THE INQUISITION

Yes! Absolutely. [Laughs] My favorite line ever from The Simpsons is when Homer says, “Can I have the second least expensive wine on the menu, please?”

You started dating your wife, Yasmin, after seeing her photo. Did you have any alternates lined up? No, not at all. Did you think I’d have number one, number two, and number three? I didn’t notice any of the other girls in there.

Didn’t getting married defeat the purpose of being
in Duran Duran?

No. I wanted to mess around until I found the right one, and I did. I was hoping to be looking for the right one for a bit longer, but when you do find the love of your life, you don’t let go, do you?

Have you and keyboardist Nick Rhodes ever come
to blows?

People don’t tend to come to blows with Nick. Many have tried. We’re not that kind of a band, really. The worst thing that ever happened was a pork pie got thrown during an argument in ¹⁹⁸⁰. I can’t say who was involved; that would be unprofessional. I hasten to add that I was an onlooker.

“I don’t see why we can’t
grow old disgracefully.”

Who tended to get the girls from your videos? I did a couple of times. [Laughs] Nick claims to. I think we’ve all done that.

Simon Le Bon

How did the ’⁹⁰s compare with the ’⁸⁰s for you? A lot more workmanlike, I think. We weren’t carried along by this wave of fervor…or favor. We weren’t in favor and there was no fervor. We had a chance to polish our professional skills live because we didn’t have the screaming thing going on. You used to be able to walk to the front of the stage and just wave your cock around, and it would drive the whole audience crazy. Then, in the ’⁹⁰s, it became embarrassing to do that, so we learned to perform properly.

Since their early-’80s heyday as

de rigueur New Romantic pinups,

Duran Duran have sometimes

found chart success as easy

as—to borrow one of their more

memorable lyrics—a nuclear war. However, the band’s ¹²th studio album, Red Carpet

Massacre (Epic)—featuring production by

Timbaland and vocals and songwriting

contributions from Justin Timberlake—aims

to return Simon Le Bon and Co. to the top of

the pops. “Yes, it’s calculated,” says the ⁴⁸-year-old singer, sipping tea in the massive

garden of his South London home. “We

wanted to have a hit record.”

How did you come to work with Timbaland? We wanted to get played on U.S. Top ⁴⁰ radio, and it seemed that the most direct route was to exercise our funk muscle. So we said, “Right, let’s get Timbaland.” The session was less than a week, and we came out with three songs. We thought, “God, if it can be as quick and painless as that, then let’s do some more.”

Why is it “Hungry Like the Wolf” and not “Hungry
Like a Wolf”?

“Hungry Like a Wolf” is a pretty normal thing to say, isn’t it? “Hungry Like the Wolf” makes you ask that question: “Which wolf?” For me, it was always the wolf inside of me, that hungry predator. Yes, it’s very sexual, that song. It’s about being on the hunt for women. Terribly politically incorrect. You couldn’t do that now.

Was Duran Duran ever a big coke band? We tried pretty much anything. By 1980s L.A. standards we were lightweights, but we had a great time.

If you weren’t in a band, do you think you might
have let yourself go a bit?

The fact that I’ve got three guys and a manager who all go, “You’re putting on a bit of weight in that picture, your trousers look tight,” keeps me straight. Generally we all know what’s bad for us, whether it’s booze, drugs, fat, or sugar. I limit my intake of those.

Are your drug days behind you? Pretty much, yes. I don’t want to be one of these middle-aged drug users. There’s something quite sad about that. But I don’t believe in saying “never again.”

Do you ever feel like you’re getting a bit old for this? I don’t think there’s an age limit, as long as the music’s good. The Rolling Stones set a great example for us. I don’t see why we can’t grow old disgracefully like them. They look like mean motherfuckers, don’t they?

If you’re dining out, does how high or low you order from the wine list depend on how the band’s doing?

BY BEN MITCHELL

BEN WAT TS/CORBIS OU TLINE

⁴⁰ OCTOBER ²⁰⁰⁷ WWW.SPIN.COM