A 1971 College graduate who has interviewed Andy Warhol, Muhammed Ali, Blondie, and Mick Jagger visited Penn on Thursday.

Victor Bockris — a Penn alumnus and English author who has written biographies of famous artists and musicians — discussed his life, stories, and legacy in an interview at the Kelly Writers House with director Al Filreis. At Penn, Bockris said he studied English exclusively — he persuaded the College of Arts and Sciences to exempt him from all other courses besides those he liked within his major. 

Born in Sussex, England, Bockris moved to the United States when he was four. After attending English boarding school for most of his childhood, Bockris returned to the U.S., joined his parents in Philadelphia, and attended Philadelphia Central High School. He said he was surprised to witness “flying sandwiches” and “rowdy kids standing on Lunchables” on his first day at school. 

His interviewing career began during his first year at Penn when Bockris realized that he wanted to talk to poets.

“I realized that I liked talking to poets more than I liked reading them,” Bockris said during his interview. 

By the end of his senior year at Penn, he was already interviewing subjects who lived as far away as England.

By age 50, Bockris had already interviewed and written books on Muhammed Ali, Andy Warhol, and William Burroughs. He has also written other books based on the lives of musicians Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Keith Richards.

In all, Bockris has written or co-authored more than 15 books, as well as published dozens of articles in magazines such as Interview, High Times, and The Drummer. 

To Bockris, his proudest achievement was writing the "only book Muhammad Ali ever read." That book, "In Fighter's Heaven," was released in 1974 on the day that Ali regained his heavyweight title over Joe Frazier. 

"My book — the one I wrote about him — is the only book that he ever read, from cover to cover," Bockris said. 

Concluding his remarks at KWH, Bockris discussed how he learned his interviewing skills from Andy Warhol.

"Never have any questions ready. Treat it like a cocktail party.” Bockris said. “If you go in with questions, you go in with preconceived notions of what you want in an interview.”

Guests at the event, including undergraduate English chair Jean-Cristophe Cloutier, echoed Bockris' views about how to interview. 

“If you let it get into your head about who you’re talking to and what they might mean to you, you could get intimidated," Cloutier said. "But for Bockris, he’s just living the interview, as opposed to going ‘what’s my next question.’ He’s having a genuine, authentic response to the immediate moment of the real conversation ... he goes in there because he really cares about the material.”

Other attendees, including Wharton senior Halla Elkwad, said they attended this event to learn about music writing and how they approach interviews.

Bockris, now 74, lives in Philadelphia and continues writing, interviewing, and composing poetry in his free time.