Chris Martin Gives the Cold(play) Shoulder

Fri., Jun. 13, 2008 7:15 AM PDT by Gina Serpe

Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com

If the best way to measure the growth of a band is by the tantrums thrown by its frontman, then Coldplay just reached the next plateau of their career.

Adding "the music" to the list of topics that are off-limits to query him on (joining wife Gwyneth Paltrow and their kids as interview no-fly zones), the otherwise mellow Chris Martin stormed out of a radio interview with the BBC Thursday, claiming the interviewer was "journalistically twisting" his words and that he was flat-out "not really enjoying this."

Read on to hear the moment the hissy fit hit...

Martin's boiling point came just nine minutes into the piece, and he left fellow bandmate Will Champion to finish out the majority of the interview before returning to answer one final question.

The duo was being interviewed by John Wilson for BBC Radio 4's cultural arts program, Front Row, when Wilson began a line of questioning related to the title of Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, and the band's presumed preoccupation with death.

"I wouldn't agree with you there at all, no," Martin said. "I'd say you're journalistically twisting me into saying something I don't really mean."

A few minutes later, Wilson asked about the lyrics of "Viva La Vida," the first single. After some shifting at the microphone, Martin said he was "not really enjoying this" and asked if he could take two minutes before getting up and walking out of the studio.

"I just don't really like having to talk about things," he said.

"Have I upset him?" Wilson asked Champion. "I don't think I said anything consciously..."

"No, I don't think so," the drummer said without missing a beat and answering the question posed to his bandmate.

The interview fared no better at the start (or end, for that matter), when Wilson at the outset asked Martin about comments he made at an awards show back in 2005 in which he said the group would be away "for a very long time."

"I always say stupid things, and I think Radio 4 is the place that will most remind me of that," he said.

Upon his brief return to the studio at the end of the show, he was asked a seemingly banal question about finding "new musical territory" on the new album.

"Um...yes, yes, yes...exactly."

Viva la moodiness.

Martin has a chance to redeem himself with the broadcasting giant later today, as he's scheduled to appear on another radio show on a separate BBC station.