WEBVTT - Rodney Crowell 0:00:15.476 --> 0:00:15.956 Pushkin. 0:00:20.236 --> 0:00:23.156 Rodney Croll has been a fixture and Nashville songwriting community 0:00:23.236 --> 0:00:26.836 for over fifty years. Born in Houston in nineteen fifty, 0:00:26.996 --> 0:00:30.236 he was influenced early on by songwriters Guy Clark, in Towns, 0:00:30.316 --> 0:00:33.356 van zandt. In nineteen seventy five, he joined Emmy Lou 0:00:33.436 --> 0:00:36.476 Harris's Hot Band as a guitarist and harmony singer, playing 0:00:36.476 --> 0:00:39.676 with her for three years. Rodney became known for his 0:00:39.716 --> 0:00:42.796 own work with his nineteen eighty eight album Diamonds and Dirt, 0:00:42.956 --> 0:00:46.236 an album that made history by producing five consecutive number 0:00:46.276 --> 0:00:50.436 one singles. Over his career, he's written songs for Johnny Cash, 0:00:50.436 --> 0:00:53.916 Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, and countless others, earning him a 0:00:53.956 --> 0:00:57.796 place in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Just last August, 0:00:57.996 --> 0:01:02.396 krow released his twentieth studio album, Airline Highway, produced by 0:01:02.436 --> 0:01:07.436 Tyler Bryant and recorded at Dockside Studio in Louisiana. In 0:01:07.476 --> 0:01:09.476 just a few months back, Willie Nelson at Least What 0:01:09.596 --> 0:01:14.156 a Beautiful World, an entire album of Krowell covers. On 0:01:14.196 --> 0:01:17.116 today's episode, Bruce Headlam talks to Rodney Crowell about making 0:01:17.116 --> 0:01:20.076 the Airline Highway In the emotional experience of hearing Willie 0:01:20.076 --> 0:01:23.836 Nelson's tribute album, he discusses his formative years in Nashville 0:01:23.916 --> 0:01:26.836 songwriting community, learning the craft from Guy Clark in towns 0:01:26.916 --> 0:01:30.796 Van Say. He opens up about his difficult childhood in Houston, 0:01:30.836 --> 0:01:33.716 including his mother's epilepsy and his father taking him to 0:01:33.756 --> 0:01:37.196 see Hank Williams perform when he was just two years old. 0:01:37.836 --> 0:01:40.316 Plus he talks about working with his ex wife Roseanne 0:01:40.356 --> 0:01:43.756 Cash and meeting his father in law, Johnny Cash, for 0:01:43.796 --> 0:01:52.716 the first time. This is broken record, real musicians, real conversations. 0:01:56.156 --> 0:01:58.076 Here's Bruce Headlam with Rodney Crowell. 0:01:59.916 --> 0:02:02.076 You have a new album, Airline Highway, that I do 0:02:02.156 --> 0:02:04.876 want to talk about if you've had a very big year. 0:02:04.956 --> 0:02:09.676 A couple months ago, Willie Nelson released an album covers 0:02:09.796 --> 0:02:13.316 of your material. What a Beautiful World. I'm just interested. 0:02:13.316 --> 0:02:14.916 What was your reaction to hearing that? 0:02:15.876 --> 0:02:17.876 Well, first I went in and sang on a song. 0:02:18.036 --> 0:02:20.676 We had a duet, so I heard one song and 0:02:20.756 --> 0:02:24.196 I had a sense of the sound of it. But 0:02:24.276 --> 0:02:27.916 he called me back to listen to the whole album, 0:02:27.996 --> 0:02:31.956 finished mix, sitting on his console, sitting there listening and 0:02:33.516 --> 0:02:35.556 by the second banks of the old band Beer. I 0:02:35.676 --> 0:02:39.796 was sobbing. It was like, you know, I cried through 0:02:39.876 --> 0:02:42.796 half of it. I think a lot of it was 0:02:42.836 --> 0:02:46.796 like fingers crossed that they even finished this project, that 0:02:47.276 --> 0:02:50.676 it comes to fruition. It's like, wouldn't it be great? 0:02:51.276 --> 0:02:53.556 And when I heard it, I was like, oh, man, 0:02:54.556 --> 0:02:57.836 but that had happened to me on an album before that. 0:02:58.036 --> 0:03:00.996 I was driving in my car and I heard Willy 0:03:01.036 --> 0:03:02.756 had done this song, and I called Minnie along and 0:03:02.836 --> 0:03:06.076 on some highway I was driving and it was so 0:03:06.116 --> 0:03:09.796 sweet sounding to me. I was sobbing then. So it's like, 0:03:10.316 --> 0:03:13.796 Willy has my number. All he has to do is 0:03:13.836 --> 0:03:15.436 sing a few words and I'm crying. 