Former The Howard Stern Show employee Stuttering John Melendez discussed Stern turning down appearing in a music video with Sting and KISS icon Gene Simmons in a new interview with Greg Prato on Songfacts. Melendez recently released a book called Easy For You To Say.
Songfacts: Let’s discuss the “Talk My Way Out of It” music video, from your 1994 album, Stuttering John. It had some great special guests in it.
Melendez: That was a trip – to get Sting and Gene Simmons in my video was awesome. The only person who was missing was Howard, who in his infinite wackiness – for lack of a better word – decided he couldn’t make an appearance, because as he told me, he might have his own thing going on with MTV.
This was the kind of thing that was a constant with Howard: everything revolved around Howard. He was a megalomaniac, and if we got anything – any offer – it was always because of Howard. Like, when I asked him if I could do my book, he said, “No, because I might have a book soon.” Everything was about Howard. And it’s unfortunate, but that just happens to be the case. Whereas you have a guy like Jay Leno, who is the complete opposite.
