Rodney on the ROQ

April 3, 2004

If you grew up in LA listening to KROQ, you knew who Rodney Bingenheimer was. Despite being tucked away in a horrible timeslot every week, he was always the station’s most influential DJ, breaking bands like Nirvana and Oasis before anyone else in this market (and often, the country). Quiet and unassuming, he was pretty boring as a voice on the radio but you could always tell he loved the stuff he was playing.

I was surprised to see ads for Mayor Of The Sunset Strip, because the idea of a documentary about Bingenheimer just seemed dull. What was there to talk about? Well, turns out there’s a bunch. The doc barely covers Rodney’s life as I knew it, thankfully. Instead, it focuses on Rodney’s years on the Sunset Strip, where he became the center of celebrity and became famous for knowing other famous people. It’s almost like watching Rock N Roll Forrest Gump, as Bingenheimer pops up constantly in photos and videos with the likes of the Beatles, the Doors, Hendrix, Bowie and Elvis, and eventually gets his own groupies and fans as a result.

The other real highlight of the documentary is the appearance of Kim Fowley, who is kind of like the bizarro-Rodney, a supergenius villain scenester who says he’s the original Mayor of the Sunset Strip. Fowley is hilarious and over the top, and there really should be a documentary just on him, and he provides a great foil to Rodney in the interviews.

Posted in Moving Pictures