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The Last Interview
Billie Holiday: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
The first-ever collection of interviews with the tortured but groundbreaking singer Billie Holiday, part of Melville House’s beloved Last Interview series
Legendary singer Billie Holiday comes alive in this first-ever collection of interviews from throughout her career. Included is her last interview, given from her deathbed in a New York City hospital, where police were standing by ready to arrest her for a parole violation should she recover. Also The transcript of an interrogation by a US Customs official questioning about whether she'd violated her parole by using drugs on a foreign tour.
But the book is more than a look at just the famously tragic side of her life. In other conversations, drawn from music magazines, late-night radio programs, and newspapers across the US and Canada, she discusses her childhood, musicians who influenced her, her friendship -- and falling out -- with the influential sax player Lester Young, why she chose the gardenia as her symbol, why she quit Count Basie's band, her substance abuse problems, writing songs and whether she wrote her own memoir, and more.
In frank and open conversations, Billie Holiday proves herself far more articulate, aware, intelligent, and even heroic than the way she's often portrayed. This collection is an essential volume for all who have been moved by her music.
Legendary singer Billie Holiday comes alive in this first-ever collection of interviews from throughout her career. Included is her last interview, given from her deathbed in a New York City hospital, where police were standing by ready to arrest her for a parole violation should she recover. Also The transcript of an interrogation by a US Customs official questioning about whether she'd violated her parole by using drugs on a foreign tour.
But the book is more than a look at just the famously tragic side of her life. In other conversations, drawn from music magazines, late-night radio programs, and newspapers across the US and Canada, she discusses her childhood, musicians who influenced her, her friendship -- and falling out -- with the influential sax player Lester Young, why she chose the gardenia as her symbol, why she quit Count Basie's band, her substance abuse problems, writing songs and whether she wrote her own memoir, and more.
In frank and open conversations, Billie Holiday proves herself far more articulate, aware, intelligent, and even heroic than the way she's often portrayed. This collection is an essential volume for all who have been moved by her music.
144 pages, Paperback
Published July 30, 2019
12 people are currently reading
247 people want to read
About the author
Billie Holiday
85 books73 followersBillie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter.
Nicknamed Lady Day by her sometime collaborator Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz, and pop singers' critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." Her vocal style — strongly inspired by instrumentalists — pioneered a new way of manipulating wording and tempo, and also popularized a more personal and intimate approach to singing.
She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child," "Don't Explain," and "Lady Sings the Blues."
Nicknamed Lady Day by her sometime collaborator Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz, and pop singers' critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." Her vocal style — strongly inspired by instrumentalists — pioneered a new way of manipulating wording and tempo, and also popularized a more personal and intimate approach to singing.
She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child," "Don't Explain," and "Lady Sings the Blues."
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 12, 2022
A Career in Interviews
Review of the Melville House Publishing paperback (2019)
Although the so-called "Last Interview" is actually a ghost-written article by Billie Holiday's (1915-1959) collaborator William Dufty, it and the several other interviews collected here still provide a reasonable career overview of the iconic jazz singer's life. Dufty was also the actual writer behind the biography Lady Sings the Blues (1956), which Holiday acknowledges in another interview. The "Last Interview" is a prescient piece that asks for a better understanding of the issues behind addiction and that it be treated as a disease rather than a reason for persecution. Whether it is her own words or Dufty's the final statement is one of acceptance and defiance.
One of the transcribed 1956 radio interviews was never previously broadcast and is thus described as being "The Lost Billie Holiday Interview." You can now hear it on YouTube.
The excellent introduction by journalist Khanya Mtshali provides context and also further interesting information such as about the 19-year-old Holiday's first onscreen appearance in a 1935 film with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life (Holiday appears as the wronged woman at 3:16 and sings at 4:48).
I read The Last Interview and Other Conversations as my recent listening to the podcast Billie Was a Black Woman (2021) made me want to learn more about the life and career of Billie Holiday.
