By Matt Wenzel
Today, I had the honor of meeting two-fifths of the Dave Matthews Band: drummer Carter Beauford and Matthews himself.
As an intern, I've sat in on some interesting interviews — with Bow Wow, Day26 and director Harold Ramis, just to name a few — but none seemed to have Matthews and Beauford's brand of charisma.
They seemed genuinely friendly and happy to be there, joking and laughing during the whole interview, which lasted for almost an hour. They both spoke with great wisdom and detail, describing how their upcoming album Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King got its name and how late DMB sax player LeRoi Moore affected the LP's production. Matthews sang, did impressions and was very funny and interesting to talk to. And it wasn't just for the cameras — before they started rolling, Matthews and Beauford had an interesting conversation about where Dave thought the sound of his iPhone's ringtone might have been sampled from.
Although we're sort of taught not to be, I was more starstruck during the interview than I had been around any other celebrity I have come in contact with while working here at MTV News. It might be the fact that I'm a fan of theirs, it might be a respect thing as a musician (I noodle around on the guitar in my free time) or it might be the fact that I listen to them more than anyone else I've seen here so far, but I was as giddy as a schoolgirl when Dave and Carter came in.
