By Alicia Powell
NEW YORK (Reuters) – American musician Moby looks back on his life in a new documentary, sharing the highs and lows of his fame including being so drunk he missed his mother’s funeral.
In “Moby Doc”, the 55-year-old opens up about his past substance abuse, animal rights activism and chart success with no.1 albums like 1999’s “Play” and “18” released three years later.
“The one moment in the movie that a lot of people I’ve spoken to seemed to be focused on is when I talk about being drunk and hungover and sleeping through my mom’s funeral,” Moby told Reuters.
“Oddly enough, my mom had this wonderful, twisted sense of humor. I think she would be really amused by that, maybe a little horrified. … In a way, especially like me being held accountable for that by strangers, I think she would think that’s kind of lightly amusing.”
Born Richard Melville Hall, the electronic dance musician also talks about his difficult childhood and discovering music. The film features concert footage, animation and an interview with filmmaker David Lynch.
“My headline is you can’t fix internal issues with external things. You can’t fix psychological issues, personal issues with fame or with success or with materialism or with external validation,” Moby said.
“And that’s really what I’m trying to show in the movie because I tried so hard for so long to fix my experience of the human condition with external stuff. And really, at the end of the movie, I’m just left in this place, like ‘oh, that didn’t work’.”
As well as the documentary, Moby is also releasing album “Reprise” this week in which he reworks past songs like “Go” and “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?”.
“Half of the record is comprised of songs that if I was a fan of mine, I would want to be on this record,” he said.
“And the other half are … more obscure songs of mine that I really love, that I wanted to redo with a gospel choir, with an orchestra, with a string quartet. And the record is so interesting because in a way, I’m the least visible person on the record.”
(Reporting by Alicia Powell; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Estelle Shirbon)
