Stephan Jenkins: Rock Star in the Rapture

In the new film Rock Star, a tale of 80's Heavy Metal bands, Third Eye Blind lead singer/songwriter Stephan Jenkins plays Bradley, the lead singer for rival Steel Dragon tribute band Black Babylon. There is a hilarious parking lot scene in the film in which he and Mark Wahlberg go into total obsessed fan mode as they argue over whose wild costume is the most authentic and other Steel Dragon trivia. Jenkins says "It's like Tybalt and Romeo with a little West Side Story and Spinal Tap thrown in."

We found Jenkins to be very articulate and even poetic as he spoke about this first acting role, advice to new musicians and his music and tour experiences...including getting bitten by a fan.

Teenhollywood: You got to come on to Jennifer Aniston in a parking lot scene. Was that fun?

Stephan: It was hilarious but Brad was there. He was laughing so it was all good. Regard and respect, about me grabbing his wife's bottom, was understood so he let it go.

Teenhollywood: Did the producers approach you about the part?

Stephan: No. Mark (Wahlberg) approached me about it actually. He's a friend and I was doing a small benefit show in L.A. and I invited him over and he was talking about doing this film and asked if I wanted to play his friend. I was on tour with Third Eye Blind at the time and didn't have time so I ended up playing his enemy (with a rival tribute band). It's much more fun to swear and fight and whip each other then go, right on, man. I understand.

Teenhollywood: Did you advise the filmmakers on the music?

Stephan: No. I wasn't there, on my first film, to tell them how it's done. I was there to be one of the thespians. I did tell them some fun stories from my tour life but none that I can tell you here.

Teenhollywood: What was it like stepping on the set of your first film the first day?

Stephan: I had the flu. I was pretty wigged out and it was night and I had come off tour the day before. It was one of those total ass-kicking 24-hour flus. Then we got onto the set and it was really fun and creative once we were there. We were standing out there dressed ridiculously and we just got into the whole mess of it.

Teenhollywood: How different is the real rock world for you from what is depicted in the film?

Stephan: Oh, it analogous. It's the same thing...I'm kidding. Well, here's what's similar. There is something about being a rock star that is enveloping. There's this world of 20 people that you are surrounded by all the time and that's it. They're there to keep everybody else out. You move around in this seductive world and at times and in ways, it can be corrupting. It's funny that it's corrupting because you are doing something that is, for me, totally and completely redeeming. I've been redeemed by a good tune.

Playing live, I'm sort of 'in the rapture.' Reaching people with music, there's something really pure about that and then you come offstage and you are in this world. It's corrupting and it makes you crazy.

Teenhollywood: It's a really wild lifestyle shown in the film.

Stephan: Well, you know, people, when they're young, are gonna try and have sex with each other and take drugs and be bong-heads and drink beer. They're gonna do it and movies aren't gonna tell them to.

Teenhollywood: Is being a rock star what you thought it would be when first starting out?

Stephan: I thought our first album was gonna be this little critics' record and sell 300 thousand copies. I didn't know it was gonna go out and sell six million records and we were gonna tour around the world and have that happen. That was beyond my scope and then it starts rolling along and things just accrue and it's like "Oh, I'm here and David Bowie is on the side of the stage." That took me out. "Wow, I'm walking on the moon." Then you get into that.

Teenhollywood: Are you coping okay?

Stephan: I think our first album came out in April '97 so it's been a little while and now we're beginning the recording of our third record and I think all of us in the band have a real sense of what it's really about for us and where we want to go. I feel really happy, in this good place and totally consumed and interested in rock music.

Teenhollywood: Even today when a lot of it is "pop" like the 'N Sync phenomenon?

Stephan: Well, it's all in the hands of the heretics and infidels right now (laughs). What can I tell you. They do their thing and they bring joy to people and it's so hilarious that journalists get mad at them for being 'N Sync. Let 'um. Rock on. Do your thing. I'm not here to judge people. To put things in a box is silly.

Teenhollywood: A musician in the film talks about being responsible and getting to bed early. Would that be you?

Stephan: I'm really a morning person. I like to get up in the morning. I wake up like a shot and I just wanna go and hit it. I have a lot of energy but when I'm on tour, you come off stage and it's midnight and then you cool down for a little while and events go on until three or four in the morning and you get to bed so it puts you into this whole different rhythm and it's not my natural rhythm but I still enjoy touring. You come back and it's hard. Just sitting in your room playing PlayStation 2. Just working it out.

Teenhollywood: Where is home for you?

Stephan: San Francisco.

Teenhollywood: Is that where the whole band lives?

Stephan: Brad, our drummer, lives in L.A. But, we're building a studio in San Francisco. I like Los Angeles and live down here part of the time but it's hard to keep your soul in line here.

Teenhollywood: What's it like being onstage when fans are screaming or singing along?

Stephan: It's erotic. There's something about the immediacy of exchange and the possibility that things are going to go out of control and that we don't have full control over this thing. The other guys in the band will feel it and there will be that empathy there. There's the sense, when you play, like you're making a connection with people and there's a rapture to that.

Teenhollywood: How about acting. Did that give you the same feeling?

Stephan: Well, I'm here promoting a film but I wouldn't trade places at all. I really enjoyed playing a band member but I'd rather be one.

Teenhollywood: What was your most weird encounter with a fan?

Stephan: A fan came up to shake my hand and she took my finger and put it in her mouth and bit me. I took her chin and got it out. I'm a bit of a germ freak myself and I'm like 'did she break the skin?' cuz we're gonna have to cut off her head and do tests. Just somebody who wanted to really make a connection I guess. And then some people do naughty things. They write on body parts and show you...all in good fun.

We make music for misfits. I'm somebody who doesn't feel like I fit in and I don't want to try. I've embraced that and that makes some connection to people. We move in locked step these days and I don't wanna. So, there is some sense at our shows that they're for those who want to freak freely and I support that.

Teenhollywood: When you were younger was there any band or singer that you were totally devoted to like Mark's character is in Rock Star?

Stephan: The Police. The first couple of Police records to me were so exotic and so cutting through. And Bob Marley, I heard his beat and my interior landscape opened up. Bob Marley, The Police and the early Prince records and always Led Zeppelin. Every time I hear them it's still thrilling to me and still dark and muscular and sexy and kick ass and they're hated by critics and I love that.

Teenhollywood: What happens when you hear them like on the radio?

Stephan: It always gets turned up but so does that daft punk jam that's goin' on now (starts singing).

Teenhollywood: Any advice for people trying to get going in music?

Stephan: Follow the sound that's in your head and don't listen to anybody else about it at all, ever, ever, ever. Don't dance on the tables for anyone. Just pay attention to that sound because it's a totally consuming process and you'll never hear it fully and completely. It's always going to elude you a little bit. Find out if you have one (a sound). Because, if you don't and you really just want to wear the clothes and get in the bus then skip it because pretty soon everyone's gonna know including you and that would be a bummer. Follow it with the conviction of a 12th Century religious zealot on a quest.

Teenhollywood: Did you like the film Almost Famous?

Stephan: I loved Almost Famous. I was nostalgic for a time that I never experienced. There's a line, "Your everlasting summer, you can feel it fading fast" and that's how I felt as that movie went along. I liked it also because it went on its own rhythm. I like films that are just being their own thing. I think that's what Rock Star is. It's telling a story about what happens when you get what you want through this nostalgia of (presenting) a world where getting what you want is utterly insane, in this case '80's Metal.

Teenhollywood: Do you have what you want?

Stephan: No. But I'm getting it.

At this point everybody in the room starts singing "You don't always get what you want...but you get what you need."

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Interviewer and writer Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.