“what shall I get Gil Scott-Heron  for a present” asked the  radio 4 producer at our meeting in Southbank Centre.  I’d never known a BBC producer to get an interviewee a present before.  It was nearly  spring , February  09 to be exact, so  I suggested a pair of ray bans. (You can hear the documentary  by clicking here.)

Cut to a month later and  we are waiting  in a flea bitten pit of an  hotel in Times Square, New York.  It is difficult to explain how bad this hotel actually was.  A situation made all the worse by how good it seemed to the producer who'd booked it .  Itching:  I woke early  the first day.  The doorman gave a wise guy snigger    “hey man  there was a police bust last night.  Prostitute robbed a john  in the hotel.”   I wanted to tell  him I was a resident but he already knew that. " see that  black man over there" I looked "drug dealer" he said  if I needed anything. 

So this is where the young BBC producer thought to interview one of the greatest poets of his generation. It's also  where we were staying – why didn’t I check out there and then? .   After three days of interviews (chuck D and more) around New York finally Gil knocked at the door :  I was intensely embarrassed.    Gil arrived with his smile and open spirit as ever.  He avoided no questions and answered with clarity and humour, wit and intelligence deserving of the man.    The interview rolled on for at least one and an half hours.   With the interview  declared over  I thanked Gil and then the producer,  in grand ceremony gave  Gil  (a recovering addict)  his present – a large bottle of whisky.  

I am a black man. I am a human being. I am a collection of molecules. I am an Ethiopian. I am a British man.  I am a poet. I am a broadcaster.  I am a guy who grew up on the dark side. I am an expert.   I am a fool.   Of all those things I   can tell you that of all things  a bottle of whisky...  a bottle of whisky!!  The last time I met Gil was for another interview and that was for a documentary I made on The Last Poets whcih also includes Martin Luther King and JFK. You can hear that brodcast  by clicking here) . 

Today I have the album in front of me. I have had it for a week now.  The photograph on the front is a close up of half his Gil's face  sucking on a cigarette with eyes closed as he concentrates  on the drag.   Besides the title “I’m New Here” and his name “Gil Scott-Heron”  near the tip of the cigarette   the letters "oro".  It’s clearly of one of America’s most famous brands “Marlboro.”  Cool?     Addiction is always looking for someone to blame. 

During the first documentary I mentioned at the top of this post  (broadcast April 09 Radio 4)   Gil  announced  this forthcoming album.        I am about to listen to it,  the album of a great man who hails directly from the line of Langston Hughes, a man who  if he didn’t release  another product would have done more than a thousand  men:   A simple man in a complicating  world who just wants to play something  and maybe say something.  Certain things.