Thursday, February 25, 2010

Bishop Stafford, meet Billy Gibbons

In a great book, now available for a penny on Amazon,
journalist Terry Mattingly (who gets extra credit for turning Bono onto Bruce Cockburn's and T Bone Burnett's music) masterfully tells the tale of how we was able to introduce Billy Gibbons of ZZ Topp to then Archbishop Stafford (now Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary in Vatican City) of Denver. They were in the same hotel lobby, decked out (rock star, and clerical vestments) in ways that might seem interchangably and equally bizarre to passersby:

Try hard to picture that scene. These two men are high priests in radically different churches...

We chatted for a minute,and then Gibbons set something that perfectly summed up that moment for me. You can consider this the 'mission statement' for this book, if you wish.

"Wait a minute,' said Gibbons. 'You went from interviewing people like me to interviewing people like him?'

"Yes I did, " I said. "It was an interesting career move."

...These were, you see, the two halves of my journalistic life.

Bishop Stafford, meet Billy Gibbons.
-Terry Mattingly, "Pop Goes Religion: Faith in Popular Culture," p xix
That's precisely where it's at!

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Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!