NEED TO KNOW
- Mark Ronson recalled an early childhood memory that featured Robin Williams
- In his memoir Night People, the music producer and actor, who died in 2014, ran into each other decades later, and Williams reminisced about the “wild parties” Ronson’s parents threw
- Night People is out now
Mark Ronson’s earliest memories feature an incredible cameo.
In the DJ and music producer’s memoir, Night People: How to Be a DJ in ’90s New York City, Ronson, 50, recalls the late actor Robin Williams walking through his childhood bedroom during a party thrown by his parents, Laurence Ronson and Ann Dexter-Jones.
Ronson describes his parents during his childhood as “young and rich” and living “for the party.” His father founded a music publishing company and had a social circle packed with rock stars who would flock to parties at their home on Circus Road in London.
His mother, meanwhile, loved being a hostess to their famous friends. “Why would I go to someone else’s and have to stumble home hungover?” Ronson recalls her saying.
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One of his earliest memories features his mother and Williams, who died in 2014, walking into his childhood bedroom one night. Ronson knew him as Mork from the sitcom Mork & Mindy.
“Why my favorite TV character was suddenly standing over my bed, I didn’t know, but it didn’t feel unusual,” he writes.
Ronson recalls the “zany energy” that his mother and the comedian had when Williams peeked through his bedroom curtains. After Williams walked away from the curtains, he tucked Ronson into his “truck-patterned sheets.”
As Williams left, Ronson called out to him that he “forgot” something. “Nanu Nanu,” the Aladdin actor called after him. Ronson repeated the phrase before drifting off to sleep.
Years later, the Grammy winner ran into Williams at a restaurant in Tribeca. He asked the Good Will Hunting star if he remembered their interaction years ago at Ronson’s London childhood home.
When Williams asked if their house was located on (the aptly named) Circus Road and Ronson confirmed, Williams said, “Your parents threw some wild parties, man…”
Williams died by suicide in August 2014. He was 63 years old.
In a statement, per Rolling Stone, Ronson said that “DJ’ing in Nineties New York City informed everything I ever did after, becoming the foundation for all my future work and creativity.”
He added, “In Night People, I wanted to capture that transformative period of my life and celebrate three of my great loves: the art of DJ’ing, the thrilling energy of New York City after dark, and the wild and wonderful characters who populated our world and became my second family.”
Ronson called the book a “love letter to a vanished era that shaped not just my career but my identity — a time when finding my craft put me on the path to finding myself.”
Night People is out now.
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