina – I didn't decide. I didn't decide anything. It was God decides everything I do.  It was because I was in love with a junkie (Ferdinand) and I brought him to a hospital in Sussex, England.  And afterwards we wanted to go somewhere new.  And we had management for us, typical American management, Glotzer, and I signed a stupid contract.

The reason I didn't do an lp for so long is Glotzer management and CBS, they were fighting over some stupid contract.  I was sitting there with these wonderful ideas and wonderful musicians and always Glotzer would to to CBS and say she's not ready, she's pregnant.  I would love to have it when I was pregnant, it would be the holiest record in the whole wide world.  But he went to CBS and said I act crazy in interviews and only talk about God and religion and Jesus.  And those are the reasons he splits, because I went out of my mind, I'm a crazy bitch, I smoke pot all day long and I don't take that amount of cocaine like he does.  All those pigs! All those pigs gonna burn in Hell when they don't let me do do what I want to do, because it's the will of God that I have to do many albums. CBS even stopped pushing the album (Nunsexmonkrock) because of Glotzer.  That guy is ruled by the devil, he's trying to destroy my career. But now we are getting
good reviews, now we're sending good interviews to CBS so they can see that Glotzer is a big liar.  I have to clean up all my past, I have to show I'm pure.  Now I always visit CBS office wherever we are and show that we are touring and doing well without Glotzer management because Jesus is our manager.  I hope CBS will understand that I am outrageous talent and that everybody wants me.  I don't know.  CBS is a stupid Babylon company. (laughter).

Nina Hagen is in her element onstage, but then Nina Hagen is always in her element.  Maybe Nina Hagen is an element.  Hagen has gone through an extraordinary number of musicians in her bands; as she says, "I was always waiting for the right guys and I was always firing the wrong guys."  But there's nothing wrong with the band she has now, who are worlds away from the hack session musicians she worked with when she started.  Paul Baker on drums and Carl Racker on bass are an impeccable foundation and Steve Shift on guitar has a brittle style and the all-important faddish haircut. On keyboards is Richard S0hl who is well remembered by all fans of the late Patti Smith Group.  Bassist Racker, who is the only one of this band to play on the last album,has an intriguing habit.  In one break between songs early in the set he changes the bass from his natural right hand playing position to a backwards left hand position and plays it upside down – equally well – for the rest of the song before switching it back.  He does it again later in the night.  I am totally unable to come up with an explanation for this action.  Maybe Somebody Up There spoke to him?  The band played Antiworld, Smack Jack (for which there is a fine video), Taitschi-Tarot, Dread Love, Future Is Now, Cosma Shiva, and UFO all from the new album, plus African Reggae, My Way, Satisfaction, Glory Glory Hallelujah and a lovely straight version of Rivers Of Babylon.  Hagen dances a bit on the limited space of the club stage but saves most of the gyrations for her voice, which can soothe or irritate and provoke either love or hate not only within the confines of one song but within a single phrase or even one word.  They give us a lone set and two generous encores, then the whole band links arms and bows to the audience in the manner of a theatre company.  In truth, Nina Hagen uses her face almost as much as her voice to put across the songs and she is an actress as well as a singer.  She is really doing cabaret.  She compares herself to Marlene Dietrich and Hildegard Knef.  In twenty years she could still be doing it, maybe in Las Vegas or on TV.

Nina – (glances at the TV set which is off, and says) Archie Bunker.

Shades – Do you like Archie Bunker?

Nina – Not especially, but it's ok.

Shades – Do you watch any TV? Nina – Yeah.

Shades – What TV do you like?

Nina – I like Jim Bakker and Tammy Bakker (PTL Club)

Shades – You should phone them up sometime, that would be interesting, or appear on their show.

Nina – Yeah, I will call them.  I want to.  I think those people are pure.  Jim Bakker and Tammy Bakker and his family are pure.  I don't know about the 700 Club (another religious talk show), Pat and Ben the two guys (hosts), they are a little strange.  They say the I Ching and Tarot and Astrology was made by the devil, they shouldn't talk that much.  They should pray more and sing a little more, then think, sing a little more, then think.  That's a good slogan for Pat and Ben and the 700 Club.  We're going to do more with video and film and do our own TV shows but we only can do when we have some money and we don't have any money now because…this Glotzer is too stupid and (another pause) me too (chuckle).