0:03:15.716 --> 0:03:17.636 Does that happen with other songs? And that happens with 0:03:17.716 --> 0:03:20.516 your songs that you cry mine? 0:03:20.556 --> 0:03:21.716 I'm selfish that way. 0:03:22.756 --> 0:03:25.556 I cry my own songs. Yeah, thank you very much. 0:03:25.756 --> 0:03:27.916 Yeah, I'm not interested in anybody else. 0:03:28.716 --> 0:03:32.956 It's a beautiful sounding album, like the space in it. Yeah, 0:03:32.996 --> 0:03:35.956 it's just gorgeous. And he's ninety two. 0:03:36.316 --> 0:03:37.676 Yeah, go figure. 0:03:37.716 --> 0:03:38.436 It sounds great. 0:03:38.516 --> 0:03:41.276 Here's the interesting thing I think what got me about it. 0:03:41.356 --> 0:03:43.876 There are the second song's banks of the old Bandira, 0:03:44.996 --> 0:03:47.556 and it's a song I wrote way back in the 0:03:47.596 --> 0:03:52.316 mid seventies, and it's about childhood, and I recorded it 0:03:52.876 --> 0:03:56.436 in around nineteen ninety nine, a good while after I 0:03:57.076 --> 0:04:00.156 wrote it, and my version as a middle aged man 0:04:00.236 --> 0:04:03.276 singing about childhood. But the thing that got me the 0:04:03.316 --> 0:04:06.796 most is Willy's ninety one at the time and singing 0:04:06.836 --> 0:04:12.076 about childhood and my what really moved me emotionally was that, God, 0:04:13.116 --> 0:04:15.556 she was a ninety one year old man, and he's 0:04:15.716 --> 0:04:19.396 closer to childhood than a middle aged man in terms 0:04:19.436 --> 0:04:24.356 of delivering I don't know, just whatever it is about youth, 0:04:25.076 --> 0:04:26.556 it's like come in full circle. 0:04:26.756 --> 0:04:31.716 It's an amazing album. It's also very you're talking about 0:04:31.716 --> 0:04:35.716 that particular song. His takes are so sweet, but they're 0:04:35.756 --> 0:04:40.436 not sentimental at all, and I don't know quite how 0:04:40.476 --> 0:04:41.516 he pulls that off. 0:04:43.156 --> 0:04:48.716 I don't think Willy was ever particularly sentimental or cloying 0:04:49.116 --> 0:04:52.036 or anything like that. I mean, from the get go 0:04:52.156 --> 0:04:57.596 he was straight ahead. And part of my love for 0:04:57.716 --> 0:05:01.276 WILLI started around nineteen sixty four. He had a song 0:05:01.396 --> 0:05:04.796 call I Never Cared for You that was being played 0:05:04.836 --> 0:05:08.796 on the rock station in Houston, and I was walking 0:05:08.836 --> 0:05:13.716 down sidewalk and when it came out, the opening line says, 0:05:13.716 --> 0:05:16.076 the sun is filled with ice and gives no warmth 0:05:16.116 --> 0:05:19.076 at all. This guy was never blue. The stars a 0:05:19.196 --> 0:05:21.836 raindrop searching for a place to fall, and I never 0:05:21.916 --> 0:05:26.236 cared for you. I'm fourteen, and when I hear that, 0:05:26.356 --> 0:05:30.276 it's like, what language is this man speaking? Because the 0:05:30.276 --> 0:05:34.036 Beatles were cracking the radio at the time, and shortly 0:05:34.076 --> 0:05:37.836 after that I heard Subterranean Homesick Blues. A friend of 0:05:37.836 --> 0:05:40.796 mine had that Dylan album Bringing It All Back Home. 0:05:40.876 --> 0:05:43.396 I think that was the one. And so there were 0:05:43.476 --> 0:05:47.956 two pieces of music that happened that had a depth 0:05:48.316 --> 0:05:51.956 that I recognized, some sort of death. But I needed, 0:05:52.196 --> 0:05:54.796 you know, I needed twenty years to grow into whatever 0:05:54.916 --> 0:05:57.716 that was about that. I was sensing it in my 0:05:58.556 --> 0:06:03.156 mid teens, and I don't think really ever moved away 0:06:03.236 --> 0:06:06.716 from that. Even when he was singing you know, beautiful 0:06:07.476 --> 0:06:10.196 love ballads and stuff, it's still unded like he had 0:06:10.196 --> 0:06:11.316 that kind of gravity. 