Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind by Gavin Edwards
Authors: Gavin Edwards
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about the fairy tale of rock stardom. Then it became a jet engine that propelled his band, Counting Crows, to stardom, and their debut album, August and Everything After, to sales of over seven million copies in the United States.
After a year on the road, Duritz returned home to Berkeley, California, and discovered that he had transformed from an underdog musician who loved Van Morrison into a figure of contempt. “I was having a really rough time—I was too famous that week,” Duritz said. “It just seemed like everywhere I went, for about six straight days, somebody came up to me and said something terrible—just something fucking nasty. And it was really all new to me then, so I was having a little trouble dealing with it.”
At home, Duritz got a call from Sal Jenco, Viper Room general manager, who had recently become a friend. Duritz unburdened himself, talking about how unhappy he was with this sort of homecoming. Jenco put him on hold—which didn’t seem like the most considerate response, except he returned a minute later to say that he had just reserved Duritz a plane ticket to L.A. at seven, and booked him a room at the Bel Age Hotel. “We’re having this party tonight and Johnny wanted me to invite you anyway, so why don’t you just come down?” Jenco asked.
Fuck it, Duritz thought. He threw a few things into a bag, headed to the airport, and never lived in Berkeley again. He went to the party and became a Viper Room regular.
“Adam was embraced by the Viper contingent,” said another Viper habitué, singer Morty Coyle. “The Vipers always had a soft spot in their hearts for the glitterati.”
Sometimes Duritz would even go behind the bar and pour drinks for a while. “I did make great tips,” he conceded. “I’ve never had a problem there. That’s one of the reasons I moved [to Los Angeles],” he said. “With everybody else running around, who cares about me? At the Viper Room, it was like I was a totally normal guy.”
27
HIS NAME IS RIO AND HE DANCES ON THE SAND
River was feeling vaguely uncertain about life, and considered his family’s usual solution: changing his name. He started introducing himself to people as “Rio”—Spanish for “river”—and wondered whether Rio Phoenix, or maybe just the single name Rio, sounded more viable as a name for a rock star. Although he had resolved to make a real effort when he acted, he hadn’t given up his first dream: having a musical career and changing the world through his songs.
While he dithered, fame overtook him: Stand by Me was released in August 1986 and became the sleeper hit of the summer. Within a few weeks, positive word of mouth had made it the number one movie in the United States, edging out The Fly and Top Gun . Reviews singled out River; People said he was being acclaimed as “one of the most exciting young actors on the screen.”
“Because he made such an impact on that film, he was not just another kid actor,” said preeminent film critic Roger Ebert. “He had a special quality, and it was a quality that he had all through his career. A certain cleanness or transparency, so it seemed that he was very natural and unaffected on the screen and not acting.”
As the breakout star of a surprise hit movie, River found his life changing quickly. His quote went up to $350,000 per movie, giving his family a financial cushion for the first time in his life and making him the most important client of Iris Burton’s agency. River attempted to block out the sensation that the world was now spinning on its axis five times faster than previously. “After Stand by Me came out, people were telling me ‘You’re so good,’ ‘You’re going to be a star,’ and things like that,” he said. “You can’t think about it. If you take the wrong way, you can get really high on yourself. People get so lost when that happens to them. They may think they have everything under control, but everything is really out of control.
After a year on the road, Duritz returned home to Berkeley, California, and discovered that he had transformed from an underdog musician who loved Van Morrison into a figure of contempt. “I was having a really rough time—I was too famous that week,” Duritz said. “It just seemed like everywhere I went, for about six straight days, somebody came up to me and said something terrible—just something fucking nasty. And it was really all new to me then, so I was having a little trouble dealing with it.”
At home, Duritz got a call from Sal Jenco, Viper Room general manager, who had recently become a friend. Duritz unburdened himself, talking about how unhappy he was with this sort of homecoming. Jenco put him on hold—which didn’t seem like the most considerate response, except he returned a minute later to say that he had just reserved Duritz a plane ticket to L.A. at seven, and booked him a room at the Bel Age Hotel. “We’re having this party tonight and Johnny wanted me to invite you anyway, so why don’t you just come down?” Jenco asked.
Fuck it, Duritz thought. He threw a few things into a bag, headed to the airport, and never lived in Berkeley again. He went to the party and became a Viper Room regular.
“Adam was embraced by the Viper contingent,” said another Viper habitué, singer Morty Coyle. “The Vipers always had a soft spot in their hearts for the glitterati.”
Sometimes Duritz would even go behind the bar and pour drinks for a while. “I did make great tips,” he conceded. “I’ve never had a problem there. That’s one of the reasons I moved [to Los Angeles],” he said. “With everybody else running around, who cares about me? At the Viper Room, it was like I was a totally normal guy.”
27
HIS NAME IS RIO AND HE DANCES ON THE SAND
River was feeling vaguely uncertain about life, and considered his family’s usual solution: changing his name. He started introducing himself to people as “Rio”—Spanish for “river”—and wondered whether Rio Phoenix, or maybe just the single name Rio, sounded more viable as a name for a rock star. Although he had resolved to make a real effort when he acted, he hadn’t given up his first dream: having a musical career and changing the world through his songs.
While he dithered, fame overtook him: Stand by Me was released in August 1986 and became the sleeper hit of the summer. Within a few weeks, positive word of mouth had made it the number one movie in the United States, edging out The Fly and Top Gun . Reviews singled out River; People said he was being acclaimed as “one of the most exciting young actors on the screen.”
“Because he made such an impact on that film, he was not just another kid actor,” said preeminent film critic Roger Ebert. “He had a special quality, and it was a quality that he had all through his career. A certain cleanness or transparency, so it seemed that he was very natural and unaffected on the screen and not acting.”
As the breakout star of a surprise hit movie, River found his life changing quickly. His quote went up to $350,000 per movie, giving his family a financial cushion for the first time in his life and making him the most important client of Iris Burton’s agency. River attempted to block out the sensation that the world was now spinning on its axis five times faster than previously. “After Stand by Me came out, people were telling me ‘You’re so good,’ ‘You’re going to be a star,’ and things like that,” he said. “You can’t think about it. If you take the wrong way, you can get really high on yourself. People get so lost when that happens to them. They may think they have everything under control, but everything is really out of control.
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