Bruce Hornsby

6:29my listeners back. That kind of stuff, talking with the music, stuff like that. It's a younger audience. Talk about bad stuff. Yeah, a little bit of both, a little bit of everything. Show people what it's really like. Not all glitz and glamour all the time. Oh, it's like backstage? Yeah. It's like backstage, yeah. Pretty dull. Yeah, it's a bunch of people. Sorry, that's not too bad. The show basically, it caters to younger audience, it's called Radio Station. So, I mean, I'm sure a lot of my listeners are familiar with your music, but a lot of them also heard of you through the song changes by Tupac. Yeah, that's right. Which samples the way it is, your first single.

7:16Absolutely. How did they contact you? How did they go about doing that? Well, he had already done it. I, after he'd been kissed calling, he recorded a song. A lot of people don't realize that. And so, I put it out as they did on their, uh, go from that record.

8:04He talks about changing, well, politics and the poor. Yeah, I was, it's too old to your bitch, you fat motherfucker. Yeah, there you go. Catch you little beat that one. I was very political. Uh, Law and Sixty, which law was that, by the way? Oh, you mean my song? Your song, yeah. Sorry, that's right. It's not about racism. Just, you know, we live in the state where they just refuse to open

9:03and some, for no school, Virginia County, Prince Edward County, they did that. So, you know, I grew up in that. I mean, now I was much more than a different Virginia, but still those attitudes were around. And so, I wrote the way it is like that. Just by that. Mm-hmm. It went triple platinum for the original album. Yeah, but we're miles beyond that now. I mean, we do now, if you come to one of our shows, or, it's, it's not, it's, we've gone miles beyond that.

9:54Oh, yeah, for sure. Well, you've had another Grammy nomination this year. Best pop is your mental. Are they still as meaningful? Well, you know, it's always nice to get that sort of, the older you get, the more meaningful it is, to be honest with you, because, you know, you're not supposed to get these nominites. Popular music is more meaningful than that. It's all mixed with a bit of healthy dose of cynicism, because, obviously, the older you get how a lot of it has to do with real awarded.

11:09And now the Grammys, mind you, always has a few exceptions to that, and more so. Yeah, especially this year with Green Day and Kanye West. Well, I guess that's mainstream as well, but it's not really useful. That's really mainstream. Oh, and it's not the usual means, especially Kanye West's album. With that? Kanye West's. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it or not, but, yeah. Oh, oh, I agree. I did it different than the usual popular hip-hop you would hear with the bling bling, and I kind of talked about that too, actually a little. I don't quite, it's so catchy.

12:10He's written a lot of experimental music, but also perfect pop melodies, the way it is, end of innocence, walk in the sun, show goes on, which might be one of my favorite songs ever. Oh, show goes on. Yeah, I love it. I have a live version, I have a bootleg version, yeah. Oh, yeah, it's good. Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah, people just know as far as you record, they have no idea what we're really about. Yeah, oh, compared to a live show, I saw you at the Glen Gould Studio at CBC in Toronto a couple months back. Oh, thank you for myself. Yeah. Oh, yeah, well, that's another good way to see what I do, because it's a very difficult, real nice.

12:56I really, uh, dealing with, you know, virtuosity on the effects. Yeah. Oh, and it's talking about experimenting with music before we get into the show goes on. Why did you feel the need to experiment with music and change up the format of the usual stuff? Well, because I guess I'm just a restless musical spirit. I have some music, I got my degree in jazz music, so the jazz language has never been far. It's always been part of it here in the, you know, very musically. It wasn't about sort of chase that. I mean, you know, the way it is was Big Head and Madeline Rain and all that, Balley Road and all, you know, big hits and all.

13:47But I wouldn't try for them to be hits. I wasn't making the records for them to be on the radio. They didn't sound anything, something I was interested in artistically and it remained cool, you know, making little foreays into the blue graphs, the blue graphs area for years. I mean, when we won the blue graphs Grammy in 1990. So, you know, it's been doing a little bit of a blue graphs record. How do you feel about all that right now? About all the red state, blue state junk that's going on.

14:35You know, I'm not sure to, but a lot of it. Yeah, how do you feel a lot of country doing? I'm my mother's liberal lowest horn. Good to hear. You've worked with so many greats in the music industry, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton and Sting, Bella Flack, Bob Dylan, just to name a few. Oh, yeah, any cool stories? I'll come on, give us one.

15:21We talked about Fortune at Sun and smoking some grass in that. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Yeah, well, I hear Willie Nelson. That's what I think. Exactly. Oh, you really know my music. That's somewhat. I'd like to think so. I want to play Fortune at Sun in a bit. Actually, let's talk about that song right now. John Fogarty's got a song. CCR, Fortune at Sun and Wild. Yeah, I was totally aware of that one. It's from a book called Fortune at Sun. Oh, really? It's a prize, actually. He was written by Marine, Lewis P

16:39and Floyd's song, comfortably not. You haven't heard that? I've heard it. I know it. People, why do you play the play? They do go together. But the real reason I do that, the reason they go together, in 1992, I was going over to the legends of the guitar. Sure do.

