KROQ: "...(Kid A) shocked a lot of people by debuting as the number one album in America because it's like the strangest number one album like in forever, right? (laughter) Were you surprised to see the Grammy committee getting into this one as much as they got into the last one?

Ed: "Absolutely!

KROQ: "... 'cause they're not really known for really stretching the boundaries in a lot of those categories, like, uh, Album of the Year...

Ed: "We were... I was talking to a journalist, I think from Spain, about a couple of weeks ago, and he said, you know, the one thing that he's really heartened by the fact that he was seeing how many albums Kid A was doing a week, and it was like doing ten thousand, and he says that's great, it's like ten thousand items of weirdness being sold everyday. So, I mean, yeah, of course, it's bloody bizarre!

KROQ: "So when you made it, you knew it was such a radical departure from what everybody was listening to and does it surprise you that it has found the success that it has?

Ed: "The trouble is, we were in the studio for a year and a half so you kind of lose it a bit, in terms of like everything... by the end... you know... so to us it sounded like a very highly commercial, um straight set... (laughing)

Colin: "We already had the ad deals lined up with the various car companies and such (mumbling, laughing)...

KROQ: "You didn't realize how bizarre it was gonna sound to the rest of us...

Colin: "Well, when they didn't return our calls... (laughing)

KROQ: "Now when you were nominated for Album of the Year, which is the biggie, they invite you to perform on the show, right? Will you be singing on the show tomorrow night?

Ed: "No, they didn't invite us, I don't think.

KROQ: "Is that right?

Ed: "No... We wanted to do it in , when was it, in '97, we were like yeah' you already played us, we were a bit stupid really, and they came back and said, oh no we don't want you to play, you're nominated, but we don't want you to play.

KROQ: "Is that right?

Ed: "Yeah...

KROQ: "Well, that's a surprise, 'cause I saw just in the paper this morning that Paul Simon, has now signed on... he's gonna be performing in the show tomorrow night... I guess his album's nominated in the same category. But Radiohead doesn't get to play... huh?

Ed: "Well, Phil's flying out today... there's Phil, Colin and myself... we could maybe do your bass odyssey...

KROQ: "Well, there you go...

Ed: "... . .uh, no.

KROQ: "That's strange! What do you think is behind that? I mean, why wouldn't they ask you to play?

Ed: "Probably cos we're viewed as being temperamental, moody

Colin: "fuckers

Ed: "bastards, you know (laughter)

KROQ: "That could have a little something to do with it

Ed: "They might not want to throw us into the pot, you know, it's probably a bit safer... (laughing)

KROQ: "to just keep you out of it...

Ed: "Yeah... listen, we'll have Eminem... we don't want those Radiohead

KROQ: "Yeah, he's safer,, no controversy there... . So the last time we talked to you when you came out, you were doing various things, you had Saturday Night Live, you did a show in New York and you did the show that people still talk about at the Greek... I hear that was apparently amazing... and then what?... nothing?... You just literally went back home and hung out?

Colin: "We had three months off to recover from doing three concert shows in America (laughing)

KROQ: "... somebody has to be the person in the group who wants to get out and do more... you can't all feel like this is a good plan...

Ed: "No, ... it's a great plan... look, we've had a number one record, we've done two dates in the US. What if we do no dates... you know, maybe we'll just...

KROQ: "do better!

Ed: "... we'll do even better! Exactly!

KROQ: "For a lot of bands, there is somebody who likes to play, who likes to get out who likes to... nobody in the band does?

Colin: "No we all love it. I mean, it's like we all like doing it, really... (Ed in background: no we don't, we're just lying) (laughing) ... trying to be consistent...

KROQ: "Don't be consistent... say whatever you want to say... you hate it? Do you hate playing in front of crowds?

Ed: "We just don't like doing our job anymore, we just try to put it off as much as possible. (laughing)

KROQ: "Are you going to eventually just fade away into doing nothing...

Ed: "Well, we're doing nothing at the moment, really... so we can't really fade away...

KROQ: "Well, you just put out an album so you can do just nothing for a little while...

Ed: "Well' we've got another record coming out so that means we can do nothing until the summer... (some mumbling)

KROQ: "What do you guys consider nothing? What do you do with your time? How do you spend your days?

Colin: "It's a good question.

KROQ: "Do you just waste time?

Ed: "Well, somehow we're busy doing nothing...

KROQ: "Play Station 2, is that what we're talking about?

Colin: "You want to get one don't you?

Ed: "Yeah, I really want to get one...

KROQ: "You should... they're great...

Ed: "Yeah, have you got one?

KROQ: "and you've got nothing but time...

Ed: "Exactly... exactly... we've got loads of time on our hands...

KROQ: "You're busy doing what?

Colin: "You sound like our A&R man at Capitol, please!

KROQ: "Are you gardening? Are you watching TV? Are you painting? What?

