I may keep performing.
I may stop, says the Grammy winner.
Ive learned to never say, Im quitting.'
Credit: Chad Batka
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You just performed for one of the biggest crowds everheadlining Bonnaroo.
Was it fun playing in a festival setting?
I mean, Im not really a festival act.
Richard E. Aaron/Redferns
I went to Woodstock.
I wanted to see Hendrix and the Who.
But after a day and a half with no real toilet facilities…what am I, a bear?
Richard E. Aaron/Redferns
I have to go in the woods?
I didnt do anything back then.
I drank a beer or something.
The first day, I saw Santana.
Or was it Joe Cocker?
Ive got to use a bathroom.
How did that compare to Bonnaroo?
I didnt play Woodstock, so its one thing to be there and its another to perform.
But Bonnaroo was great.
It was mostly new bands.
There werent a lot of classic-rock acts.
I suppose Im classic rock.
Except Robert Plant, who performed.
He was standing by the side of the stage while we were playing.
I couldnt get to talk to him.
I got this feeling, The kids arent here to see me.
The average age was 23 years old.
You were a headlineryoure 100 percent a draw!
At the beginning there was almost a feeling of a disconnect.
Do they know me?
Do I know them?
Didnt he do, like, Piano Man?
Isnt he the Uptown Girl guy?
But then you came to New York a few weeks later and headlined Madison Square Garden.
It felt good.Richie Sambora came outI didnt think he was going to come.
It was just loose.
People like to talk about itthey like to cook up a rivalry between me and him.
He does that with everybody.
He runs off at the mouth and regrets it later.
We made up a long time ago.
We sat down and I was like, Dont throw your friends under the bus.
What was that meeting like?
I think hes a little scared of me sometimes, like, Whats he going to do?
Wed have these friendly go-rounds where hed say, Why dont you put out more albums?
And Id say, Why dont you put out less?
Id tie his shoes on stage while hes playing the pianojust to try and f him up.
Were you being playfully shady?
That was really an homage.
Hes, like, the guy before me!
He was the piano player before I was a Piano Man.
I felt humbled by itto play 65 times and beat his record.
I thought, Id like to tip my hat to the man.
Do you have control over when you spin?
I have a little pedal!
Im the one who spins it around.
Or vinegar face, like those guys do.
Its called the vinegar stroke and you make that face [Laughs].
I see guitar players do it all the time.
Do you recall the first time playing there?
It was the first big arena I ever played, right afterThe Strangercame out in 1977.
Very, very exciting.
Everyone I knew in the world was there.
Ex-girlfriends, you know… With your continued success today, do you feel vindicated?
I would pay attention to the two that werent so great.
Id go off half-cocked and I had a chip on my shoulder.
I think thats a Long Island thing.
And I suppose after a couple years of tearing up reviews on stage … whats the saying?
Dont get into a pissing war with people who order ink by the barrel?
You havent released an album of pop songs since 1993sRiver of Dreams.
Do you want to make more pop music?
Im writing new music all the time.
Im just not writing pop stuff.
Its not my goal right now.
Im writing for the sake of writing music.
Whether it gets heard or not isnt an issue for me.
It keeps my own juices going and my mind active.
Do you write your music down?
Theres no tapes of what Ive been writing for the last 20 years.
I should have put it on tape because Im sure my memory will start to go.
Probably got a good couple of years left.
[Laughs]
Whats your process for writing songsmusic first, words second?
Yes, which is the backwards way of doing it really.
Thats how I heard rock and roll when I was younger.
When you listen to a record on the radio, you dont hear the words the first time.
What are the words to Satisfaction?
And those are probably better than the original lyrics to other songs a lot of the time.
Thats how we heard music.
I imagine you owe your label a new album.
I think I owe a couple.
I mean, they keep putting out these compilations: live, greatest hits, love songs.
I heard the love-songs one … blech!
I threw up in my mouth when they did that.
People think Im doing it, but Im not!
[Laughs]
Youre about to become a father again with your wife, Alexis.
Will your child inspire new music?
Im going to write a song for the kid, or something.
Will you encourage your child to take on music?
Yeah, if theres an aptitude for it.
Alexa is very musical and shes had perfect pitch ever since she was a little girl.
No, I have relative pitch.
Id say, How do you know that key?
And she was like, I dont know!
Her mom [Christie Brinkley] was the one who really enforced her to keep taking piano lessons.
I would let her off the hook [laughs].
You named Downeaster Alexa from 1989sStorm Frontafter her, right?
The idea for the song came from commercial fisherman out in the Hamptons.
I have a lot of respect and admiration for them.
Now theyre being forced out because of economics.
What do you recall from writing the song?
The original melody was, well …
I called it the Hippie Song.
Anything to keep the melody in my head.
Then there was an issue with the tempo and how it worked.
Most rock and roll, the beat is on the two and the four.
But we decided to turn the drum beat on the 1 and the 3, which is very Celtic.
All of a sudden the song made sense!
It sounded like a real folk song.
Then I thought this song should be about guy fishing.
How do you explain younger fans discovery of your music?
I havent figured it out.
I assume theyre their own generation and theyve got their own music.
Theres a lot of stuff I dont know about, like electronic dance music.
Which they call EDM.
Thats a whole other thing.
But obviously theyve heard my music somewhere.
Whether their parents played it and its, like, dad rock, which I love.
I love that expression!
Thats what I am.
Honestly, Im a little sick of [Piano Man].
But the audience sings it now and its their turn to shine.
I didnt make this s up!
Theyre all based on real characters.
And the song still resonates.
Its part of the Great American Songbook.
That surprised me about Bonnaroo.
Are people going to like Piano Man?
Its an old, long song about a guy at a depressing piano bar.
But they were all singing along!
What do you still get a kick out of playing?
And here I am, still on the charts.
What the f- - - did I know?
I thought I was so wise.
A version of this story appeared in Entertainment Weekly issue #1374.