0:06:12.036 --> 0:06:14.436 Tell me a little bit when we want to dive 0:06:14.516 --> 0:06:17.756 back into early influences, but tell me a bit about 0:06:17.756 --> 0:06:20.596 how this album Airline Highway came about. 0:06:21.916 --> 0:06:26.956 Well, quite naturally. The writing process is, if I'm not 0:06:27.076 --> 0:06:31.196 out on the road performing, I'm pretty much up up 0:06:31.236 --> 0:06:34.516 every morning working on songs. Right, I approach it like 0:06:34.596 --> 0:06:37.716 a writer. It's I guess my job, and I love 0:06:37.796 --> 0:06:38.196 the work. 0:06:38.316 --> 0:06:40.236 So do you get up early to do it before 0:06:40.236 --> 0:06:40.876 anybody else? 0:06:41.476 --> 0:06:45.156 Yeah, I'm an early riser now because I raised four kids, 0:06:45.276 --> 0:06:47.316 and you know, I used to sleep till four in 0:06:47.316 --> 0:06:51.996 the afternoon before I started became a father, and I 0:06:52.076 --> 0:06:54.716 never got that turner. There didn't seem to be any 0:06:54.796 --> 0:06:58.436 need to turn that back around, and so I'm up working. 0:06:58.636 --> 0:07:02.356 It's I figure it's a blessing that I have the 0:07:02.436 --> 0:07:05.756 work in the first place and have the time to 0:07:05.836 --> 0:07:10.276 do it. So I'm writing the song songs that would 0:07:10.316 --> 0:07:14.636 become Airline Highway. But at the same time I met 0:07:14.716 --> 0:07:17.996 up with a lad named Tyler Bryant, who's the producer 0:07:19.116 --> 0:07:23.836 through Peter Leek, my manager, and Tyler's from Paris, Texas. 0:07:23.836 --> 0:07:27.036 We're both Texas boys. But I got into a conversation 0:07:27.156 --> 0:07:32.156 with him about the first recordings. First recording studio I 0:07:32.236 --> 0:07:35.836 ever walked into to try to sing something a song 0:07:35.876 --> 0:07:40.556 that I'd written was in Crowley, Louisiana. It's a studio 0:07:40.636 --> 0:07:44.596 owned by J. D. Miller, a real wheeler dealer down there, 0:07:44.636 --> 0:07:47.916 and nothing came of those sessions that I have the 0:07:47.996 --> 0:07:52.716 tapes at home and they'll never be released because they're 0:07:52.756 --> 0:07:55.716 not worthy of being released. But I also had this 0:07:55.876 --> 0:07:59.316 romantic notion because we used to growing up on the 0:07:59.316 --> 0:08:02.156 east side of Houston. We used to cross the Louisiana 0:08:02.196 --> 0:08:04.596 line over there to hear the Boogie Kings at the 0:08:04.596 --> 0:08:08.236 Big Oaks Club is It was called Blue Eyed Soul, 0:08:08.556 --> 0:08:12.636 big soul band with horn section and a couple of 0:08:12.876 --> 0:08:16.116 great R and B singers leading the band. So we 0:08:16.156 --> 0:08:18.836 would go and we would sit outside in the parking 0:08:18.836 --> 0:08:20.796 lot and we could hear him through the walls. 0:08:21.316 --> 0:08:23.236 Was this with friends or with your family? 0:08:23.716 --> 0:08:27.756 No? With other lads my age, you know, we would 0:08:27.756 --> 0:08:30.116 sneak over there. And also there was a romance of 0:08:30.156 --> 0:08:32.356 it now and again if you find the right spot, 0:08:32.436 --> 0:08:36.036 you could buy beer. When you were fifteen, it was 0:08:36.156 --> 0:08:40.516 lawless in that way, but the music was really it 0:08:40.556 --> 0:08:43.516 was a romantic trip to go over there to hear 0:08:43.596 --> 0:08:47.476 the Boogie Kings. And I was describing that to Tyler, 0:08:47.516 --> 0:08:52.796 and I was also describing Crowley, Louisiana, and we had 0:08:52.876 --> 0:08:56.036 decided we wanted to make a record. And Trina Shoemaker 0:08:56.076 --> 0:08:58.236 lives down there on the coast and she was part 0:08:58.276 --> 0:09:01.076 of that New Orleans scene that Lanoix had going on, 0:09:02.396 --> 0:09:05.916 and I've made a couple of records with her, and 0:09:06.716 --> 0:09:08.876 so we were going to bring her in and I said, guy, 0:09:09.236 --> 0:09:11.156 I went to Chicago and made a record. I had 0:09:11.156 --> 0:09:14.756 so much fun to fulfill this fantasy. I had to 0:09:14.796 --> 0:09:19.516 go into Chicago and recording Hellan Wolf and the likes. 