Kaiser Chiefs rocker Ricky Wilson’s fan base apparently reaches beyond the grave, as the singer has revealed he used a medium to contact late actor Gene Wilder, who may or may not have loved his music.
Ricky, 42, has debuted season two of his popular podcast Pop Detective, which sees him team up with broadcasting legend Tony Blackburn to get to the bottom of the most intriguing musical mysteries.
Whether that’s to find out if Jennifer Lopez really insured her famous bum for $1 million or whether Avril Lavigne died and was cloned by a woman called Melissa – none of which are true, FYI. Spoiler!
But Ricky’s ‘personal favourite’ is finding out why Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory actor Gene followed him on Twitter before his death in 2016 aged 83.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk about the upcoming season two episode, Ricky said: ‘It’s one I’ve been thinking about for a long time which is why when Gene Wilder died he followed 12 people on Twitter, really famous people like Tom Hanks and Richard Dreyfuss, but one of them was me and I’ve never known why because I’ve never met him.’
Now that is a head scratcher.
Ricky continued: ‘I’m a big fan. So we looked into finding out why Gene Wilder followed me on Twitter and I won’t give too much away, but I will say that we did contact a medium to contact Gene in the afterlife with astonishing results.’
It doesn’t sound as though it was the answer Ricky was hoping for though, as he revealed: ‘When we asked, “Are you a fan of Ricky Wilson?” a voice through the magnetic airways did say, “Who’s that?”’
Still he admitted: ‘It was a joy to do that one. I think that’s a favourite from this series.’
Being a pop detective must rack up the hours as Ricky joked: ‘There’s a lot of undercover work, that’s been harder in lockdown.’
Exposing the truth behind he and Tony’s operation, the former Voice coach revealed: ‘That’s the facade I like to keep up – that it’s a real pop detective agency and we do all the research ourselves.
‘But my research is possibly half an hour to 45 minutes before we start talking about it. There’s a lot of Wikipedia.
‘The main thing is finding the experts because we use about two experts per show and they give us the real insight.’
The podcast has become a means of escape for Ricky, who reveals the real reason he returned for season two.
‘Don’t get me wrong, although I love conspiracies, it’s really just an excuse to talk to Tony Blackburn for a while because he’s a lot of fun,’ he shared.
‘We talk about everything apart from politics and religion, it’s a bit of light relief for me because the world’s so heavy at the moment and I do feel guilty about taking up internet real estate with frivolity.
‘And you do feel weird about doing something that has no importance to anyone at all but I feel you still need that stuff in your life because we’ve all been walking around with everything that’s going on the world – coronavirus, George Floyd and even Brexit – with just this dark cloud. You can’t put your finger on what’s wrong and then you realise it’s the world, and there’s a big crack in it.
‘I enjoy doing it and it’s a bit of a breather.’
Ricky and Tony couldn’t be more different in their approaches to interviewing the experts in their mission to solve the conspiracies, and the singer wouldn’t have it any other way.
‘When we “interview” them, I feel really bad about asking them the questions, but Tony goes quite hard in,’ Ricky admits.
‘I’m being ridiculous but he always takes it off onto a tangent and it blows my mind how he does it because he’ll ask them what their favourite crisps are, and it’s not relevant but it turns out to be the most interesting question.
‘That just goes to show he’s the king of broadcasting.’
Ricky & Tony: Pop Detectives season two is available to listen to on streaming platforms now.
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