Review of the Melville House Publishing paperback (2019)
Although the so-called "Last Interview" is actually a ghost-written article by Billie Holiday's (1915-1959) collaborator William Dufty, it and the several other interviews collected here still provide a reasonable career overview of the iconic jazz singer's life. Dufty was also the actual writer behind the biography Lady Sings the Blues (1956), which Holiday acknowledges in another interview. The "Last Interview" is a prescient piece that asks for a better understanding of the issues behind addiction and that it be treated as a disease rather than a reason for persecution. Whether it is her own words or Dufty's the final statement is one of acceptance and defiance.
I hold no regrets and I carry no shame. Nobody can laugh or cry for you - you have to laugh or cry all alone. If my life was wrong or right - good or bad - it's still my life and what's about to happen - will happen just to me.The 8 interviews date from 1939 to 1959 and thus cover the peak years of Holiday's career from her recording of the groundbreaking anti-lynching civil rights song Strange Fruit in 1939 to her final illness and death during a hospital incarceration in 1959. Even with the aura of the tragic end of her life, her love and enthusiasm for music making shines through in all of the conversations here.
We're all the same, but we're different. What sings in you, sings different in me. It's all part of that great crazy game called living.
But when I leave this lump they call the world, I'm going to leave all my blues behind and walk off singing.
One of the transcribed 1956 radio interviews was never previously broadcast and is thus described as being "The Lost Billie Holiday Interview." You can now hear it on YouTube.
The excellent introduction by journalist Khanya Mtshali provides context and also further interesting information such as about the 19-year-old Holiday's first onscreen appearance in a 1935 film with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life (Holiday appears as the wronged woman at 3:16 and sings at 4:48).
I read The Last Interview and Other Conversations as my recent listening to the podcast Billie Was a Black Woman (2021) made me want to learn more about the life and career of Billie Holiday.
July 18, 2020
I chose to rate this book not on the content itself (as that would be unfair), but instead on the content that was chosen. I felt that some of the interviews were very much the same and offered very little additional information to her life. I, therefore found myself thinking I must’ve lost my page and was re-reading passages, when in fact, it was a different interview with largely the same content. Overall, still an interesting read and I did learn more about her, which was my goal.
January 7, 2022
Billie Holiday has been my idol and hero since I was a teenager, long before I knew her struggles and what she went through, I simply just loved her music and her voice. What I loved about this collection of interviews was for one, the introduction (by Khanya Mtshali) was stunning. It wasn't bloated and overlong like most introductions are; it got right to the point and really summed up Billie's essence as a woman who took ownership of her life, her mistakes, her shortcomings, and her tragic addiction, but also of her strength, her endurance, and her dignity. And what follows are the interviews that certainly do that, at least in small glimpses.
The issue, however, is the repetition of these interviews, which is no fault of Billie. Very quickly into reading one interview after another, you realize how literally the interviewer is asking the same question(s), and Billie is giving the same answers that she's done in other interviews. Again, no fault of Billie. For some reason, the interviewers didn't really ask her anything new. They just wanted to know how she'd define jazz, which artist influenced her style (Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith), and what's her favorite song that she's performed/sung. When those are really the only main things that they'd ask, well, of course Billie is only going to repeat herself. And the problem with these questions is that they're just not skin-deep enough, and if anything it really does bring to light how in Billie's time, she was either seen as a tragic case, or she was only defined by her music and songs, and that was that, with no substance or depth whatsoever, which is a shame because yes, she was certainly those things, but she was more than those things too. The very last interview is the only one in this selection that is really touching and quite the heartbreaker, it's the only time where we see Billie truly vulnerable, taking ownership of her drug addiction but also lifting up other drug addicts, that shouldn't be groundbreaking, but it was and still is.
Do I wish I got more out of this? Yes. It was kind of a letdown, as far as this Last Interview series go. I own a lot of them and I'd say this is the weakest of them because again, the interviews were lacking because the interviewers weren't asking the RIGHT questions to get a real good, interesting, and revealing interview out of Billie. Yet, how Billie's personality still shined. I also enjoyed the little annotations where Mtshali (I'm assuming?) lets us know that Billie was referring to that person or letting us know when/if some of the interview is missing because it's lost. You won't finish reading this book feeling like you've learned something new about Billie Holiday, but if anything, at least her heart is there, and my goodness, our Lady Day sure had a lot of it.
