Mick Rock Has a TV Show, “On The Record …Watch The Flaming Lips Webisode

Famed rock photographer Mick Rock’s new TV show “On The Record” follows his journey on the road discovering “the best music cities.” In each episode he’s given a tour of a locale by a band that calls it home. Episode 3, premiering tonight at 8 PM on Ovation, is officially described:

Mick touches down in Oklahoma City to hang with the Flaming Lips and uncovers how these masters of psychedelic rock have become the surprising hometown heroes. Lead singer Wayne Coyne shows off his wacky art gallery, fills Mick in on his all-night parties with Miley Cyrus and ends the day with a performance of the group’s hit song, “Do You Realize??”

Portions of this episode are streaming online in a series of “episode” videos. Watch Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd show Mick the sites of OKC below:

ENTERTAIN MICK ROCK, COUNTRY-STYLE

An overview of Mick’s visit to OKC, including his trip Wayne and Steven to the Thunder’s home, Chesapeake Energy Arena. “Like Santa Claus is from the North Pole [and] The Beatles are from Liverpool, The Flaming are from Oklahoma City,” Wayne says.

MIRROR BALLS AND PSYCHEDELIC WINGS

Wayne explains the art collected on his lawn to Mick: “I think everybody’s taken the stuff that wasn’t bolted down.”

BEGINNINGS AT THE BLUE NOTE BAR

Wayne shows Mick his father’s old shop and the site of The Flaming Lips first gig. “This was my dad’s shop,” Wayne explains. “Through the late ’70s and early ’80s this was his shop and so we would rehearse in the back – there was a big walk in meat locker or something back there – and we would rehearse back there all day and all night.”

“But the Blue Note bar was always here,” Wayne continues. “It was always the Blue Note but it wasn’t like it is now. I mean now it’s full of people with tattoos and hipsters….back then this was all beyond low income. But since we were always here we knew the owner and you know we get to know people. No one in town would let us play. And we’re like, ‘well why don’t you guys let us play there [at the Blue Note].” And they’re like, ‘well sure come over and play.’ So the night we played all of our family and friends and everybody showed up, we called ourselves The Flaming Lips – and that stage, it’s the exact [same] stage [now that we played in 1983].”

A LIFE-CHANGING ARMED ROBBERY

Wayne retells his story of being robbed at gun point as a teenager working at Long John’s Silvers (made famous by his telling of the incident in The Fearless Freaks).

“I think it really helped me because I remember for a little while after that just not having any hangups, any of these dumb insecurities that you have,” Wayne tells Mick.

A MICK ROCK MASTER CLASS

Mick gives a master class to the students at The Flaming Lips-affiliated Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma. “I found on an acid trip that I like looking at people’s faces. Thereafter I would sit around and just stare at people and they got a bit uncomfortable,” he explained. “With a camera it kind of legitimized my obsession.”

DO YOU REALIZE?

Wayne and Steven play a bare bones version of their signature song while being photographed by Mick.

MILEY CYRUS, THE NEIGHBORHOOD DOGS, AND WAYNE’S PSYCHEDELIC HOUSE

Wayne gives Mick a tour of his house. “Here’s my dad shitting in the army,” Coyne says of one photo on the wall. “I think it’s in 1952.”

Wayne also explained the plague of homeless dogs in Oklahoma City, and how The Flaming Lips – with a little help from fwends like Miley Cyrus – aided a local animal wellfare group. Of Miley he says, “I know a lot of people that say they love music and then they party and then they don’t do their music. But with her it’s like, you do music and you party and that’s the whole day. We’ll start recording at her house at midnight and at ten in the morning I’ll say, ‘I gotta go.'”