Michael Rock Had the Cringiest Interview With Rihanna Back in 2005
It physically hurts me to post this interview.
Back in the summer of 2005, Rihanna paid a visit to Fun 107. She was coming off of her first big hit "Pon De Replay" and was promoting her follow up called "If It's Lovin' That You Want."
I was cleaning out my home office over the weekend when I stumbled on a recording of the interview. Wow, I initially thought, This is pretty cool. But as I listened to it alone in my office, I became more and more embarrassed. The interview started off horribly and never got better, it just got worse and worse.
I'm not sure if I was super nervous to meet the surefire star, if it was just my inexperience (to be fair, it was nearly 17 years ago) or a mix of both, but I gave the worst interview of my career to the future billionaire singer. What a time to choose to fall flat on your face, huh?
First of all, I repeatedly butchered the pronunciation of her name and the title of the song.
The whole time I was talking to her I was trying way too hard to be cool, acting like we were fast friends. Basically, I was a complete embarrassment.
Maddie and Gazelle wanted to hear it, so we played some of it on the air this morning. I was mortified. At one point I screamed at my inexperienced self to "shut up, you moron" and called myself a "freakin' rookie."
Needless to say, Maddie and Gazelle loved every minute of it.
Here's just a part of the worst interview of my career (at least I hope it was). The time I totally blew what could have and should have been a career highlight.