Setting the scene: 1966, a 20-year old Steve Martin and his roommate Phil Carey get into Martin’s VW bus to drive from Los Angeles to New York, where Carey will interview Aaron Copland.
“Three days after we left Los Angeles, Phil and I arrived at Aaron Copland’s house, a low-slung A-frame with floor-to-ceiling windows, set in a dappled forest by the road. We knocked on the door, Copland answered it, and over his shoulder we saw a group of men sitting in the living room wearing only skimpy black thongs. He escorted us to his flagstone patio, where I had the demanding job of turning the tape recorder on and off while Phil asked questions about Copland’s musical process. We emerged a half hour later with the coveted interview and got in the car, never mentioning the men in skimpy black thongs, because, like trigonometry, we couldn’t quite comprehend it.”—Steve Martin, Born Standing Up, 2007