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The Questlove Show

Kim Gordon

The Questlove Show

iHeartPodcasts

Music, Society & Culture

4.62K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2026

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Questlove sits down with Sonic Youth co-founder and avant-garde icon Kim Gordon for a candid, funny, and surprisingly vulnerable conversation about imposter syndrome, the Downtown/No Wave era, and how a visual artist became a profoundly influential bassist, singer, and producer. Kim talks about embracing spontaneity in the studio, discovering dissonance alongside Public Enemy at Greene Street Studios, accidentally launching her solo career with producer Justin Raisen, and navigating motherhood. She also reflects on recently updating her memoir and her role in the film Chronology of Water. One of music’s enduring arbiters of cool joins The Questlove Show—take heed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is an I-Heart podcast.

0:02.6

Guaranteed Human.

0:04.6

The Questleff show is a production of IHeart Radio. Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot lie to you and say that our guest today has had some sort of hand and luring my very band to a certain label called Geffen DGC.

0:41.1

Even long before we met as the co-founder of the legendary band Sonic Youth, our guest,

0:47.7

has crafted a movement for more than four decades, inspiring anyone worth their grain of salt of greatness.

0:56.4

Name them. Nirvana, smashing pumpkins, pixies pavement, dinosaur junior,

1:01.8

Pearl Jam, Hole, Radiohead, Sugar Rios. I mean, the list goes on and on and on.

1:07.5

I mean, this is the definition of when you hear people say, like, your artist's favorite,

1:11.9

or that meta rabbit hole, our guests embodies that today.

1:15.9

She said countless of, I'd be here all day, if we even just talk about the collaborations,

1:21.3

always pushing the boundaries of creativity and staying fresh, an architect of patron saint, of many movements,

1:29.5

pioneer the downtown scene.

1:31.4

Are you embarrassed when we come with way too many superlatives?

1:35.0

Like, teaches long for the daylight, ladies and gentlemen.

1:37.9

It brings out the imposter syndrome for sure.

1:41.1

I get it.

1:42.0

Coolest bass player ever.

1:43.8

Thank you, Kim Gordon, for coming to The Questlove Show. Appreciate it. How are you? Great to see you. All right. Well, that's what I want to start with, because I know that oftentimes there's the battle, the idea of you versus what you feel is the authentic you. So to break the ice, I always wanted to

2:02.4

ask you this. Can you tell me three things that you think are uncool about you? Well, I guess

2:09.1

mostly like I don't think I'm cool. Like I do battle like this kind of feeling of awkwardness to some extent.

2:22.2

You know, unless I'm in a flow of working or doing something.

2:27.5

You know, like I have a basket of different socks that I wish I could just get rid of and start over.

...

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