How long have you two been together?
AA: We met in 1996 at my 50th-birthday party—a hyperactive gala kind of affair.
Was it love at first sight?
AA: I would never use that language. He doesn’t actually remember meeting me that night.
Did you have beards when you met?
Mark: I always had some sort of facial hair. Around the time I met AA, I got this image in my head of growing a long beard. Without any discussion between us he stopped shaving as well.
Do you trim each other?
AA: Once a month or so. It’s a lot less upkeep than shaving.
How about clothes-sharing?
AA: No, we don’t. When Mark puts something on, it becomes his.
Do strangers ever comment on your look?
AA: We get pointed out from tourist buses. You can hear it from the megaphone: “That’s typical of Chelsea or the West Village,” or wherever we are. And there’s always people yelling “ZZ Top!” out of their car windows.
Are you ZZ Top fans?
Mark: They don’t have a place in my mind.
Interview by Rachel Baker.