Monthly Archives: February 2012

February 21, 2012

Katy Perry: ‘Firework’ inspired by Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

by Jerry Cimino Katy Perry was not unknown to us here at The Beat Museum – after all, for a while she was married to Russell Brand, who in 2007 participated in a cross-country road trip commemorating On the Road‘s 50th Anniversary. At the end of the journey, Russell did a live performance about Kerouac here at the Beat Museum that was recorded by the BBC and later broadcast all over the UK. This was before Forgetting Sarah Marshall hit it big. The BBC had contacted us weeks prior and asked if they could record an up and coming comedian who was about to make a splash with a US debut. Turns out Russell was a big Kerouac fan, and had retraced Jack’s journeys in On The Road across the US for the BBC, with a final stop here in San Francisco at The Beat Museum. Russell was a pretty interesting guy. I liked him. He really understood Kerouac, and I remember thinking while I watched his live performance, “This guy’s pretty funny in an outrageous sort of way. I wonder if he’ll make it here in the States?” Russell was very approachable and very casual, but also very focused and deliberate right before he went on stage. Made sense to me—he was doing a live performance in front of an audience of about 100 and it was being recorded for broadcast for millions. When the show was over he … Read more »

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