0:09:19.756 --> 0:09:22.556 And I said, I need to go to Louisiana, but 0:09:22.636 --> 0:09:24.756 I don't feel like New Orleans where I ought to go. 0:09:24.836 --> 0:09:28.836 And Treata said, oh, well, you got to go to Dockside. 0:09:28.836 --> 0:09:32.156 It's on the Vermilion River. And if you don't get 0:09:32.196 --> 0:09:35.156 eaten by if we don't get eaten by crocodiles, we'll 0:09:35.196 --> 0:09:39.316 make a good record. So there the idea that we're 0:09:39.316 --> 0:09:42.796 going to Louisiana maker record was born. And so Tyler 0:09:42.796 --> 0:09:46.396 and I had loaded up a vanful of mostly his gear. 0:09:46.436 --> 0:09:48.676 I had a couple of guitars, but he had amps 0:09:48.676 --> 0:09:52.236 and whatever, and we drove down there to to Dockside 0:09:52.276 --> 0:09:56.236 Studio and met some musicians from Texas that that we 0:09:56.316 --> 0:09:59.356 love and set up in a studio not too much 0:09:59.436 --> 0:10:02.596 unlike this one with a good cement floor in case 0:10:03.036 --> 0:10:07.156 in case the river gets up, and we were off amazing. 0:10:07.756 --> 0:10:09.356 I want to go back to your writing because I 0:10:09.396 --> 0:10:12.316 want you to set the scene for me. You say 0:10:12.316 --> 0:10:14.356 you write every day. You have an office at home? 0:10:14.476 --> 0:10:15.556 Do you go to an office? 0:10:15.636 --> 0:10:18.516 I have a home studio, you know. I go down 0:10:18.636 --> 0:10:21.356 across the house and hit down the hallway and I 0:10:21.396 --> 0:10:24.196 have a studio in one wing of the house there 0:10:24.996 --> 0:10:29.836 which I've made records in there. And for me, you know, 0:10:29.916 --> 0:10:32.836 people say what's your favorite song you've ever written? And 0:10:33.196 --> 0:10:36.436 I always say, well, the one i'm working on, that's 0:10:36.476 --> 0:10:39.196 the most important song that I've ever written, whatever I'm 0:10:39.196 --> 0:10:45.196 working on now. And I can't say that the end 0:10:45.236 --> 0:10:48.996 result of the record we made was so much by 0:10:49.156 --> 0:10:53.636 design as I was writing, because pretty much the rule 0:10:53.636 --> 0:10:56.596 of thumb I have is that if I'm patient enough, 0:10:56.636 --> 0:10:58.436 the song will tell me what it wants to be. 0:11:00.316 --> 0:11:05.796 But slowly, I think, maybe intuitively, I knew I was 0:11:05.876 --> 0:11:11.996 headed south to record the record a song with Lucas 0:11:12.036 --> 0:11:18.196 Nelson about rainy days in California and going back east, 0:11:18.236 --> 0:11:22.676 and I just made my way back to Louisiana because 0:11:22.676 --> 0:11:27.036 of my childhood down there, and that might have been 0:11:27.116 --> 0:11:30.516 a signal that got me to think, well, wouldn't it 0:11:30.596 --> 0:11:32.996 be nice to go record in the swamps down there 0:11:32.996 --> 0:11:36.956 and see if we could pick up some swampy sounds. 0:11:38.196 --> 0:11:42.356 And I continued on and for a song like taking Flight, 0:11:43.476 --> 0:11:47.716 I'd already written it with Ashley McBride before, but it 0:11:47.836 --> 0:11:54.116 was certainly the landscape down in southern Mississippi. So maybe 0:11:54.396 --> 0:11:57.476 intuitively I was headed that way from the get go, 0:11:57.556 --> 0:12:03.316 but it wasn't conscious. I wasn't consciously trying to craft 0:12:03.356 --> 0:12:08.356 a song like a group of songs that were necessarily 0:12:09.876 --> 0:12:14.196 had a Louisiana vibe. But mind you, over the years 0:12:14.236 --> 0:12:17.196 I've written songs like Leaving Louisiana in the broad Daylight 0:12:17.276 --> 0:12:20.796 and Fever on the Bio and Stars on the Water. 