I’ve never really had a job, but I’ve always managed to make a living
American Pie songwriter and performer Don McLean talks to MARION McMULLEN about planting the seeds for album Botanical Gardens
ELVIS Presley, Madonna, Fred Astaire, George Michael and Ed Sheeran are just a few of the many music stars who have performed Don McLean’s famous songs over the years.
The legendary singer-songwriter, behind classics like American Pie and Vincent (Starry Starry Night), says he is always interested by how others singers interpret his music. “I’m impressed a lot by how they do it,” he says. “Fred Astaire did Wonderful Baby and Johnny Mathis did And I Love You So, which is beautiful. Hearing some of the stuff is just amazing. Ellie Goulding’s version of Vincent is very good and James Blake did a piano version which is very good as well, and the singing is fine.”
Now aged 72, music has always been a part of Don’s life, although he chuckles: “I’ve never really had a job, but I’ve always managed to make a living.”
He says: “I didn’t know what I was doing and had no idea how to do it at the start, but I used to practise a lot when I was young and I learned how to play. I did a lot of vocal exercises to learn how to sing and I started performing... all the time. My career was never something I thought about. I did one thing and then another.”
With more than 40 gold and platinum records worldwide, Don has just brought out his 19th studio album, Botanical Gardens.
He says: “The inspiration for the project started years ago when I would walk in the beautiful gardens in Sydney, Australia, near the Opera House. I would dream young dreams and it was a comfort and an inspiration. I was always young inside, like we all are, and I felt it again there.”
He explains: “That’s how it started, in Sydney and then I blended in New York City. Sydney is beautiful, but New York City is pretty ugly in many ways and dark and unfriendly and mean. So many people love it and I was born there, but the place always scared me. I stay at my club when I am there and have for more than 25 years. That’s my little oasis.”
Botanical Gardens is Don’s first album in eight years, but he has been busy with other projects during that time, including a featurelength documentary called Don McLean: American Troubadour.
“There have been pretty extensive projects,” he says. “I’ve been working on a house and a horse I was breaking in – I’ve done that a few times over the years – this album was done in 2015, but I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. Then there was a deal, but the deal went away so I had to get another one.”
The album was recorded at Watershed Studios in Nashville and Don says: “Everybody in Nashville has their act together and I think five of the guys in the band have been on the road with me for many, many years.
“It’s great to have them with me. We know what to do. I think the drummer has been with me 20 years, the piano player 35 years, the other guys on the road 10 to 20 years. The new guy, Brad Albin, who plays bass, has been with me five years already. “I have a great band and we have a great time and a lot of fun when we are travelling in our bus.
“When an album is done there is a sense of accomplishment. You work hard to make and support the album and I can feel I have accomplished something and that’s a good thing.
“That’s the sad thing about drugs. On drugs, so many people want that sense of accomplishment without having accomplished anything. Too bad, you have to accomplish something to feel that way.”
Don will be touring the UK and Ireland at the end of April: “I’ve done something like 23 tours there now. I’m guessing... it could be 25. Touring is physically tough. You have to get in shape for it, then it’s pretty good.
“I’m not in shape right now. I’ve got to work on that. It won’t be fun, but I have to lose some weight. Walking and all the stuff that hurts. I like going out to dinner and having nice food served. I love sweets and I like to drink a martini, but it’s all just fattening. I have to be somewhat strict otherwise I’ll be 300lb.”
He sighs: “I don’t want to get to 600lbs like some in the US. How is that? It’s a symptom of something. America is in rough shape. There’s these people and they can’t get out of their own houses.
“There is a TV show The 600lb Man, but there are lots of these people. Something is wrong. It’s like ancient Rome. This is just decadent. Everyone says you can’t say that, it’s being cruel, but you can’t say anything. You need a list of the few things you are OK saying.
“People will all have cameras soon recording everything and watching everything back at the end of the day. I think that’s what’s going to happen. You have an argument when you are out and say ‘I didn’t say that,’ well, rewind and let’s see.”
He pauses for breath before adding: “Alright, this is why I’m a songwriter. I think about these things.”
So what is Don’s perfect escape away from the hassles of modern living? “I like to get up in the morning in the desert... I like living in California now quite a bit, I’d get some food and watch Donald Trump, then get lunch and come back and sit for a while by the pool and get some sun... or jump in the freezing water.
“I like to do all that.”