Incredibly, it’s already been five years since the death, of a heart attack at 59, of Big Star co-founder and quintessential rock cult figure Alex Chilton who, for me, remains a lasting listening influence and represents a personal and professional high-water mark in my 20-year tenure as a music journalist. Not many people got the chance to interview the elusive, reclusive, recalcitrant Chilton when it came to shedding light beyond the shadowy mystique of the once-forgotten, ultimately resurrected “power pop” avatars Big Star — saying no was one of Alex’s many specialties — so I still think it’s a bit miraculous that I was one of those lucky people to have an audience with Alex. As you’ll read in my intro, this event represents both one of the best and — as I thought at the time — worst interview experiences I’ve had, given Alex’s mercurial nature. But now in retrospect, I consider the totality of that interview, proverbial warts and all, to be a uniquely, quintessentially Alex Chilton experience. So maybe in some weird way, those 45 to 50 mostly amazing minutes(!) with a decidedly un-mellowed, unreformed, still cagey and contrarian Alex on the other end of the telephone was, just like Big Star’s music, a gift.