Rickie Haywood Williams chats about life at MTV

17 July 2008

0Comments | Comment on this Article

Nope, I have always wanted to be a presenter and that was probably the best place to do it at that point in time because it had the best facilities like a really good radio and TV studio and was a really cool place to get exposed to what it was like in the industry because a lot of the teacher there had at some point worked in the media industry so it was like being taught by real professionals who knew what they were doing.

How did you end up working for MTV?

Basically, in a really summarised version; I left the Brit School, went to university, did virtually the same course but just at a degree level, left there and went on loads of work placements loads of different work placement at different radio stations such as the BBC and ITV and then once all my money ran out, I decided it was time to start earning money in order to pay my bills!

I got a call back from radio one extra who I had been freelancing for over the past three years and whilst I was there I got entered into a competition to present a mini radio show for fun but a couple of the guys who were hosting and judging the competition were directors of a talent company and they asked myself and my best friend Melvin if we’d like to sign with them because they thought we had potential.

Then after about two years we got signed to our radio show and about a year after that I got signed to MTV. That’s the shortest version ever…about eight years crammed into a minute!

Who do you think is the best musician around at the moment?

Santogold; I think she is the future, for me she is very eclectic and I think a lot of music at the moment is all over the place and people like a cross-section of music and I think she encompasses that with her style, she goes from dub music and left-field to Shoreditch-y sounding stuff, she’s all over the place but precise at the same time; I just think she’s really cool and forward-thinking.

You obviously get to rub shoulders with a whole host of stars, who has been your favourite interviewee?

It’s between Denzel Washington and Will Smith. But I think Denzel just get it, he is absolutely amazing and a really cool guy! He was very personal and it was like chatting to my uncle rather than interviewing him.

Will Smith is really cool too, with him you feel that he gives everyone that same level of love if that makes sense? With Denzel I feel like we had a connection and really got on.

And what about the worst?

Probably Timberland but Pharell comes a close second. They both don’t like talking, especially if you’re a guy! Apparently they open up more to females but when I interviewed Timberland he just mumbled the whole way through and gave one word answers and it wasn’t until we got near the end of the interview that he started to chirped up a little bit more and speak in coherent English! But I still think he’s cool and a really good producer nevertheless!

Who would you love to interview given the chance?

Oprah Winfrey, I think she is an absolute legend, because she’s done so much and she’s massive and one of the biggest people on TV. She’s very successful and would have a really good story to tell.

Do you ever get star-struck?

Yeah, it’s weird because some people that you expect you might feel strange about interviewing because you really really like them, you often don’t get too star-struck.

Kanye was a particularly difficult interview for me because I had been at MTV for about two months and it was the first interview I had done away from the office, it was in a hotel room with an independent film crew rather than my regular news team, so to begin with I didn’t have that comfort around me, but to make it worse, he left us waiting for about two and a half hours!

0Comments | Be the first to comment!