Q Rickie Lee, millions of people heard you first when your first albums came out, 1979, 1981. Do you think they can relate when you make departures like about 10 years ago you had an album that was pretty electronic based, Ghostyhead or this new album? Can those folks still relate?
A Some of them can. Some of them have gone on the journey all the way with me. You know, people’s musical tastes are very diverse. And I figure my fans, for the most part, are probably kind of like me. So some people are buying an image and then they’ll have a little trouble because you’ve broken their connection with the image of what you’re doing. But musically, I would be surprised -- I think -- the sorrowful thing about Ghostyhead was -- I don’t like to use a cliché, but I think it was so far ahead of its time. And it was out for six months and then taken off the market. So it didn’t have a time -- have a chance to be ingested and compared to things that came after it. I think if it was released now, it would be 10 years, 12 years (later), it would be very, very timely.
And I was disappointed that the discussion that took place among some critics was my right to do this kind of music. And, you know, what used to be important publications this discussion took place. And I just thought, well, how can you, as a journalist, decide what -- say what I am and what I should be doing. I was just really surprised. By then, it was obvious that I was, that the records were movies, that they were always going to be diverse and I was going to -- you know, if I wanted to do jazz or whatever.
I challenged that from the very beginning, because I saw that the critics were genre hungry and they wanted you to really be specific in how you looked, how you talked, what kind of music you did. And if you varied, you would be suspicious. We would question your integrity. So from the very beginning I did My Funny Valentine and Under the Boardwalk on my stage, with my written songs, because -- let’s see why. Well, first of all, because I’m a little cantankerous and wanted to challenge that idea. But the reason I wanted to challenge it is because the music business has to be expanding, instead of what it’s doing. It has to keep opening up larger and larger rooms for genius and inspiration to come through.
So if a person is a great songwriter and they also like to sing the songs of other people, it shouldn’t cause anybody to question their relationship with their own work. I’m submerged in my invisible world and I also dig singing Frank Sinatra songs. I have a history and my history is jazz. The fact that I can write an interesting group of songs doesn’t mean that I should not be allowed to also sing my interpretation of a ballad.
So that was a problem from the very beginning. It made it difficult for my image, because people really like -- like Bob Dylan is a singer/songwriter. And, you know, Frank Sinatra is a singer. They really like to operate with those genres. And crossing the genre line, as I did, made it really, really hard to market me. And if I could do it different, I’m not sure, because I -- well, now, after 27 or 28 years, while I love my work, I still think that people like to know where to put you. What do you symbolize? Who are you? And defying that has made it very difficult for -- has made it a little more difficult for me to be categorized and so sold.
Q People used to mention the Beat Poets in your early work.
A Uh-huh.
Q And now there’s a lot of improvisation on this new album that we’re talking about today. Do you see a thread between all that?
A Well, you know, the Beat Poetry thing, that wasn’t ever my thing. I like Beat writers, but then -- the association with living on the jazz side of life, on the raw side where you never know what’s going to happen to you, that was true. That’s how I grew up. And that’s still how I live. That feeds my soul.
So I suppose that’s what the Beat poets represented and so, yeah, I guess there’s a thread. Ultimately, I can’t escape the Duchess of Coolsville, because this is what I am. That’s where I come from. It’s the life I live.
Q We talked about what you do on stage. I notice that on your website there were a lot of live performances for sale that aren’t available elsewhere. How do your older songs evolve when you play them on stage?
A Wonderfully. I guess I spent about 15 years being really careful playing things the way I knew them. But in my heart, what I wanted to do was learn how to improvise. And I went on the Horde Tour 10 or 12 years ago. And I played the B stage with a wonderful group of like Medeski Martin and Wood, Taj Mahal, Leftover Salmon. And the B stage was happening.
And that’s where I let myself stand in front of an audience and make stuff up. Just make up songs with the band. They don’t know where I’m going, I don’t know where they’re going. We just jumped in and did it. And that was where I first started to get the muscle to do what I did on this record, was to improvise.
Q And as I mentioned, a lot of these live performances that show these songs growing are available on your website. The internet is certainly one way to get heard in this world when things have restricted. Have you ever considered licensing your songs for a TV commercial?
A Oh, I considered it. At times when there’s not very much money, I have considered it. But that’s all, I’ve considered it.
You had asked me about the evolution of the songs. And some of them do evolve and some of them want to stay exactly the same. Like, We Belong Together -- it may start to evolve now, but it is has wanted to stay exactly the same. Whereas, Youngblood, I can funk that up like Curtis Mayfield and turn it into -- you know, the thing is, when you change it, are you making it better or are you just changing it because you’re bored? So if when you change it you make it a better and new song, then it’s worthwhile doing. Otherwise, I don’t change them.
Q Rickie Lee, was the song Circle In The Sand originally prepared for the new album, or did you write it earlier for the film Friends With Money?
A Well, this version is different than the one that was on the film. The one that’s on the film is a little slower and has a little different lyric towards the end, because I kept -- I kept changing that last couple of lines. So the Sermon’s version is different.
Q There’s a beautiful collage on your new album cover. And by the way, it comes in a double-disc deluxe edition with all the bells and whistles. A big booklet, additional artwork, photography, 5.1 surround mixes. There’s a DVD with over a dozen short film chapters that document the recording sessions.
