JOHN McEnroe says the Studio 54 era wasn’t all it was cracked up to be — admitting he couldn’t even get into the storeyed club — and he even calls Andy Warhol “annoying” and “mediocre” in his new memoir.
In a new memoir, John McEnroe remembers Andy Warhol as a “weirdo”. Picture: Joel Ford/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images
According to the New York Post, tennis’ originally bad boy recalls in his latest book But Seriously that he could never get past the velvet rope at Studio 54, pleading with its infamous doormen, “I’m six in the world!” But, “the doormen would be like, ‘So? McEnroe, get the hell out of here!’ In fact, I don’t think they even knew my name — my memory has added that in the hope of making me feel better.”
Andy Warhol at Studio 54 with Calvin Klein, Brooke Shields and the club’s owner Steve Rubell. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied
Of Warhol, McEnroe said: “He was always there at every party I was ever at, taking your picture late at night, even when you were super f***ked up … I remember thinking, ‘Who is this weirdo with the fake hair?
“Why is he waving his camera around when we’re here at three in the morning? Isn’t there a place that could be off-limits?” (Warhol was known for taking Polaroids of everyone, including Mick Jagger, Yves Saint Laurent, Jack Nicholson, Debbie Harry and Alfred Hitchcock.)
John McEnroe with his wife Patti Smyth and son Kevin McEnroe. Picture: Jason Kempin/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images
But in his book, McEnroe complains that Warhol interfered with his sex life, saying that at late-night parties, where one might “loosen your collar and try to find a good-looking model or whatever,” the artist “always seemed to be up in everyone’s face with his camera, being a pain in the a**.”
John McEnroe with Molly Meldrum and Lesley Bowker in Melbourne in 1981. Picture:Source:Herald Sun
The seven-time Grand Slam winner didn’t think much of Warhol as an artist either, saying he found him to be “mediocre” before he later came to appreciate the work. When Warhol died in 1987, McEnroe says, “everyone all of a sudden is going, ‘He’s one of the world’s greatest, unbelievable …’ I’m like, ‘He is?’ ”
Andy Warhol’s first self-portrait went on view at Sotheby’s last week. Picture: Michael Bowles/Getty Images for Sotheby’sSource:Getty Images
Yet McEnroe spent about US$ 30,000 (A$ 40,000) at a 1986 charity auction to have Warhol paint a pair of portraits of himself and then-wife Tatum O’Neal. The artist came to their home to photograph them first.
McEnroe eventually sold the works for more than US$ 400,000 (A$ 530,000) at a Sotheby’s charity auction in 2008.
John McEnroe and his ex-wife Tatum O’Neal in Melbourne in 1985. Picture: SuppliedSource:News Corp Australia
This story was originally published in the New York Post and is reprinted with permission.
Originally published as McEnroe: ‘Warhol ruined my sex life’
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