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TV Guide November 10, 1990
On the Inside Track
Rock Stars Get Socked With the Tough Questions
By Jane Marion
Grace Slick is wearing a pair of black leather boots and a t-shirt emblazoned with the image of a panda bear - the emblem of the World Wildlife Fund. Before an attentive audience, Slick, lead singer for Jefferson Airplane (now Jefferson Starship,) discusses her role as an animal-rights activist. Seated in the crowd is Olympic skier/lip balm queen Suzy Chaffee, who has her own line of fur-lined ski jackets. Chaffee stands and challenges Slick on what she feels is an obvious incongruity: "Isn't it a little hypocritical for you and the other animal activists to be wearing leather?" As the fur starts to fly, the show's host offers a wry commentary. "Get ready for mud wrestling at 8 o'clock," he says.
Is this the Morton Downey Jr. Show revisited? No, it's "The Inside Track with Graham Nash", an hour long music talk show on the Arts and Entertainment Network (A&E, Friday's, 10pm ET) hosted by one fourth of the legendary group CSNY. After all these years, the Woodstock warbler still believes he can change the world - and enjoys prodding people to get the ball rolling.
"What I want to do is stir up controversy and then get out of the way," says the 48-year-old Nash. Inside Track provides the perfect format. Recording artists such as Mick Fleetwood, Michelle Shocked and David Crosby sit on a bare stage and field questions from a studio audience, providing a forum in which the musicians can discuss and defend their political beliefs and debate topical issues. Sometimes this means dispelling - or confirming - rumors about drug use. Fleetwood, for example, offered revelations about his relationship with fellow Fleetwood Mac member Stevie Nicks and his cocaine addiction, while Shocked talked about the problems of the homeless and shared personal details of her experience in a mental institution.
Sometimes, unbeknownst to the artist, other well-known celebrities are planted in the audience, a la Chaffee with Slick, chosen for their interest or involvement in the subject at hand. Seated in the studio when David Crosby was a guest was actress Drew Barrymore, Crosby, who spent 11 months in jail on drug and weapons charges, fielded questions about teenage substance abuse from Barrymore, who's been very public about her own private battle with alcoholism.
To lighten things up a little, guests are also invited to perform. One coup that Nash has already pulled off was reuniting former lovers Stephen Stills and Judy Collins for the first time in 13 years to sing "Someday Soon."
The concept of Inside Track is modeled after a popular Soviet TV Show on which Billy Joel appeared while on tour in the USSR. Inspired by the program, Bob Meyrowitz of RBM Television Corp. co-produced a special with the same premise for A&E called "The Ring" telecast in December of 1989 and hosted by Graham Nash. Favorable critical response led to a commitment for a weekly series.
Meyrowitz decided on Nash after hearing a radio interview between Nash and comedian David Brenner. "I had known Graham as a musician," says Meyrowitz. "I had known him to be bright and involved with many causes, but I didn't know how funny he can be."
And unexpectedly hip, for a middle-aged rocker. During the taping of one of the shows., Nash turned to the audience and shouted, "How do you like this? I'm an emcee - MC Nash a new rapper."
But in addition to injecting a note of levity into sometimes serious proceedings, Nash never fails to exhibit a sense of concern and caring for his guests, a quality bred, perhaps, during the era in which he grew up.
"Remember: more monitor for Judy when she starts singing louder," he yells to the sound man during Collins and Stills' performance. And then, being simultaneously sensitive and silly without even realizing it. "Hold the photo session 'til Mick (Fleetwood) goes to the loo.
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