Your #3 Favourite Local Who’s Now Big-Time Famous

As evolutions go, it’s been a fascinating one for Nardwuar the Human Serviette. In the beginning—which is to say pre-internet times—Vancouver’s favourite plaid-obsessed tam-cap aficionado was often anything but loved by those he tracked down for interviews. Recall, if you will, a flustered Beck telling him to fuck off and slamming down the phone, an enraged Skid Row stealing his toque, and, unbelievably, Blur drummer Dave Rowntree physically bullying the Nard on camera in 2003.

And then, starting with an iconic early encounter with Snoop Dogg, musical heavyweights eventually began to appreciate Nardwuar for what Michael Moore once described as his “thorough, in-depth, unnecessary research.”

Today, operating on the mantra that “it’s the job of an interviewer to make an interview interesting for the interviewee,” Nardwuar has morphed into one of the most beloved, and insanely prepared, journalists on the planet.

Here’s a secret—the second they no longer have to, most musicians will do anything to avoid doing interviews. In Nardwuar’s case, whether you’re talking Tyler the Creator, Billie Eilish, or Lady Gaga, they not only show up visibly excited, but things quickly become a love-in punctuated by shouts of “How did you know that?”

Ask Nardwuar his signature question—“Who are you?”-—and he’ll respond with something along the lines of a “regular guy who understands the importance of hard work and determination.” Which is all fine, except that there’s, inarguably, a better answer: “An insanely beloved national treasure.”

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