0:12:20.996 --> 0:12:24.316 So I guess I figured that Louisiana owes me something. 0:12:25.156 --> 0:12:31.676 You know, your lyrics seem so precise to me. Do 0:12:31.796 --> 0:12:34.276 the lyrics change a lot once you get in the studio? 0:12:35.676 --> 0:12:39.036 No, I don't do any writing in the studio once 0:12:39.116 --> 0:12:44.236 we're set up to record, got microphones and the sounds. 0:12:44.596 --> 0:12:47.396 I write everything before we get in the studio. I 0:12:47.396 --> 0:12:52.716 don't like to have to think about finding a good 0:12:52.836 --> 0:12:56.636 rhyme in the middle of about to get a good 0:12:56.676 --> 0:12:59.996 take that doesn't work for me. I gotta have it 0:13:00.036 --> 0:13:01.276 written before we go in. 0:13:01.636 --> 0:13:03.796 So when you're writing, are you there with a guitar 0:13:04.116 --> 0:13:05.876 or are you working on lyrics? 0:13:06.116 --> 0:13:12.676 Usually, well, melody comes more easily for me than lyric. 0:13:13.516 --> 0:13:18.076 It's probably seventy thirty. I probably spend seventy percent of 0:13:18.156 --> 0:13:21.476 the time working on the lyric, but the music is, 0:13:21.556 --> 0:13:24.516 generally speaking a lot easier for me. I don't struggle 0:13:24.516 --> 0:13:28.556 with that too much. Generally, the melody comes. And it's 0:13:29.356 --> 0:13:31.516 very rare that I've written the lyric and then tried 0:13:31.556 --> 0:13:35.676 to match a melody to fit it. It's happened a 0:13:35.676 --> 0:13:39.676 couple of times. But the good ones, there's some kind 0:13:39.676 --> 0:13:45.116 of vibe or some notion or atmosphere from a chord 0:13:45.676 --> 0:13:47.636 or a couple of chords that fall together in the 0:13:47.716 --> 0:13:52.516 right way will lead the way to how the melody 0:13:53.276 --> 0:13:55.356 is and how the language fits it. 0:13:56.676 --> 0:14:00.556 So a line on the new record like She's a 0:14:00.556 --> 0:14:04.956 wildwood flower in a red Corvette, Yeah, which I love? Yeah? 0:14:05.156 --> 0:14:07.236 Do you remember did that come to you in the 0:14:07.236 --> 0:14:09.756 middle of writing the song? That did that? Started? 0:14:10.236 --> 0:14:17.116 Interestingly, that song, it started with an entirely different melodic 0:14:17.316 --> 0:14:22.036 feel and an entirely different sort of a little more 0:14:22.116 --> 0:14:25.436 rock and roll kind of thing that I was trying 0:14:25.436 --> 0:14:28.996 to force it into this, this kind of barcurd, a 0:14:28.996 --> 0:14:32.756 little chuck berry Ish take on a feel with a 0:14:32.796 --> 0:14:37.796 little bluesy rock Chuck berriersh. And I didn't have the 0:14:37.796 --> 0:14:40.236 wildwood Flower in the Red Corvette yet, but I had 0:14:40.956 --> 0:14:43.716 sometime thing, she don't make believe in making love to 0:14:43.756 --> 0:14:46.116 a sometime thing. I had that because that was based 0:14:46.156 --> 0:14:49.676 on an experience with some dude hitting home my girlfriend. 0:14:50.396 --> 0:14:54.356 I watched it happen. She's my wife now, we've been 0:14:54.396 --> 0:14:59.036 together all this time, and I was watching it. He 0:14:59.156 --> 0:15:01.916 was putting the move on her, and she was oblivious 0:15:01.956 --> 0:15:05.516 to it and blew him off. And she didn't blow 0:15:05.556 --> 0:15:08.636 him off intentionally, she just wasn't buying. 