My JW bibliography

A small consolation for a bye week.

I’ve been on vacation this past week in Colorado—spending quality time with my parents, siblings, in-laws, and many nephews and nieces. And while I spent a lot of that time talking about John Williams and my book (probably too much time), I didn’t get a chance to compose a new post for this week. I apologize!

But, I don’t want to leave you completely empty-handed, so I thought I’d go into the “vault” and share some of the many published articles and radio stories I’ve done about John over the years. This might be a lazy or just obnoxiously self-indulgent exercise, but if nothing else it does show just how long I’ve been obsessed with this man and finding ways to write about him.

I’ll spare you the first published piece I ever wrote about him—a report of my trip to watch him conduct at Tanglewood in 2007. It’s cute in its own way, but also pretty embarrassing. I’m also not going to share the research paper I wrote about him in college… yeesh. (Other things—like concert program notes—are not readily available online, probably for the best.)

Here, then, is a sampling of my personal John Williams bibliography.

• Nov. 9, 2013: Montages radio feature (Classical KUSC)

This was the first time I ever interviewed John, a phone call of which I shared a snippet in a previous post. One of my greatest gigs just out of grad school was producing radio features for Classical KUSC and their (now extinct) Saturday morning magazine, Arts Alive. That show gave me an excuse to interview many, many cool artists over the years—and, perhaps most importantly, provided my introduction to John.

• Oct. 17, 2015: When John Williams Can't Go, Whom Does Spielberg Call? Thomas Newman (NPR)

This was an interesting moment—the first Steven Spielberg film since The Color Purple (in 1985) that needed to be scored by someone other than John Williams. Thankfully he was available for a quick phone interview about the unique situation, and about his ties to the Newman clan. (This was also when I learned that Thomas Newman orchestrated a cue in Return of the Jedi.)

• Dec. 18, 2015: John Williams on ‘Force Awakens’ score: ‘I felt a renewed energy, and a vitality’ (L.A. Times)

This one was huge for me. I had 30 minutes (on the phone) with John to discuss Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I wasn’t crazy about the movie or the score (although the music has certainly grown on me), but this was the most expansive audience I had yet with the man, and he gave me some incredible insights and quotes that I’ve carried with me to this day. This article ran in the same edition of the paper that also featured my interview with Ennio Morricone—a magical confluence that I have framed and hanging on my office wall.

• Dec. 13, 2017: Here’s Why ‘Duel of the Fates’ Transcends the Star Wars Prequels (Vulture)

An appreciation of this all-time banger from The Phantom Menace, pegged to the release of The Last Jedi. I remember I originally concluded this essay with a cringey bit of memoir about wearing a Qui-Gon Jinn tie to church, etc., which Vulture mercifully cut.

• March 2, 2018: Perspective: How much gold can lie in 45 Oscar losses? In the case of John Williams, the answer is: Tons (L.A. Times)

I thought it would be fun to point a spotlight on John’s abundance of Oscar-nominated scores… that lost.

• July 18, 2018: John Williams’ early life: How a NoHo kid and UCLA Bruin became the movie music man (L.A. Times)

I’ve mentioned this article more than once, but it was the first time I interviewed John’s two brothers—Jerry and Don—as well as his high school bandmate, Perry Botkin, Jr.
John himself did not participate, and I also heard he wasn’t thrilled that his brothers had spoken about him for the piece (there was a long, complicated history of family members occasionally speaking to reporters that I think reinforced John’s distrust of the press and his robust desire for privacy), but it opened the door to his family in ways that would pay dividends down the road.

• May 31, 2019: Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Opens With A Cosmic Soundscape Bringing It To Life (NPR)

I didn’t interview John for this, but I did get to visit the Imagineering facilities AND tour a new Disney land before it opened. A fun piece to work on—even if it continues to baffle me why John kept wanting to write music for Disney’s Star Wars side pieces.

• Aug. 24, 2019: John Williams And Anne-Sophie Mutter, 2 Geniuses For The Price Of One (NPR)

This was the longest, most substantive interview I had with John yet—and the first one I ever conducted in person (so, technically, the first time we ever met). I also got to sit on the Sony stage and watch him conduct great music from some of his most popular films. I wanted to take a more interesting tack than just having him and Mutter promote their new album, so I angled the conversation toward his background as an arranger… a line of inquiry that helped me a lot when I started researching the biography.

• Dec. 8, 2021: Steven Spielberg’s Eternal Quest for Song and Dance (The Ringer)

One of my JW-related obsessions is Hook, and I was always fascinated by the fact that it was almost a full-blown movie musical. I uncovered some cool trivia working on my book early on, including a cassette tape of the opening Neverland number, and I worked some of that into this essay which nicely tied the film’s 30th anniversary to the release of Spielberg’s West Side Story. (Those long-rumored, almost mythological songs subsequently came out in a fabulous album from La-La Land Records.)

• June 10, 2022: The theme to 'Jurassic Park' hasn't aged a day (NPR)

In which I spoke to Jeff Goldblum about the Jurassic Park score and how he often does a rendition of the theme with lyrics at his jazz concerts. (In my career as a professional Wish Fulfilling Nerd, I’ve managed to interview Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Sam Neill about the movie that started it all for me.)

• Feb. 27, 2023: John Williams and Steven Spielberg: Sometimes friends take it personally (L.A. Times)

By the time The Fabelmans was up for an Oscar, I was regularly interviewing John at his studio—so getting him for the L.A. Times wasn’t difficult. But this was the first time I ever interviewed Spielberg; it was a very brief but very fun phone interview, and at the end I brought up my book (which I had already been trying to get him for), and he told me he would definitely speak to me again for that, and for much longer than ten minutes. I was elated—although it took 10 additional months to schedule the book interview, and in the end I got less than an hour with him.

• Sep. 25, 2023: The Force Is with Him (Alta)

I also interviewed John for this essay about the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney Concert Hall. It nicely dovetailed into conversations we were already having for the book about his patient efforts to break down the iron wall that divided the “serious” concert hall and film music, and about how cruel and dismissive so many classical critics had been to him over the years. He really disliked aspects of this article once he read it, and it led to an intense conversation—even though I’m still proud of the piece. I’m sure I’ll share more about this down the road.

• Nov. 14, 2023: How composer John Williams found that the ‘Indiana Jones’ sequel was his own destiny (L.A. Times)

Another new score, another Oscar nomination. These interviews—with John and director James Mangold—helped inform the latter part of the book, and it was interesting (and so very cool) to be interviewing John with the ink still wet on new film scores by him.

• Feb. 8, 2025: John Williams’ Wonderful Life (The Legacy of John Williams)

I wrote this sentimental tribute for my friend Maurizio Caschetto’s wonderful website on the occasion of John’s 93rd birthday. The responses were extremely gratifying; Jenny Williams sent a very nice compliment and said she was going to share it with her dad… although I’m not sure whether he ever read it.

See you all next week for a fresh new installment! In the meantime, please feel free to ask me any questions about the book, or John Williams, or to make requests for future topics. I will hopefully have more news about the book and various events quite soon.

70 days to publication!