The issue, however, is the repetition of these interviews, which is no fault of Billie. Very quickly into reading one interview after another, you realize how literally the interviewer is asking the same question(s), and Billie is giving the same answers that she's done in other interviews. Again, no fault of Billie. For some reason, the interviewers didn't really ask her anything new. They just wanted to know how she'd define jazz, which artist influenced her style (Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith), and what's her favorite song that she's performed/sung. When those are really the only main things that they'd ask, well, of course Billie is only going to repeat herself. And the problem with these questions is that they're just not skin-deep enough, and if anything it really does bring to light how in Billie's time, she was either seen as a tragic case, or she was only defined by her music and songs, and that was that, with no substance or depth whatsoever, which is a shame because yes, she was certainly those things, but she was more than those things too. The very last interview is the only one in this selection that is really touching and quite the heartbreaker, it's the only time where we see Billie truly vulnerable, taking ownership of her drug addiction but also lifting up other drug addicts, that shouldn't be groundbreaking, but it was and still is.
Do I wish I got more out of this? Yes. It was kind of a letdown, as far as this Last Interview series go. I own a lot of them and I'd say this is the weakest of them because again, the interviews were lacking because the interviewers weren't asking the RIGHT questions to get a real good, interesting, and revealing interview out of Billie. Yet, how Billie's personality still shined. I also enjoyed the little annotations where Mtshali (I'm assuming?) lets us know that Billie was referring to that person or letting us know when/if some of the interview is missing because it's lost. You won't finish reading this book feeling like you've learned something new about Billie Holiday, but if anything, at least her heart is there, and my goodness, our Lady Day sure had a lot of it.
February 9, 2020
Bittersweet of course, like anything connected to Billie Holiday, but some of her charm shines through the addiction in many of these pieces.
July 5, 2023
Billie speaks and sings straight from the soul with such sincerity even a stone could cry. She captured me with a line from her autobiography, which is repeated in this book:
She didn't claim victimhood, as so many do; saying she just wanted to say her truth instead of receiving sympathy.
Heroin was her lover and her devil. Ultimately it was the drug and its illegality that broke her.
“You’ve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life."Raped at ten, selling herself for food at age thirteen, Billie didn't have much of a childhood. What she had was raw material for the blues. Just in case she forgot her pain, she kept inflicting it upon herself. Society helped.
She didn't claim victimhood, as so many do; saying she just wanted to say her truth instead of receiving sympathy.
Heroin was her lover and her devil. Ultimately it was the drug and its illegality that broke her.
They forget the laughter and the weeping I brought to people who waited for a voice to sing the happy and the crying songs they wanted so much to hear. They don’t remember the woman—they just remember the wreck. That’s how people are—they remember someone else’s misery to forget their own.Broke her, but not completely:
But when I leave this lump they call the world, I’m going to leave all my blues behind and walk off singing.
August 29, 2019
The book with the exception of an Introduction is a collection of several interviews with jazz vocalist known as Billie Holiday. Interviews include one that was never revealed until several years after her death because it was assumed that she was under some kind of drug influence. One interview was done by Mike Wallace from his Dumont Television network days. Yes, it does have the final interview taken about two days before she died in the hospital with the police at the ready to arrest her if she recovered.
I am not a fan generally of interviews because too much importance is given to some spontaneous comments. These can be of some interest but with the damper running.
This is one of many recently published books under "The Last Interview" series.
I am not a fan generally of interviews because too much importance is given to some spontaneous comments. These can be of some interest but with the damper running.
This is one of many recently published books under "The Last Interview" series.
January 1, 2022
Must read
One of my favorite series, The Last Interview takes you on a journalism journey in the life of a famous person culminating in their last ever interview. Arguably one of the best jazz singers of all time, Billie Holiday was a musical master who was plagued by demons in her childhood and later by failed attempts of the government to battle the drug epidemic. The last interview of Holiday was written in her own words two days before her death and shows her to be a poignant and insightful authority on her own life.