Once things got rolling, did the momentum motivate you to document this project?
A Lee was documenting it from the very beginning. He’s a filmmaker and when he started his project he was there with his camera. So there are actually two songs that are on the record that he filmed as they occurred. That’s pretty unusual. I was there the last song he filmed, (he was) sitting right next to me filming it. And it’s pretty stupendous.
Tried To Be A Man, he also filmed and that’s on this little DVD as well.
Q Did the 5.1 surround mixes you did for this album make you want to revisit or remix any of your earlier work?
A I don’t have the patience to do that, Lee did. He did the surround sound mixes. That’s just not my thing.
Q There’s also live performances on the double-disc version of this album. You can download the song to portable devices like iPods.
A Yeah.
Q Many of us watched your daughter grow up around you. Sometimes she would sit
onstage. Was she the early adapter in the family of the new technology?
A Yeah, she would. She’s pretty adept. She is adept with the computer.
Q How old is she now?
A Eighteen.
Q I know that the lyrics on Sermon on Exposition Boulevard bring the words of Jesus into a modern context. So where does this song, Elvis Cadillac, fit in.
A Elvis Cadillac, there were a couple of songs that I wrote to my daughter. She was having a really difficult episode in her life. And I was thinking about her story, but also looking at her whole generation, trying to relate to her experiences as an 18-year-old or 17-year-old, whatever she was, 18-year-old. And realized I was forgetting, I was really forgetting how hard it is to step out of the house, into the big wide world.
And so Elvis, in thinking about my life…and the icons of my time…and Janis Joplin…and getting my first job. And I wrote Elvis Cadillac to her generation as much as to her because it’s written from heaven. And it’s also written living our lives over again. And it says, “Janis Joplin just got her first job down at the corner in a bar, so I guess we’re doing all right.” There we are getting started on our story. And that’s how it feels for her at 18. There’s a Janis Joplin somewhere in her story getting her first job. And who knows what her life will be. Who knows what that generation is going to go through and experience by the time they get to where we are.
So it was a gift of trying to say I get it. I understand. I remember and here’s to you, you know. Good luck.
Q Rickie Lee, it seems like there is a continuity between all your work. And the last album you did, Evening of My Best Day, had some very pointed, political songs. Do you think it’s linked to this new album in some way?
A Not to me. I guess I can see a tendency to confront or discuss problems in our country or society. But to me, they’re all -- they’re just movies. They’re totally different projects. And if you’re looking at my career, I’m sure there’s a continuity to it all, but I don’t set out to answer anything -- answer a past remark.
Q It has been very enlightening to talk to you about this album. And I want to leave everyone with what I hear as a hopeful touch, the song Seventh Day and then we’ll rest.
A What I wanted to mention was before we were thinking about what we were going to discuss when we promoted this record and the concern about revealing the inspiration behind the work would drive many people away. And yet, there were two reasons I wanted to do it. I was thinking about Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. And I was wondering if we -- let’s say that Astral Weeks was also inspired by the words of Mohammed or Christ or his grandmother, or whomever, and there was something about that that made people not even want to listen to it. It was a concern for us because we want people to enjoy the record in spite or because of, it doesn’t matter. Just be able to come and hear the music.
It was a real concern for us to invite people to the music. And the fact is that this is where it comes from. It is inspired by this. And it’s wondrous because of that. But even if it wasn’t, it’s a marvelous record. And I guess I want people to know that I -- while we make no apology and we’re pretty excited about being able to be a part of the words of Christ -- bringing the words of Christ to people, what we’re a part of is music.
Do you know what I’m trying to say? So I set out to not apologize and to say, you know what? This guy’s words are, you know --
Q Misinterpreted?
A That they’re maligned. This whole guy’s spirit is maligned by malicious human beings who’ve distorted it into what they want it to be, so causing many people to never even listen, to flinch when they hear that name. I stand here hoping to be part of the discussion of repairing that gray area.
But with some reticence, because I -- I know it’s inspired by Lee Cantelon’s book, which is the words of Christ, but it is not a religious record. It’s a record. And I guess when people think of a religious record -- many people might go, “I don’t want to even listen to what that person has to say, because I have these assumptions about what that’s going to” -- and I would just caution people to not make assumptions about what this record is like. It’s a pretty wonderful record. Raw, tough, healing, inspiring.
Because I was just thinking, if I was driving in my car and somebody said so and so has made a record inspired by the words of Christ, I would make a lot of assumptions about what that was going to be. And I would caution people to think twice about their presumptions about what things -- I think once they hear it, that’s just going to dissolve. So that’s why I didn’t really worry about it. But they have to be able to hear the music to go, “Oh, this is a different idea.”
Q Rickie Lee, millions of people heard you first when your first albums came out, 1979, 1981. Do you think they can relate when you make departures like about 10 years ago you had an album that was pretty electronic based, Ghostyhead or this new album? Can those folks still relate?
Q We talked about what you do on stage. I notice that on your website there were a lot of live performances for sale that aren’t available elsewhere. How do your older songs evolve when you play them on stage? 
Q Many of us watched your daughter grow up around you. Sometimes she would sit
onstage. Was she the early adapter in the family of the new technology?
