Luther Vandross once told Barry Krutchik the meaning behind his middle name: Ronzoni (yes, like the pasta). Vanilla Ice was the first cover story he ever wrote, and he was paid $200. R. Kelly revealed the time he almost fainted when he met his idol Stevie Wonder in the men’s room, and he sang for him on the spot.
What’s a person to do with so many spoken treasures — verbal gems collected over a lifetime of interviewing celebrities? During the pandemic, when life slowed to a standstill, Krutchik decided to move into high gear and compile his sessions into a book: “Classic Conversations: ’90s Hip Hop & R&B.”
Krutchik has lived a “crazy, interesting,” celebrity-filled life, one that he could never have imagined growing up in North Miami Beach, Florida. After attending college in the Midwest, he decided on a whim—responding to what he called a gravitational pull — to move to Los Angeles. He had big plans to be a screenwriter . . . until, he explained, “reality stepped in and you kind of have to go with it.”
He was 21 and scored a lucky break at his first job at Mom’s Saloon in Brentwood.
“There was a bouncer there, and he commented that I knew every song that they played,” said Krutchik. “He said, ‘I work at a music magazine during the day. They’re hiring. You may want to check it out.’”
That magazine was HITS Magazine, and Krutchik was hired by the marketing department.
“I’m the only one there with a college degree,” he said. “Everybody’s in a band. Everyone’s got long hair. It’s the late ’80s. It was a magazine founded by guys who were in the radio promotion industry. I was taking phone calls from BB’s Records in Detroit to see how many units they moved of Luther Vandross’s record — we were creating charts. That was my start in the entertainment industry. I got sidetracked into the music industry by this magazine.”
The beginning of his career started off with a bang. Celebrities like Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire would stop by the office. Not long after, another friend who was doing interviews with rock and movie stars called with an opportunity: an employee at their small production company, LEG productions, was fired without notice.
“That was my start into interviewing high-profile artists,” Krutchik said. “It was for syndicated radio programming, which was different than print, so I had to mic people up and find a quiet area. For an hour or more I would talk to them about their new record, movie or television show. Back then, you had to book the interview, do the interview, cut the interview.”
“I’m a 21-year-old kid, and I’m interviewing Martha Reeves, Doris Troy, the original ’50s, ’60s hit makers,” he continued. “I interviewed Little Richard, The Temptations, The O’Jays, Glen Campbell, Vanilla Ice, Stevie Wonder. You learn how to do an interview. I was doing five to 10 interviews a week. You get thrown in, and it was crazy, fun and a learning experience. I’m at the Stevie Nicks EPK shoot and the Phil Collins album release party at Spago.”
Krutchik credits his parents with his love for music, movies and mayhem.
“My mother had such a passion for music that indirectly it must have been instilled in me,” he shared. “My dad always used to hang up the phone and say, ‘Have fun.’ My joke is, you should have said, get a job. But I went the fun route, and it hasn’t disappointed since.”
For a kid born in Brooklyn and raised in Florida, who never thought they would be hobnobbing with the stars, Krutchik has made it. He was the former head of talent relations for Premiere Radio — the world’s largest producer of audio content at the time and which is now the production arm for iHeart — and spent a decade immersed in Hollywood’s movie junket circuit. He is a founding member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (now Critics’ Choice) and remains an emeritus member of its film branch.
After sitting on the sidelines for years — booking instead of interviewing — Krutchik shared his comeback story. A few years ago, he got a call from a publicist saying, ‘I’d love for you to interview Lady Gaga.’”
“I remember saying to them, I haven’t done an interview in 20 years,” said Krutchik. “They’re like, ‘We know, your name is on the approved list. Will you do it?’ That was a big year because she was doing House of Gucci. She was up for Grammys with Tony Bennett. I went, and they give you 6 minutes in a room with Lady Gaga. I walked in, and it was like riding a bike. We laughed. We cried, literally, she laughed and cried in the interview. I walked into the hospitality suite, and there were two young publicists, and they said to me, ‘You were the best interview today.’”
During the pandemic, Krutchik began digitizing his interviews. As he was listening, he could not help but think, “I’m sitting on gold. People should hear this.”
“That was my superpower,” he said, “being able to sit in a room and just have a conversation. When you’re listening to the TLC interview, and they haven’t had a hit yet. They just had ‘Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg’ and that wasn’t the biggest hit. They’re so fun, and they don’t know what they’re doing. But they do. I’ve been having a lot of fun because at the end of every one of my interviews I always ask the future question. For every R. Kelly, TLC, Jay-Z or Vanilla Ice, there’s probably 10 artists that that were on majors that just never made it. And that’s an interesting story, too.”
Along with his book, which was released in 2025, Krutchik has been posting his old interviews with celebrities like Paris Hilton, Marilyn Manson and Luke Perry and Courteney Cox when “Friends” was No. 1 on his YouTube channel.
“I literally am sitting on over 1,000 digitized interviews in all genres,” he continued. “I can do a classic conversation book on comedians with John Candy, George Carlin, Mel Brooks and Bobcat Goldthwait. When it came time to write a book, I was like, I have to go with 90s hip-hop and R&B because BET has been my client for 22 years. I get to look back, and I didn’t realize how special it was at the time. I think my next book is going to be guitar gods, because I have great interviews with Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Peter Frampton. I don’t think classic conversations is going away.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.argonautnews.com ’
