Sam – who was Billy's faithful driver, because Billy just shouldn't have been driving, and quite rightly paid to have someone drive him. Anyway, after we came back Sam said, "Night and Day. Big difference, let me tell you." It was noticeable that Billy was welcomed back. I have a great picture of him wearing one of his dad's suits, in the apartment for the first time in years, after his step-mother had died, and there's this picture behind his head of his sister and her daughters. It's like he's wearing a crown of his family and he's got such a look of triumph. [Laughs.] I love that picture. I always just loved it when he was relaxed. Mary Lou Lord put up a video of me and Billy just hanging out in his apartment, and I can't really hear what we were saying, and Mary Lou was there filming. People got a real charge out of the wild-man Billy, and so I was really charmed by seeing him in that video. I don't know even what we're saying to each other in that video, it seems like there's a certain amount of cutting up. But, you know, he just looked so relaxed, and I know it was probably 4 in the morning -- I still can't stop keeping Billy hours. But I loved seeing him relaxed in that video, just puttering around his pad, playing a song that had caught his attention, talking about some little chunklet of art or music that he found engaging.
You could never tell Billy about anything. It's my job to put people onto new things, not Billy: I don't think I turned Billy onto anything. I asked other people – I asked Mary Lou, who has turned me on to lots of things, and she said, "No, not so much." Billy did all his discoveries on his own, and then he'd bring them to you. If you already knew then you could bond on it. Billy ran the show. He wouldn't let you play music if you were driving him, unless he brought it. "Turn that down, please!" Ha! If you did bring something he liked, he'd start dancing on your lap, and it was a wonder you didn't die!
