Hanging With: Damien Fahey
The MTV star just wants to make friends, be it in drum stores or an East Boston pizzeria
Usually at this hour, MTV heartthrob Damien Fahey is hosting "Total Request Live," the afterschool music countdown show known for its screaming female audience -- and for its original host, Carson Daly.
But this afternoon, Fahey, Daly's 25-year-old successor, is in Boston to give a speech at Northeastern University. It's where he where he attended college for a few years before leaving school and a job at KISS 108 to become MTV's answer to Ryan Seacrest.
Fahey has four hours before he'll tell Northeastern students how a kid from Longmeadow wound up on MTV. He has chosen to spend his down time before the gig eating his favorite pizza and shopping for drum equipment.
Turns out, Fahey is a drum geek. Not the marching-band kind, but rather the rock-band kind. He and his pal Kenli Mattus have a pop/rock band called Here's Johnny. Fahey is hunting for a drum kit for travel, something small he can pack in his truck.
"This one's nice," he says about a shiny kit in the window of Jack's Drum Shop on Boylston Street.
Sales associate Tom Gallagher, who has never heard of Fahey before today, walks him from kit to kit, impressed with the MTV star's questions about kick drums and Yamaha sets. Fahey can't decide whether to take anything home with him.
"You have to fall in love with it, I think," says Mattus, who has come along for the ride.
Fahey pauses when he sees the name John Blackwell on a cymbal.
"He's a buddy of mine," Fahey says, proudly telling a quick story about how he complimented Blackwell, Prince's longtime drummer, in a magazine article, which resulted in a phone call from Blackwell.
With Gallagher smiling, the VJ has officially made his first friend of the day.
Outside the store, Fahey looks frustrated because he's played with drum equipment but hasn't bought anything.
"It's like being on Spring Break and not getting any girls' numbers," he says.
So Fahey enters Daddy's Junky Music, which is just around the corner. He finds a field of shimmering cymbals in back and taps them one at a time with a drum stick.
"I used to come here all the time," Fahey says, still banging, as he's greeted by manager Hirsh Gardner. "I think I bought an LP wood block. That's all I could afford."
Gardner and Fahey start tapping the cymbals together. They banter about A Custom Rides, a type of cymbal, and Fahey's birch kit at home.
Gardner was the drummer in a 1970s band called New England, a successful local act that toured with John Mellencamp. He tells Fahey that Mellencamp's former drummer, Kenny Aronoff, will be coming to Daddy's soon to lead a clinic.
"Oh, dude," Fahey tells Mattus. "We've got to go."
Gardner then whispers a story to Fahey and Mattus about being on the road with Mellencamp, who apparently, wasn't always respectful.
"I've heard stories," Fahey says, nodding.
Gardner says he once argued with Mellencamp, and although the memories are fuzzy, "apparently, I went after Johnny with a bottle of Jack Daniels," he says, grinning.
Fahey is giddy listening to the rock tale, and promises to return to the store.
But for today, even though he's been fixated on one of the Zildjians, Fahey is leaving empty-handed.
In the car on the way to get pizza, we listen to the Here's Johnny EP, at my request. (To hear exclusive tracks from the EP, visit www.boston.com/clips.)
Fahey and Mattus are nervous about it since few have heard the disc. I tell them I like the second track, "Serendipity," which sounds something like Good Charlotte crossed with Living Colour, but in a good way.
We listen to the disc until we're at Fahey's favorite Italian food spot, Santarpio's Pizza, an East Boston joint introduced to him by KISS 108 weekend DJ Katie Hutch.
Inside, Fahey and Mattus exchange fast quips about the title of their EP -- "Oversized Load" -- and say they plan to write a song that parodies inspirational rock tunes in 1980s movies, the kind that play during montage scenes of athletes training -- cheesy versions of "Eye of the Tiger."
They make up lyrics on the spot.
"You have the power to be a star," they sing, making constipated rock-star faces. "You've got lightning running through your veins ... lightning ... LIGHTNING!"
A grizzled waiter wearing a necklace that says "Grandpa" takes their order and ignores their smiles.
Fahey says he's going to make it his mission to get this waiter to like him.
"I've never wanted to tickle a waiter more," he says, smiling mischievously, as the gray-haired server glares from across the room. He doesn't know Fahey will spend the very next afternoon interviewing pop star Pink in front of a room of screaming teenagers and millions of viewers.
"Wait till he delivers the pie," Fahey says, grinning. "By then, he'll be asking if I have a MySpace page."
Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com. 