 I'm Alicia Benjamin here for CalTV and I'm here with one of arguably the most iconic DJs in history Norma Cook aka Fatboy Slim ahead of his show tonight in Oakland. Let's say somebody has been under a rock for the past 30 years. Yeah. Who was Fatboy Slim? Fatboy Slim is a fictional character that I assume to allow myself to escape from reality for a few hours using loud acid house music, flashing lights, squelchy noises. Yeah, no, it's just my DJ and pseudonym. I make records. I used to make records, don't really anymore, and I travel around the world playing tunes to people and trying to make them smile and dance. The 90s are kind of seen as like a golden period for dance music and dance culture. Do you think that we're looking back at it with rose tinted nostalgic lenses or was that really the time and how does that compare to now? Oh no, I don't think you're looking through rose tinted glasses. It actually really was that good. Oh really? Yeah. It was fabulous. I mean, I don't know, but I would say it's still fabulous now. Yeah. I don't know that it was any better than now. I mean it was better for me because I was younger and you know and things were new and different. The way I see it is that like young people will always have this desire and or actual need to go out and get high and get laid and you know and dance and that's what young people do and probably from when we lived in caves people you know just weren't young people and so there's something quite timeless about it. There was this kind of more of a feeling of community and brotherhood and that we were kind of I don't know they were this new tribe. Yeah. But that was only just because it was it was new and it was different. Now people are the same tribe and you know clubbing I think clubbing is just as healthy as it ever was. A lot of people view you as one of the most influential DJs ever. What is your relationship with fame? With fame. Well it's nothing really to do with me being a DJ. It wasn't the reason I got into it. When I started DJing, DJing wasn't even a career. It was just like a hobby that people who bought a load of records did to finance their habit of buying records. I was doing really well until I met my wife. So now for you those Americans so he was like at the time the most famous TV she did the radio one breakfast show and when and I was kind of at the height of my career so when we got together we were like this sort of anti-power couple and with that came fame but what I really quickly noticed was before that I'd been sort of well known for being for the music I made and what I did but the only people recognized you were people who liked you and they come up and go I like your record or can I have an autograph or something like that. When you get famous everyone recognizes you whether or not they like you and that's not so quite so nice and it often is quite unpleasant and yeah I've never really chased that kind of fame. It's sort of every now and then it's a sort of a byproduct of being successful but it was I never wanted I never wanted to be famous. I wanted to be known. Interesting. So then I guess regarding fame obviously you are Norman Cook and then your as a performer like you mentioned before you are Fatboy Slim. Do you find that this binary ever creates I feel like there's no other way to say this like almost an identity crisis or have you ever dealt with? No no there's two different people there's Norman Cook and there's Fatboy Slim and Norman Cook's a 60-year-old responsible father of two who cares about the world and Fatboy Slim is an irresponsible palsy idiot who thinks he's 17 and thinks he can do what a 17-year-old does and it's quite good for me to separate the two and I never take Norman on stage with me because he's way too sensible and I try and keep Fatboy Slim out of my day-to-day routine because he's completely irresponsible and but there's a route there's like a ritual where a bit like Clark Kent going into the phone box. Oh really? Basically yeah when I put on the Hawaiian shirt and I take my shoes off. Transformation? Yeah and I have three red balls and my tour manager Alan slaps me. Oh yeah I was actually going to ask you about this. Then I come out as a different person and it but it's great because when the gigs ended I could take the uniform off and then I come back and have a quiet cup of tea and go to sleep and you know and I don't part your night like you used to. The only times I've had problems with when I was younger and I didn't know where Norman ended in Fatboy Slim began. So you've worked with so many amazing creatives and artists in your life musicians. Is there a common thread that you see through all of these people? Is there a common characteristic that all of these creatives share? Oh interesting question. I only really that they don't take themselves too seriously. And I don't mean they're like you know it's all a big joke to them. It's people who understand that what they're doing is creating fantasy and art and he's not real. I think the people that I've met in the music industry that I haven't gone with are the ones that actually believe in the bollocks that we sell and but all the people that I've it tends to be the more successful people are the cooler they are the nicer they are because they didn't get where they were without being nice and cool and it's the kind of people on the way up who can be. But I've worked with some of the most fabulous like David Byrne and Bootsy Collins and Iggy Pop and people like that. And they're all you know people say you shouldn't meet your heroes. I say you should and you should have them come live around your house for a few days because it's fabulous. Because they are really are they're just people who are very talented but also very beautiful souls and but very inquisitive and you know sort of questioning about how we can make the world a better place by painting it a slightly different color. My final question and obviously this would have to be something that is able to be broadcast but what is your wildest rave story or the wildest thing that you've seen at a rave that can be shared? Pretty much none of them can be shared. I saw I saw some stuff at menu mission I used to work at a club called Menu Mission in Ibiza and that was like the that was like the last days of the Roman Empire. Just naked women and drugs and dwarves and yeah. Wow. And I probably know some will remind me of a story that from menu mission. Yeah, yeah. They said you were DJing in the back room of menu mission about seven in the morning and a bloke came through with a bag of potatoes and he was giving potatoes out to everyone on the dance floor. So they said they said he gave you a potato and you hardly looked up from DJing you said thanks took the potato and you put it on the record that was playing and carried on mixing with the potatoes spinning round on the record that you were playing and later that that guy it was have got me on Instagram and he said I'm coming to the show tonight you know 25 years later I'm still going to see it and during the show somebody lobbed something on stage and then I saw it and I thought it was an egg and I looked at it and he'd throw me a potato. No way, amazing. I guess it was, I'm assuming it was him. It's just like a trend. I just picked it up and put it on the CGJ and made it go round again. Well thank you so so much for speaking with us this has honestly been amazing. So it was a pleasure. Thank you so much. Like I said, like I was telling you before when I was a student I used to do a fanzine and I used to find out the record company's phone numbers and phone them up so can I interview them? And some people were gracious enough to do it and it really I've always remembered that and it set me on my path to where I am today. So I hope it does the same for you and you so lovely speaking with you.