0:15:08.316 --> 0:15:10.676 It r And she was so cool. 0:15:10.716 --> 0:15:14.356 And I watched it, and that's she don't believe in 0:15:14.396 --> 0:15:17.596 making love to a sometime thing. That's the line that 0:15:17.716 --> 0:15:20.076 came to me, and I had it in that chuck 0:15:20.156 --> 0:15:24.996 berry Field. But years went by, twenty some years went 0:15:25.036 --> 0:15:27.156 by that I monkeyed around with it. 0:15:27.756 --> 0:15:29.916 Oh so the lyric was that old yeah. 0:15:29.916 --> 0:15:35.316 Yeah, the the chorus, but then I just said this melody, 0:15:35.396 --> 0:15:38.316 I cannot bring anything home, and then one morning I 0:15:38.396 --> 0:15:41.796 woke up and I started playing just this real folky 0:15:42.116 --> 0:15:47.836 thumb style rhythm for it, and there it was. And 0:15:47.876 --> 0:15:51.196 then the line She's a wildwood flower in a red 0:15:51.236 --> 0:15:53.836 Corvette just came to me. And when you get a 0:15:53.876 --> 0:15:55.476 line like that, and I thought that was a really 0:15:55.476 --> 0:15:59.076 good line and line and when that hit, when that came, 0:15:59.156 --> 0:16:02.636 and then I hit on Tanya Tucker meets Kate Blanchett. 0:16:03.276 --> 0:16:07.956 I said, uh okay, and a song that had been 0:16:08.076 --> 0:16:11.996 just atting for twenty any plush years, came together in 0:16:12.236 --> 0:16:12.996 thirty minutes. 0:16:13.676 --> 0:16:16.676 It is an interesting song because it it sounds like 0:16:16.756 --> 0:16:20.396 a like an old blues kind of wang dang doodle 0:16:20.636 --> 0:16:21.836 sort of riff. 0:16:22.036 --> 0:16:23.996 And then it's just beauty should pay it. 0:16:24.156 --> 0:16:25.436 You should absolutely play it. 0:16:25.556 --> 0:16:28.156 Let me just play, at least play some of it. 0:16:30.516 --> 0:16:37.156 She's a wild wood flower in a red Corvette, Dan 0:16:37.316 --> 0:16:43.916 you Tucker meets Kate bland Set. She stagger like dishes 0:16:43.956 --> 0:16:49.676 in the kitchen sink. She doesn't give a damn what 0:16:49.876 --> 0:16:55.116 it is. You might thing. She got the blue green 0:16:55.196 --> 0:17:02.036 eyes and who doo smile pearly white over by drive 0:17:02.116 --> 0:17:12.036 them in wild, voicelike butter when she opens them mount you. 0:17:12.076 --> 0:17:14.756 Ever since I met her, I've been heading down south. 0:17:17.196 --> 0:17:19.156 Now you can try to make a thunder. You can 0:17:19.196 --> 0:17:21.356 try to slop the rain. She don't believe in making 0:17:21.436 --> 0:17:26.196 love to a sometime thing. Sometimes thing, sometimes thanks, you 0:17:26.236 --> 0:17:32.796 don't believe in making love to a sometime thing. Whoever 0:17:32.876 --> 0:17:38.756 said the diamonds are a girl's best friend might have 0:17:38.796 --> 0:17:44.516 set you thinking you could buy a way in. Because 0:17:44.556 --> 0:17:47.996 you haven't noticed why you're flashing that green. He was 0:17:48.036 --> 0:17:53.716 a rich guy. She's happy feeding quarters to a slop machine. 0:17:55.476 --> 0:17:58.116 Now she's an open invitation to go back from where 0:17:58.156 --> 0:18:00.316 you came. She don't believe in making love to a 0:18:00.476 --> 0:18:05.396 sometime thing. Sometimes things. Sometimes thinks you don't believe in 0:18:05.436 --> 0:18:10.956 making love to a sometime thing. You get on a 0:18:10.956 --> 0:18:15.716 Swiss Chatau, half a block of monocle and girls, a 0:18:15.836 --> 0:18:23.276 mass on and downtround santrope. You could take a Gulf 0:18:23.276 --> 0:18:28.436 stream jet party where the sun don't set. In case 0:18:28.476 --> 0:18:32.316 you haven't heard me yet, be careful where you place 0:18:32.476 --> 0:18:37.996 that bed. Heal, you better heed my wanter, Tell me 0:18:38.076 --> 0:18:43.916 what did I see? I love that woman till my 0:18:44.116 --> 0:18:49.516 die in day. Go on and make a move on 0:18:49.596 --> 0:18:54.916 what you know to be mine. It's only going to 0:18:55.036 --> 0:19:00.036 lead you to the back of the line. You can 0:19:00.076 --> 0:19:02.116 try to run your number. Let me try to make 0:19:02.156 --> 0:19:04.396 it plain. You don't believe in making enough to a 0:19:04.516 --> 0:19:09.516 sometime thing, sometime thing sometime. Thanks, you don't be even 0:19:09.556 --> 0:19:11.636 making love to do a sometimthing. 