Colin: "Oh, God! (laughing)

KROQ: "You're not performing... you've already got the new album in the can, right?

Ed: "Yeah!... We've probably got a drug problem, and we don't realise it... (laugh)

KROQ: "What did you do yesterday?

Ed: "What did we do yesterday... oh, we drove back from Big Bear... five and a half hours in the car...

Colin: "Ed was great... Ed wrenched his knee, unfortunately, the other day sledding, but I got like a couple of hours snowboarding at the Summit resort... it was fantastic!

KROQ: "Did the people up there know you guys were Radiohead guys?

Ed: "No. No. It was a good thing. It was a very good thing... (mumbling, sentence is interrupted by KROQ)

KROQ: "... So one day on the slopes... that accounts for one day, now what about the month before that, the month before that... do you have a paper route... you gotta be doing something?

Ed: "January... Christmas is festive, isn't it? You know. the twelve days after Christmas, so you're busy doing the Christmas thing... which we all do... and then after Christmas... you've got...

KROQ: "The big Martin Luther King Holiday...

Ed: "Exactly, which we, of course celebrate... we celebrate all public holidays. It's very important... like another day off

KROQ: "You celebrate more than anyone else on this planet... I like that...

[(blah, blah, blah]

[Q&A Session]

[KROQ asks RH to handicap the Best Album of the Year Grammy]

Ed: "Eminem should get it

KROQ: "Eminem... (laughter)

Ed: "Everybody knows that he should get it

KROQ: "Do you think that you shouldn't get it... you think his album is better than yours... or do you not even look at it that way?

Ed: "It's more than just music, isn't it? It's like a cultural thing. And his thing has made the most impact and it's a great record. It's a really good record. It is. He's really good at what he does. And , of course, there's a whole controversy, whatever that's about...

KROQ: "... so if they call out Eminem tomorrow night, you're not gonna feel bad... you're gonna say... that's a good choice..

Ed: "Completely... It would be more embarrassing if, knowing that he should get it, and they call up your name and you say, oh no... that would be terrible!... . ... . .

KROQ: "What would you do if Steely Dan wins this prize?

Ed: "... . .someone said it's quite a political thing... the Grammies, isn't it and that sometimes they award... and apparently Steely Dan have never won...

KROQ: "And you think that they might take that into account when they vote... kinda give them a lifetime achievement nod...

Ed: "yeah!... and that's fine... I think that stuff's cool

Colin: "... but that's rubbish! it's like the best album of last year it's not like all time

KROQ: "I agree

Ed: "But it is what they do... the thing is consistency. We should tell the Grammies, let's be consistent. Is it the year or is over a lifetime? Maybe there's another category out there waiting like a kind of album lifetime achievement...

KROQ: "Should have had one, but never got one...

Ed: "exactly... a sympathy Grammy

[Caller Q: Playing this summer?]

Ed: "We're going to put another record out in the beginning of June... It's basically like a second half of the songs that we recorded with Kid A, a continuation of that period... ... it's got a bit of a feel like our second record, The Bends... It's got individual songs that are placed right... Kid A it's like 45 minutes and that's it and this one you can sort of pluck... and we've even got like a summer single... . ... . ... . (the album is like) you know those summers when you fell in love and you broke your heart and they were really down but somehow you look back on them and you enjoy them... bittersweet. We're gonna do a two pronged attack... we're gonna do a couple of weeks in June on the west coast, then our soundman's wife is having a baby so we're going back... we've all got to be there for that... . ... then we're taking a month off... we're coming back out and doing the east coast for three weeks and a bit of the center. And then we'll go back home... . ... . .. For the moment it looks like Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and LA so that's five shows in two weeks... that's pretty good going...

[Q from a hostile, disgruntled fan: quotes some article where Colin supposedly says the grammies should be done in private like masturbation]

Colin: "I didn't say that

Q: Now you're saying you wanted to play on the grammies and you're going to be appearing there... you said you weren't doing anything to promote Kid A, but...

Ed: "On the awards thing... In '97, I went around slagging every single awards ceremony off, and at that time, I felt like, you know, I didn't, we didn't want to go to them. But you know, we're human beings, we change what we feel about them. ... this is, you know, we've been offered like the chance to come over to LA for five days, put up in a great hotel (the all-knowing burst of laughter in background from the caller), go to parties, and it's kinda like, you know, you know, we want to see it, we want to do this once, we want to see what it's like going to a few parties... . ... . we might not enjoy it... we may well not, but, you know, you gotta try these things.

[caller keeps on talking]

KROQ: "I think she didn't want you to be in...

Ed: "I think it's fair enough. We did slag off. We went through a whole period like, blah, we don't like those things, cos we went to a couple of them and we really didn't have a good time. But now we want to do...

KROQ: "You can't be all things to do, all things to all fans at all times... (more joking and laughter)