17:24Okay. I'll go back to your woods and he asked me to help him, so I went over and helped him out. Well, Roger Waters was also on the bill the same night and he heard that I was coming over there and asked if I would do a duet. I got a, I was into, you know, Coltrane and Miles and Bill Evans and he'd been singing in at the Berlin Wall.

18:11And cool. And so I wrote Fortune at Sun for that same kind of, so that's why they, that's why the songs go together. Cool. Musical Lee and Luke, Timmy. Very nice. Let's play that one right now. It's Fortune at Sun 88.3. I'm sitting wondering why Chamele of the Rain and my ever-depressants shed. People laughing and smiles all around me losing people in my head. There's a metal car with a top down waving while they at me.

19:03Oh, son of a gun I know is taking better him, him and me. I've stared down the bill and had to look away. No one will ever hate. I laid down on the W.C. Lord Ray. It's all right. I got you, Fortune at Sun. It's hard, well, tall, but I wouldn't keep it inside.

19:59But sometimes I'd sit beside the freeway and how long I live in the dark sky. I'm a dystopical, I'm burned one. I'm a trickle of you. Fade away the cloudy haze of smoke. Feel the old man's mess. I'm a little too old. I've stared down the bill and had to look away. Fortune at Sun.

20:55Talking with music, talking about Billy Nelson included.

22:47Do you have these musicians? Do they come in and ask you to write with them? Or do you just sit down and start riffing on the piano and they're just like, yeah, hit the record button sounds good. Anytime you've been in the studio with someone other than the range, other than your band, going in- Well, now the rain has been, it's always different. It just depends on what they're looking for me to do. Don Henley's case, he wanted to write a song. He came to my house, I gave him a track and he wrote words to it and that became into the innocence. In Bonnie Ray's case, she had this great song, I can't make you love me. She wanted me to play the piano on it. So she gave me the demo tape the night before the session and I learned it and sort of re-harmonized it, changed the chords around a lot and came in and played that just in a couple of takes.

23:34He was recorded with The Meters, which was great fun. Bob Dylan played on his record. I just came in there and just, he showed me a song and I'm having a lot. I'm having a lot on this one chord. Dylan came out and grabbed a lyric sheet and started singing it. Cool. Do you like doing that going in? I always have, although I do it less and less.

24:22Why is that? Because spots and rewarding, you know, are not interesting. So often I would, they often, it was great, but often it would be a better person than it going. Yeah, you know, it's pretty good, but can you do this thing? It's a little bit straighter and I end up feeling, you know, and saying to them, I would say, you know, you could have gotten anybody to do this. I don't know why you really don't generate to me. This is not fun. So I only do it for, let me do what I do. So my, the list of the past few years has varied when he had, he sent me a tape basket of solo over.

25:25People that have asked me the last year to, people, all the people that I've turned down. And all the people I've worked with are people that most people haven't heard of. Hey, that's great. Whatever you like doing, man. Well, it's just not creative. The other thing is so, I don't, not it's just. Speaking of, that's straight, not conventional. You don't play with a setlist when you do a concert ever end. Not for long time. How is that possible? Not just in 1990 and there's a Canadian story why we don't play with the origin of our notes setlist. I mean, of course we were influenced by it by the time we were to dead.

26:10They didn't have setlist. Actually, I think it's actually less Bobby and Jerry were the bassan, Jerry-san, Bob-san, Jerry-san. Every now and then it fills the song. We always like to play as an encore, so we'll play it a lot. The cowboy junkies in Toronto are the opening end.

26:59We get ready to play, play small great woods and bosses and Margot Timmons got sick, so they couldn't do the gig. So we were going to do the whole night. Oh, wow. And so we show up, which of course we do all the time. Now if we weren't so used to it then, so I went out there and said, hey, look, if anybody's really bummed about this, hey, just go get your... Mm-hmm. They could really just kept doing it. You still take the quest? We'd be likely. And there were songs that you're just like, wow, I can't believe you know the song.

27:48Just like random oddballs from like boot bags. Yeah, but we have, you know like Brick House or... You know, well a lot of people request you sexy thing because I've got three years ago Bruce Springton and I did you sexy things. I do it. The two bruises and Aspiray Park Christmas shows. Oh, that's cool. So that's sort of a popular bootleg with certain use sexy things. I believe in miracles, beverage. You can go all over the place. Cool. How do you feel about the downloading of music with like plenty of bootlegs out there of your music? Very live population on the internet. Put out there also.

28:55So we're not feeling like the board. Okay, we do the thing on the show every week called Five Questions. Just five quick questions, one more answers. Favorite album of all time? Oh hell no. Just quick one. Quick one you can think of. You know what? I can't say because everyone picks Lenin.

29:41He used to critical choice but I'm not quite there with that because I love so much of what McCarty did too. So I'm going to be the contrarian and go with McCarty just because everybody says Lenin. Good but currently he's my favorite too and everyone always says Lenin. Shit. Sort of not as revered as sort of the... But I'm way more of a propone.

30:36Song and Britney you're most proud of. Very hard. You know what? Song and Britney is one of my best is a resting place from Spirit Trail. Yep, good tune. Cool. One more answer to close it off. Bruce Hornsby. One word. One word in. Alright Bruce Hornsby, thanks so much. Again I'm just another one again.

31:54It's dangerous inside my sphere. It's going to be different. It's silent of it.