Lifestyle

Dream Job: Anthony Bozza

You might call Anthony Bozza a rock ’n’ roll “keyboardist.” As in QWERTY, not the Hammond kind with black and white keys.

As the go-to guy for co-writing rock-star autobio-graphies, the 38-year-old former Rolling Stone writer is living the “Almost Famous” life — backstage with Eminem, talking late into the night with Slash, doing shots of Jack Daniel’s by the pool at Tommy Lee’s place in Malibu.

Good work if you can find it? Try, if you can survive it.

Bozza has seven books under his belt, including three with the aforementioned hard-living stars (“Whatever You Say I Am,” “Slash” and “Tommyland”) and two with controversial comics Tracy Morgan (“I Am the New Black”) and Artie Lange (“Too Fat To Fish,” which, debuted atop the New York Times best-seller list). His next book, with Wyclef Jean, will be out in the fall.

The Post sat down with the Long Island native at the Knickerbocker Bar, a favorite writing spot near the Village home Bozza shares with his wife and his dog, Floyd.

And, yes, that’s Floyd as in Pink.

How’d you get started in rock journalism?

After finishing college at Northwestern in ’93, I landed an internship at Rolling Stone. I’d actually missed the deadline for the magazine internship, but my resume landed in the pile at the books division, Rolling Stone Press. Kurt Cobain had just killed himself, and they needed a tribute book right away. I did the usual intern stuff, fact-checking, finding old issues in the library.

How’d you separate yourself from other interns?

We updated the Rock ’n’ Roll Encyclopedia, so they let me start interviewing obscure musicians like Giorgio Moroder and Chris Whitley for “Where are they now?” sections. Meanwhile, I was in the Rolling Stone library so much that I got to know the librarian. Eventually she got me hired as her research assistant. I was doing tons of research for the music department, and when one of the assistants left, I applied and was made assistant to a music editor.

What were your first writing assignments?

I had a phone interview with Ozzy Osbourne for the Raves column. He told me a story about being at a hotel in Texas while on tour with Motley Crue, and they were having a gross-out contest. Someone had peed in the pool, Nikki [Sixx] or somebody. To top that, Ozzy saw a popsicle stick on the ground covered in ants. So, he kneeled down and snorted the ants. Now I see that story pop up in all the “Behind the Music” segments.

What was the break that got you on the cover of the Rolling Stone?

About a year before Eminem was signed, a friend of mine heard him freestyling on the radio in LA. So, I had his tape, and I was totally the green kid, running into my boss, Joe Levy’s, office, like, “I know he’s unsigned, but this guy’s gonna be huge. Let me write about him.” And, to his credit, when Eminem did get signed a year later, he remembered, and totally did me a solid by telling me, “Write 300 words on this kooky video for ‘My Name Is.’” So while I’m doing that, they got the sales numbers for the first week, and Joe calls me back into his office and says, “You’re going to Detroit to do a cover story.” It was very much an “Almost Famous” moment. That was my first cover, April 1999.

How did you make the leap to writer of autobiographies?

My first book, “Whatever You Say I Am,” was basically an expanded version of my Eminem story. Then “Tommyland” happened when the first writer hired to work with Tommy Lee was fired. It just wasn’t working out with him and Tommy, so, through agents mostly, I was brought on to see if I could save that project.

Do you have to party like a rock star to write with one?

That was my first book as a co-writer, where I was spending months hanging out and interviewing. And Tommy did a bit of big-brother hazing, as in, “I won’t answer that question unless you do three shots of Jack Daniel’s.” At, like, 11 in the morning. But it depends, really. You have to do whatever’s required. With Tommy, he wanted me to live the way he does and see if I could still do my job. Once he saw I could, he opened up. With Slash, it was a different story. He was fascinated that I was so fascinated with his childhood.

Sounds like you’re a shrink.

It’s a bit like therapy. You’ve gotta get them back on the couch. But I always look for details that time has made completely mundane to them, that they’ve forgotten. Anything to give you a portrait of who this person was before fame happened. I’m looking for a window into a personality that still exists.

What’s it like interviewing rock stars?

For one thing, they’re never on time. I waited six and a half hours for Method Man once.

Who was your easiest interview?

I met Bo Diddley at the Second Avenue Deli. He was very fond of their pastrami, so he set up all his press to happen there. He ate maybe 2 pounds of pastrami and a stack of rye bread. He was like, “Young man, have a sandwich.” I asked maybe two questions. He didn’t stop talking for an hour. It was like, “Bo knows . . .” Talking about himself in the third person and eating sandwiches.

Do rockers talk in a manner that somehow matches their musical skills?

Maybe, actually. Slash’s mind was meandering, but he’d always come back to a theme. Tommy is like most drummers, scatter-brained. Wyclef sits down and has that Caribbean storyteller gene.

While interviewing, is your work frequently interrupted by hot women stopping by?

One day at Tommy’s, the doorbell rang and it was some girls who’d been dancers on a Motley Crue tour. They were driving back to San Francisco, and they stopped by to sunbathe naked by the pool for the day. I was single back then, for the record. I ended up living at Tommy’s place for nine months, at the top of a canyon in Malibu.

What won’t you include in a book? What’s too racy?

When someone hires me to be their co-writer, they get the ultimate veto. They usually cut out a couple of things. Sometimes it’s things like drug use, but more often it’s timeline stuff. Not so much what they did, but when. Like, they slept with someone famous while they were dating someone else. Or even legal things, stories that may lead to lawsuits. If you think people are going to make trouble, maybe you leave that out.

What’s in the future?

The Wyclef book comes out next fall. I’ve also got two other projects I’m very excited about. I’m running an imprint at HarperCollins with Neil Strauss called Igniter, and our first book will be out in April or May. We find the stories and pair them with writers, then edit and design everything. Our first book is about a notorious groupie called “The Last Living Slut.” I’m also shopping a TV show. The concept is that a crew tails me for a series of Hollywood’s most challenging interviews. The title will be something like “Interviews From the Edge.” It’s the kind of stuff I couldn’t make up if I tried.

mkane@nypost.com