0:19:14.876 --> 0:19:18.836 That the lines in there are so good, thank you 0:19:19.916 --> 0:19:23.276 stack like dishes in the kitchen sink. Yes, and though 0:19:23.316 --> 0:19:26.196 the one that kills me is one way ticket back 0:19:26.236 --> 0:19:29.796 to where you came from where you came. Yeah, it's 0:19:29.876 --> 0:19:33.236 also now that I know the story, somebody hitting on 0:19:33.276 --> 0:19:36.316 your girlfriend, somebody rich hitting on your girlfriend. It's not 0:19:36.956 --> 0:19:42.196 unsympathetic to the guy. Hmm. You could have written a 0:19:42.196 --> 0:19:46.676 song that was like you're a loser. Yeah, you're you're 0:19:46.716 --> 0:19:50.716 out of her league. But the guy was. 0:19:50.796 --> 0:19:55.756 A film star and I suppose still is. I'll never 0:19:55.836 --> 0:19:59.756 reveal his name, doesn't matter, but thank you for pointing 0:19:59.756 --> 0:20:04.036 out that it is sympathetic toward the guy. I'm glad because, 0:20:04.316 --> 0:20:08.796 to be honest, it wasn't my intention to be sympathetic. 0:20:09.236 --> 0:20:12.796 Really want to thumb my nose at him and pretty 0:20:12.876 --> 0:20:14.196 much what I'm doing. 0:20:14.236 --> 0:20:19.116 But maybe I should rephrase it's sympathetic towards men in general. 0:20:19.916 --> 0:20:24.756 Yeah, well, God knows we need that. Yes, and our genders, 0:20:26.676 --> 0:20:28.676 our backs have been against the wall for a long 0:20:28.756 --> 0:20:30.676 time and for good reason. 0:20:31.916 --> 0:20:36.196 Yeah, we've earned that. Uh. You mentioned growing up in Houston. 0:20:36.796 --> 0:20:38.956 For people who notice how many references that are to 0:20:39.116 --> 0:20:43.876 rain in your songs, you come by it honestly. Oh yeah, 0:20:43.916 --> 0:20:47.796 lots of hurricanes. Yeah, it rained a lot, Torrential. You 0:20:47.876 --> 0:20:51.636 describe in your book basically your house falling apart growing 0:20:51.716 --> 0:20:53.676 up because of the rain. 0:20:54.076 --> 0:20:55.996 In England they call them two up and two down. 0:20:56.196 --> 0:21:00.796 There's four rooms with a bathroom and uh, and there's 0:21:00.836 --> 0:21:04.276 a kitchen in my parents' bedroom. I was the only child. 0:21:05.196 --> 0:21:07.796 But you could see the stars through the through the 0:21:08.596 --> 0:21:11.196 through the room, through the ceiling in their bedroom, and 0:21:11.236 --> 0:21:15.716 they had number three wash tubs and igloo water coolers 0:21:15.756 --> 0:21:19.876 and pots and pants catching water coming through the ceiling, 0:21:19.956 --> 0:21:22.636 and same thing in the kitchen. But the water would 0:21:22.756 --> 0:21:25.956 the light bulb in the center of the ceiling. It 0:21:26.036 --> 0:21:29.996 had been dangerous as it could be, because the water 0:21:30.036 --> 0:21:34.196 would come pouring down around the light fixture in the ceiling, 0:21:34.476 --> 0:21:36.716 you know, And it would rain and just rain and 0:21:36.836 --> 0:21:40.916 rain and rain. And I still love rain. I mean, 0:21:41.036 --> 0:21:42.476 rain feels like home to me. 0:21:43.236 --> 0:21:46.556 You describe your father who worked construction, He was a 0:21:46.596 --> 0:21:48.316 handy guy, but not at home. 0:21:49.156 --> 0:21:54.876 No, that's true about him. I mean he six or 0:21:54.916 --> 0:21:59.836 seventh grade, sharecrop farm education in western Kentucky. He wound 0:21:59.916 --> 0:22:04.236 up running as the head guy at a big construction 0:22:04.356 --> 0:22:09.436 company in Houston, taking on really building barges and launch 0:22:09.516 --> 0:22:16.676 pads for ships being launched by a shipyard. There. Really 0:22:16.676 --> 0:22:20.716 a smart guy, but it just all the good things 0:22:20.756 --> 0:22:24.156 he did for other people just didn't make it all. 0:22:26.116 --> 0:22:28.916 Was that ever a discussion like we can see the Stars? 