Mark Ronson Remembers His Friend DJ AM

Multi-talented producer Mark Ronson spoke fondly of the late DJ AM during an exclusive interview with Spinner on Friday, less than 24 hours after DJing a tribute party in honor of his close friend at New York City's Santos Party House. It has been a year since Adam Goldstein tragically passed away of an accidental overdose and Ronson, who cut his teeth as a DJ alongside AM in the New York club scene in the '90s, made clear the impact his friend had on the music world as well as his own career.

"I think he basically invented an entire style of DJing," Ronson told Spinner. "He was the first person to have sort of these DJ battle-level skills and could still just kill a party and had such a great taste, a wide range of taste. He was pretty much the best club DJ I've ever seen. There might be other DJs that I prefer their taste, or I would dance to more, but as far as like, 'Holy s---, wow,' and beyond that he just was a great friend. He was so supportive as well, he would always do what he could to help me break records when no one was playing any of my shit and shouting out 'Rehab' in Us Magazine when they'd have his playlist and whatever it was, he was just an awesome dude."

"His legacy is, he took DJing in another direction and now you have all these young kids that can scratch and bust their ass practicing to make sure they can scratch, and also play a wide range of stuff. I don't think anyone's touching him but I think it's definitely undeniable the kind of influence he's had."

Later, his voice welling up with emotion, Ronson recalled what he missed most about his friend.

"His voice. His big, stupid, gruff voice [makes a growling noise] ... He had this groggy voice even after he quit smoking. There's a lot of things that I miss about him but I guess his voice is just such a comforting thing to hear on the phone."

In a revealing anecdote, Ronson reminisced to Spinner about a dark period in the pair's relationship and how Goldstein's love for the art of DJing pulled them both out of despair.

"Before the Serato era when you could go to a gig with 50,000 songs all the time, when you used to have to carry your crates, we were both at the same time having a serious downer crisis, like, 'Why are we still DJing? This music sucks, I'm tired of playing the same stuff every night.' And then he would call me on the way to the gig and he was like, 'I can't do it anymore, this is gonna be my last gig,' and then Serato came and opened up all these technical amazing things that he could do now, and he could do crazy stuff in his sets. His sets were already pushing the limits technically of what you could do, which was two turntables and rapids, and he was like a new man when Serato came around. It was like a new toy and something he could just do whatever he wanted."