The Fixx’s Cy Curnin Talks Rubbing Cocaine On His Blistered Feet During a Tina Turner Video
In tribute to the late Tina Turner, we rewind to our interview with Cy Curnin of the Fixx about his appearance in Tina’s “Better Be Good To Me” video, which turned out to be memorable for him in more than one way. The following is an edited version of the original text. RIP Tina.
Can we speak about your appearance in Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good To Me”?
That was an opportunistic moment! We were in the process of doing Phantoms, and Roger Davies was managing Tina, and his big idea to bring her back was to take happening bands and happening producers and get them to do songs on her comeback album. Rupert Hine was asked to do two tracks, so two tracks were written, without me because I was too busy fornicating with my new wife. (laugh) I got there in time to do the backing vocals, so I enjoyed that in the studio. Tina was a lovely woman, very calm. Her career hadn’t fully exploded but it was on the way, and she’s a Buddhist, so we had that in common. I found her to be very centered, but not self-centered. Then, time came to do the video, so they said let’s have the guys performing in the video, so we were flown out to L.A., and again it was Brian Grant who directed that. Toni Basil was all lined up to do the choreography, and I said, “Listen, I danced my own drum, I don’t need anyone telling me how to do this.” My first wife was a dancer, so there was no way I was doing any one-step two-step. Fuck all that, I’m going to do what comes out of me. I took my shoes off, and just started playing the bad boy.
A lot of pelvic thrusting there, Cy.
Yes, exactly. I was just trying to do the cocky boyfriend thing. What I didn’t realize though, was that if you dance for 18 hours without your shoes on, unless you have well-trained feet, it causes blisters, so there I was, 18 hours into the shoot, begging the crew for cocaine. They thought, “Hey! True rock ‘n’ roller! He’s gonna sniff some coke,” but I took the cocaine and rubbed it on my feet! (laugh)
That’s amazing. You rubbed it on your feet?
Yes, to fight the pain of the blisters!