0:22:30.236 --> 0:22:33.716 No, I don't think so. I think it's no doubt 0:22:33.756 --> 0:22:38.156 my parents were Depression era of farm kids. Sharecraft farm 0:22:38.276 --> 0:22:44.316 could dis entitled, and I don't think that they really 0:22:44.396 --> 0:22:48.556 thought that they had a right to expect anything better 0:22:48.596 --> 0:22:52.756 than what was there. However, my dad would go off 0:22:52.796 --> 0:22:58.116 to work and really perform for the man. And my 0:22:58.196 --> 0:23:01.356 mother was a janitor at the school for a while there, 0:23:01.396 --> 0:23:04.156 and I suppose she was good at it. I don't know, 0:23:04.356 --> 0:23:07.836 But if you knew my mom and dad, you wouldn't 0:23:08.556 --> 0:23:12.316 know why I'm a songwriter Because my father played guitar 0:23:12.356 --> 0:23:14.876 and he had a beautiful voice, and he was a 0:23:14.916 --> 0:23:20.076 savant in another way, in that he grew up on 0:23:20.116 --> 0:23:22.596 a sharecraft farm where they walked four or five miles 0:23:22.636 --> 0:23:26.356 to someone who had a dry cell radio to listen 0:23:26.396 --> 0:23:30.316 to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights. And I 0:23:30.316 --> 0:23:32.316 guess the way it was he could hear a song 0:23:32.356 --> 0:23:36.516 once or twice and have it, and most of those 0:23:36.556 --> 0:23:40.676 songs were simple in that way. And my father actually 0:23:40.676 --> 0:23:45.716 took me to Hank William's next to last performance in 0:23:45.796 --> 0:23:50.796 Houston in nineteen fifty two, right before Christmas, and I 0:23:50.836 --> 0:23:53.356 was two years and four months old. 0:23:53.556 --> 0:23:54.316 Do you remember that? 0:23:54.916 --> 0:23:56.556 And I wrote about it in my book, But what 0:23:56.636 --> 0:24:00.796 I remember is the smell of his hair tonic and 0:24:00.876 --> 0:24:04.796 a little bit of a light and that kind of 0:24:05.676 --> 0:24:11.036 hushed audience sound before things start to happen. But he 0:24:11.116 --> 0:24:14.356 reinforced the memory over and over and over again, because 0:24:14.396 --> 0:24:18.436 as I was from childhood on, he was like, don't 0:24:18.716 --> 0:24:21.796 ever forget that. I took you to see the Hillbilly Shakespeare, 0:24:22.436 --> 0:24:25.036 which is what they called Hank Williams back then. So 0:24:25.236 --> 0:24:29.476 he drove it home. So my memory of it is 0:24:29.516 --> 0:24:32.356 his memory, and I wrote about I tried to write 0:24:32.396 --> 0:24:33.276 about it that way. 0:24:33.916 --> 0:24:36.876 You don't remember the show itself, No, no, no way. 0:24:38.156 --> 0:24:41.596 But I do remember, you know, a couple of years 0:24:41.636 --> 0:24:45.756 after that, being on the floor with a little record 0:24:45.756 --> 0:24:49.396 player in those Hank william seventy eights. I'd figured out 0:24:49.396 --> 0:24:52.316 how to get them on a small turntable and listen 0:24:52.316 --> 0:24:54.476 to those Hank Williams seventy eights over and over and 0:24:54.516 --> 0:24:55.996 over again. 0:24:56.316 --> 0:24:57.916 What were the songs that stuck with you? 0:24:58.396 --> 0:25:02.836 Oh? Well, it's like moving on over come in last 0:25:02.916 --> 0:25:06.396 night about half past ten, a baby, I wouldn't let me. 0:25:06.436 --> 0:25:10.556 I man, that caught me even age four. It's like, whatever, 0:25:11.156 --> 0:25:16.876 the role of that language and Chuck Berry had sort 0:25:16.916 --> 0:25:19.476 of the same effect on me. You know that those 0:25:19.516 --> 0:25:23.276 cartoons of the the cat following floating through the air, 0:25:23.356 --> 0:25:28.636 following the cat nip, those kind of rolling, tumbling lyrical 0:25:28.796 --> 0:25:34.276 events like those. So I've always been on the lookout 0:25:34.316 --> 0:25:36.916 for that kind of thing. It's like, boy, how do 0:25:36.956 --> 0:25:41.236