One of my favorite series, The Last Interview takes you on a journalism journey in the life of a famous person culminating in their last ever interview. Arguably one of the best jazz singers of all time, Billie Holiday was a musical master who was plagued by demons in her childhood and later by failed attempts of the government to battle the drug epidemic. The last interview of Holiday was written in her own words two days before her death and shows her to be a poignant and insightful authority on her own life.
Read
March 5, 2024This was a fascinating insight into Billie Holiday's character. I only wish there were more interviews, I want to know more! She spoke about her close relationship with her mother, her relationship with drugs, and the community of musicians she collaborated with. Now I'm going to obsessively watch her live performances on YouTube.
September 17, 2019
I was looking for resources for an interview unit for Journalism.
While Holiday's story is compelling, the interviewer's questions aren't much to work with. She just gives them the story, and they don't have to work for it.
While Holiday's story is compelling, the interviewer's questions aren't much to work with. She just gives them the story, and they don't have to work for it.
December 21, 2019
I didn't know that Billie Holiday took responsibility for her addiction. I admire her now on a personal level. Before reading this book, I thought she wallowed in self-pity. So sad that her candor didn't prevent her early demise and ruin.
August 26, 2023
I recommend The Last Interview series! Check on out at a public library near you!
February 26, 2024
Most interesting. So much about Billie Holiday I did not know. Such beautiful music coming from a woman struggling with so much sadness.
September 22, 2019
Great to read something in Billie Holiday's own voice. My heart broke for what she perceived people thought of her at the time-- that her drug use overshadowed her career: "They don't remember the woman - they just remember the wreck." It makes me wonder, is that all they saw her as in her time?? I certainly hope not. I hope she can look down now and see that that is not what her legacy is. I probably discovered her in the 90s and by that time her music is what was prominent, and the details of her life, the good and bad, came second.
It also shows a lot about how much the issue of drug use has changed. Indeed she was quite ahead of her time. Her last interview in 1959 was heartbreaking to read, to hear how she felt about how unfairly she was treated in her life, and how she still felt that drugs were her only escape. But she gives some real insight as to how things eventually changed and addiction problems are treated in more modern times: "I proved that the 'professional' people in the country know nothing about the human side of the drug addict and don't really give a damn about the problem. If they did, they would have found me, and others like me, and have helped us - instead of leaving us to the cops who think that when they pick up some 'users' they're cleaning up some garbage from the streets."
Her story is sad but beautiful, as many are. A great read to hear the real her, and not just who people at the time wanted her to be.
It also shows a lot about how much the issue of drug use has changed. Indeed she was quite ahead of her time. Her last interview in 1959 was heartbreaking to read, to hear how she felt about how unfairly she was treated in her life, and how she still felt that drugs were her only escape. But she gives some real insight as to how things eventually changed and addiction problems are treated in more modern times: "I proved that the 'professional' people in the country know nothing about the human side of the drug addict and don't really give a damn about the problem. If they did, they would have found me, and others like me, and have helped us - instead of leaving us to the cops who think that when they pick up some 'users' they're cleaning up some garbage from the streets."
Her story is sad but beautiful, as many are. A great read to hear the real her, and not just who people at the time wanted her to be.
May 28, 2020
A waste of my money
This book only had 1 interview that I never read and that was a trite and boring interview that Holiday gave after a trip to Europe I think this might be the last book on Holiday I ever buy . It’s not even a book it’s a compilation of interviews I’ve read in every book about Lady Day since I was a kid in the 1980s pl still can make a buck off Holidays name
This book only had 1 interview that I never read and that was a trite and boring interview that Holiday gave after a trip to Europe I think this might be the last book on Holiday I ever buy . It’s not even a book it’s a compilation of interviews I’ve read in every book about Lady Day since I was a kid in the 1980s pl still can make a buck off Holidays name
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews