This isn’t my first time trying to interview someone.
Back in the early ’90s, I was maybe 21, wired and completely unqualified. When my friend Marty Cavenaugh, better known as Blue, asked me to be the on-camera guy for his cable access TV show, Rock N Roll Cooks in Grandma’s Kitchen.
My first (and only) assignment? Interviewing Toad the Wet Sprocket.
I remember trying to read their EPK during the two-hour drive, scrambling to come up with questions that sounded smart but not forced. But when the cameras rolled… I froze.
Ashlee Simpson-on-SNL-level froze.
Nothing clever came out. I didn’t ask the good questions. I didn’t ask any questions for a while. I just sat there with that dead-eyed “what am I doing?” stare while the band politely waited for me to recover.
I never watched the footage. I don’t even know if it still exists. But that moment stuck with me. Because even though I failed, I knew I wanted to connect with people like that. Not through scripted nonsense, but through something real. I just didn’t know how to do it yet.
Fast-forward to now: different stage, different voice, different subject. But the heart’s the same.
Aaroncino is my way of returning to that impulse of sitting down with people who create things, tell stories, feed others, and shape culture. This time it’s chefs, bartenders, and winemakers. Not bands. But the rhythm is still there.
And this time? I’m ready.
Sort of.
