Don McLean
The singer waxes lyrical about a momentous trip with his father and why he can’t resist a carvery
MY FIRST MEMORY OF TRAVELLING TO ENGLAND was in 1972, being picked up by a driver in a proper chauffeur’s outfit – the cap and everything. It still felt like old England, the height of elegance, and it was a big deal to me. I was extremely popular here in those days; I drew 120,000 people to Hyde Park, second only to the Rolling Stones.
ONE OF THE BEST MEALS I EVER HAD was at the Holiday Inn in Swiss Cottage, London – it knocked the spots off any other English breakfast, the best of any place I’ve stayed. I always made sure I got up for that. During the pandemic I ordered all the makings of an English breakfast to my home in Palm Desert [California] and learnt how to do it myself. I fried the bacon and eggs, cooked the black pudding – all of it.
I LIKE ENGLISH FOOD. I stayed in another Holiday Inn in Glasgow that had the best carvery I’ve ever eaten at in my life. I remember cutting a show short so I could get back to the restaurant and have some of their roast beef and Yorkshire puddings. Unbelievable.
I LIKE TO KEEP MOVING. I was pretty much home-bound in Palm Desert for 20 months and I’ve accomplished a lot – but for the past few months I’ve been hankering to get going.
MY UNCLE HAD PROPERTY ON LONG ISLAND, so we would go there on vacation when I was young. It’s now the Hamptons, but in the 1950s it wasn’t all Jay-Z and Beyoncé, it was still a sleepy country town. We’d visit for a week and there would be lots of family tension which made it rather unpleasant. I just wanted to get back home again.
INGTON DC just before he died, and it was momentous. I was 15, and we drove there in a 1952 Chevrolet. My father wanted me to see what my country was all about, so he took me to Mount Vernon to see the home of George Washington and to look at all the great memorials. He didn’t have any money so we stayed in this really crummy hotel over a bar and the lights kept blinking on and off.
I’VE BEEN AN INSATIABLE TRAVELLER FOR 50 YEARS, but I don’t know how I grew
from somewho never wanted to travel to this. I used to get separation anxiety being away from home when I first started singing – it would be crippling. I couldn’t wait to get in the car after a show and go home. If I was on tour, I’d be counting the days until I’d be back. I kept fighting against it – and then, one day, I embraced the whole world. I was a world citizen!
SPENDING TIME IN ISRAEL CHANGED MY LIFE. I had a girlfriend in the Israeli army in the 1980s, at the time of the IranIraq war. I’d be in her apartment with her family listening to guns and explosions and I said to her father: “Aren’t you nervous?” But they just loved life. I played in an Israeli coffee house in Jerusalem and, next day, it was blown up. We don’t realise how lucky we are.
MY GIRLFRIEND AND I HAVE SPENT THE PAST SIX CHRISTMASES IN HAWAII, and our favourite hotel is the Waikoloa Beach Marriott on Big Island.
It’s big, breezy and beautiful and you can eat all the time. It’s built on a lava flow, so you wander through a lava field to a place on the beach where you can get fresh fish and drinks, and there are wonderful Hawaiian boys and girls playing the ukulele – I mean, they really know how to play that thing. It’s got everything, but it’s not stuffy.
I LIKE LITTLE TOWNS, I LIKE BIG CITIES. I like small hotels, I like fancy hotels, I like mom-and-pop restaurants, I like five-star restaurants… I love it all. I’ve been to Tromso in Norway, I’ve visited some of the most remote parts of Russia and I’ve been in the outback in Australia. I once went to Manila in the Philippines, which was pretty dangerous back then, and in the 1970s I performed in Belfast, where I had to be escorted under armed guard.
I DON’T LIKE PRIVATE PLANES because I don’t trust them. I prefer to go on a major airline with an experienced team of people working all day long on the plane, rather than some fancy outfit.
I TRAVEL FIRST CLASS – I never did before but I do now because my girlfriend likes things like that, so I think “Okay, what the heck.” She’s a good travelling buddy – very helpful and knowledgeable and quick with a computer if there is any change of plan. I’ve done a lot of vacations that I wouldn’t have done if it hadn’t been for her. We took a special trip to Italy which I had my road manager organise and make sure we were properly looked after. We went to Venice, Florence, Milan and Rome. We’re making a lot of great memories.
tours the UK in Sept and Oct 2022. Tickets: donmclean.com