From the Concise Oxford Dictionary: god 1. Superhuman being worshiped as having power over nature & human fortunes.  2. Image, animal, or other object, worshiped as symbolizing, being the visible habitation of, or itself possessing, divine power; an idol. 3. Adored, admired, or influential person. 4.(theatrical) Occupants of gallery.  5. (God) Supreme being, Creator & Ruler of universe (God, often the Lord God, Almighty God; God's (own) country, alleged description of the U.S. by Americans).

Nina – In the Tibetan death book they say when your soul goes out of your body from the ears then you go into a sphere where they dance and sing forever.  I think I've arrived there.  I think the last time I went out of my ears and next time I have to go out of my front and then I can go to God.  All my music is inspired by God.  By G O D, make a pyramid out of God. Don't write God only like a word like you would write any other word, write God like a pyramid.  Herman (Brood) also came out of his ears last time and that's why he has to sing every day.  Herman is what you call a real rock star.  He went throught so much shit and he's still playing everday somewhere. He was a big star in Holland and then afterwards he fell down totally and nobody wanted him anymore and he doesn't care as long as he can make music.  He's not on smack anymore, he's off it for one year now. 

Sometimes I think I'm alone in this world.  and then I think…then I start to think and that's wrong, because ther are more of us.  So I'm not alone.  Even though I think it sometimes, I know I'm not alone. David Bowie said that to me on one of his records, he said it directly to me, and I stole it from him and put it on the UFO song.  We are all one.  I just wish that in Germany they would understand that it's the same everywhere, the same pattern I mean, the same thing.  We are all one.

Shades – Do you have good memories of Berlin?

Nina – I love Berlin, I love East Berlin and West Berlin, I love every soul in  Berlin and there are many people in Berlin who love me like that too.  I haven't been back in years so when I go to Berlin they're gonna come and kiss my feet (laughs).  We gonna have a big party, a big laugh party.

 
There was an interview with Nina Hagen on CITY TV's news that same week that covered all her favorite topics: God, UFO's and the god-people who inhabit them, and herself.  After it was aired the two anchorpersons leaned back, shook their heads in bafflement and uttered their decision on Hagen's sanity, "E.T. phone home."  They seemed impressed by their own wit.  But despite Hagen's frequently wild statements, she is not in danger of being classified insane.  Prior to meeting Hagen I was convicced that her story of seeing God in a vision and being chosen by Him for a special purpose was a publicity ploy.  After an hour with her I came away certain of her sincerity and sanity, although I can't say that I saw any signs of encroaching divinity about her either.  But the I'm an atheist.  One final note before Hagen gets the last word: for the first time in two years my tape machine failed to record properly and Hagen's voice is a barely audible presence next to the recorded music that it should have wiped out. (Which is why her famous Los Angeles UFO story is not here: I couldn't decode it.)  It was a problem with the tape machine of course, or with the tape. But when you listen to that wavering disembodied voice talking about God, it's easy to imagine that, like a quasi-vampire, who sees only a dim reflection in their mirror, Hagen could be in mid-transformation to a less temporal plane, as she believes herself to be.

Nina – Jesus was the son of God. Jesus was a Buddha on Earth. He was one of them. 
I hope I gonna be one too.

Shades – I thought you already were?

Nina – (a very long pause, so long that another question is asked before she smiles shyly and answers me) Maybe.  I hope so..  I feel something very close to God.  (something indeciperable).  I already asked Steve Strange if he was the new messiah (laughter).  I wait for the religious revolution.  I try to make everyone feel that we are children and that we are wild and that we are ruled by God and that God is the most fabulous thing in the world.  All the other preacher men are bad teachers and nobody wants to hear about it, it's like when you to to school and you have history but your history teacher is totally asshole and you don't want to hear anything from him.  So I pray God for that He gave me the voice that I can go and tell them about it because I know Him personally from my first acid trip in 1978 and afterwards.  So I know he is there all the time.  And when we all want it, when we all believe it, then He can come.  He is going to come again, many times.  It's like David Bowie says, just for one day.  He can show He is there and how it is.  Even for three days or for seven days, just believe in it and it will happen, it just comes. But you have to give yourself, it's so easy. Shades – Have you given yourself up totally? Nina – Well, I could cancel the whole tour with that fucking voice (problem), but in the evening I go on stage and it's like nothing, it's totally ok, it's all in the head.  I just have to pray, I say Jesus you are the magician of magicians, you can heal my voice in ten minutes.  My voice gets thick in these smoky clubs but they, the god-people, they make their click and they can take it away.  I, as a human being, shouldn't think that much, I should just pray because that's what I'm created for.  Not to think.