Dear Superstar: Chris Martin
The new album was originally subtitled Death and All His Friends—what’s the closest you’ve ever come to dying?
Jefferson.Miller, New York
A couple times, on airplanes, we’ve come under heavy sniper fire—oh, wait, someone else used that. Once we were trying to land in a desert in Ghana, and there was a dust storm, so you couldn’t see fuck-all, and the plane didn’t have instruments or anything, so it wouldn’t guide you in like a jumbo jet. And suddenly the plane dropped to the right, then to the left, and the ground was right there. And all I could think was, Fuck, I didn’t finish "Fix You." That would have been my last thought: I didn’t get that chorus right.
I tried to be a vegetarian, but bacon cheeseburgers were too hard to quit. What dish do you miss most?
Magalag, Port Washington, NY
I’ve been off meat eight years, but I eat fish, so I’m not really vegetarian. After I saw Babe, I could never eat pig again. I don’t like eating things with hooves—anything that, if their friends hear about it, they could stampede me. I’ll never eat crocodile soup or shark fin, because I like going in the ocean and I don’t want to meet a cousin. I’m less worried about a school of mackerel. It’s about who can get revenge. But barbecued chicken is a big temptation. The last time I broke, I was in Sicily at a photo shoot. I had some chicken because there was nothing else.
Don’t lie: Just how much did you pay for Radiohead’s In Rainbows?
MorningBells, Pittsburgh
I bought three copies, and paid 10 pounds each, but I never got them. The download thing didn’t work. I’m not very good with computers, though, so I think I must have done something wrong. I wound up buying them on vinyl. But I don’t mind. I owe Radiohead a bit more than 30 pounds, let’s face it. We owe them a career, really.
On the rare occasions when you drink, what kind of a drunk are you?
YabbaDabba2, Billings, MT
Not a very pretty one. I tend to get quite aggressive and a bit too honest. No one’s ever said to me, "You were much nicer last night than you are normally." It’s always, "You need to go apologize to 73 people."
How’d you get to be the lead singer when Guy Berryman looks like such a badass?
LazerBlitz, Providence, RI
I ask myself the same question. My entire life is spent trying to push him forward at photo shoots. He’s our packaging. The rest of us look OK, and we work hard to stay thin, but he’s a handsome bastard, and none of us pretend that if he wasn’t in the band we’d be as popular. He’s responsible for all of our calendar sales. I’m so glad that someone pointed that out.
