Tony Kaye

Tony Kaye is a legend in the advertising world, not just for his award-winning campaigns but also for his eccentric style. He achieved notoriety in Hollywood after demanding that his name be taken off the credits for American History X

Part One: Answers to your questions. I hope.

Growing up,
my two lights were the radio and the television.

I wanted to be a video camera or a reel-to-reel tape recorder. I made a mistake. I should have been a guitar. But it's never too late.

I was surrounded by emotion. Emotional parents, emotional grandparents, emotional aunts and uncles.

I had a brother and two cousins. My brother died three years ago. My brother was an actor and a writer and he played the guitar and sung. My brother was ahead of the curve, certainly my curve.

My family and their emotion that filled 10,000 circuses has filled my brain and eyes in terms of understanding tears and laughter. I went into advertising because Andy Warhol said it was okay.

The best advertisement I have ever made was for a band called Soul Assylum... except everyone thought it was a music video - even I did at the time.

Soul Assylum are a band that had written a song called Runaway Train. It told the story of many young kids who had run away from home and had not been seen for many years. What made this music video an advertisement and not simply a music video was that I placed real photographs of real missing children in the created footage, and placed chunks of text that explained where and when each particular child had last been seen and circumstances of their disappearance where it was known.

My idea was that whatever country the video ran in we would replace the photographs of the kids to be relevant to missing kids of that domain. I thought loads of kids would return to their parents because that act of returning home would become part of their culture on MTV. Seventeen kids all over the world returned home to their respective family units.

My own parents were very proud of me.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers video is a simple performance video whose central idea is The Peppers dressing up as their favourite rock stars, which really is the genesis of being a rock star in the first place.

Everyone is inspired by somebody.

Education is everything, education is life, education is living and breathing, education is moving forward from whatever happens to you and being more aware. Education is difficult and, sometimes, too much. Education will kill you, but then you just have to come back from the dead killed.

I am very proud of my work and passion that went into making American History X what it is... I just thought it could have been better like sometimes when the sky is blue and you wanna make it green.

You make 20 billion commercials about Sundays and shoes and sweet lemons and motor cars and tea cups, and you think maybe you should tell people about yourself. Self promotion is a great way of learning not to care about what people think of you - except that's a lie because a self promoter essentially wants to be liked, and all that happens is you end up being drowned in dry ink.

When I was a kid my father taught me how to play chess and I won a lot of cups. Chess is the best game in the world because, apart from Hollywood, it's the only game that exists with absolutely no luck involved.

I have learnt in life that family is the most important thing.

Part Two: Cushions in a haystack.

Grown from a reject to a defect, all I wanna do is select...

We sold tyres, lit some fires in the Tate, man it was great man; like an art fan shot our mouths off sore throat cough, cough.

There was Volvo, ice cream, cocoa. There was Carty, Campbell solo me 2 shove a farthing we was starving but we won son, we won big gun and we ain't done Mum not for neither.

There was fuel good dog and cat wood and de mouse should love that yeah flood.

Goofy twister come on blister nuttin' better send a letter then I met her decent wetter.

All the cutter Goddard butter run, run shape dude file the fine mood.

British Rail cook Stark & Arden in the garden beg your pardon, whatcha wanna God and manna.

Now I'm laughin', lovin' wife Lin. She from Shanghai reach the sky high and 3 daughter is my life 9, say she Yan Yan & and goo-goo roller take my baby out in her stroller.

Am in New York pop the big cork, goin' well now, ain't no big mouth any more corn chow.

Say me to Mr Mellors I am sorry and to Weiland of the hatband/Wein-the-berger deep the gerger my 1st riter/Okay cellos now I'm mellows, movin' over 4 leaf clover.

And to Norton time to walk on and to Brando you's the kingpin so to Green Malc place yur Betts how come on re-cut no eyes joking me-to-blame yeah I want fit no, Kick-it-Nike quest the tribe dig Consequence now rig Palmer charm zig/Vauxhall Babies under rated nah-nah hah-ha goo-goo gah-gah.

Wats I mizzed out just do doubt rout/ Freeman Clifftop in the league chop... yeah that catwalk Gatley good chalk.

Pallant Ryan Clarke the scion what do that mean... no-no bean bean.

Come on help me in asylum in the Soho Dean Street buy on.

This no rubbish now my nest is to the word biz...

Chili Pepper you the heroes and Rick Rubin light bulb Nero.

And to Romanek Mr Sarno make your Mark bless.

Robert Shaye man draw the good line three fine New Line in my life line...

And the Sir Mart/Martin Sorrell sea of coral new Horizon, soon for shimmy I to gimme, now's the time be, gonna win me.

God the child bless, love my daughters Betty and Ruby and Shanghai and to my beautiful wife Yan and to my parents Evelyn and Len... I love you guys, I love you so much... it bleeds.