James Sclavunos grew up in Brooklyn and dreamed of becoming an astronaut priest or an avant-garde saxophonist. Instead, he attended film school at NYU and became a part of the musical movement that would later be known as No Wave. He tells Joe about his relationship with Catholicism; cruising the Village in a sailor suit; his initiation into Lydia Lunch's band; writing books about Motley Crue and Paula Abdul; and the family dynamic of The Bad Seeds.