Acclaimed singer-songwriter Don McLean will bring his tour, “Starry Starry Night” – A Night of Hits and Stories, on Nov. 14 to URSB Carteret Performing Arts & Events Center. PHOTO COURTESY OF DON MCLEAN
Don McLean is a Grammy Award honoree, a Songwriter Hall of Fame member, a BBC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His smash hit “American Pie” resides in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry and was named a Top 5 Song of the 20th Century by the Recording Industry of America.
A New York native, Don McLean is one of American history’s most revered and respected songwriters. Both “American Pie” and “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)” were made into children’s books. Greatly influenced by Pete Seeger, Don continues to be a troubadour bringing his latest tour, “Starry Starry Night” – A Night of Hits and Stories” on Nov. 14 to URSB Carteret Performing Arts & Events Center.
I chatted with Don about his long and storied career and the delight he gets from still performing. Enjoy!
What influence did Pete Seeger have on you?
Pete Seeger embodied a way of life that I like. He had his guitar and his banjo on his back. His mind was loaded with songs and ideas and thoughts: a whole grab bag of information. I loved that.
I didn’t want to carry a band around of other people with me. I did that for probably 20 years when I became very famous in the early ’70s, but I’ve toured solo all over the world for many years. I have YouTube videos of me playing banjo and guitar at Royal Albert Hall and a lot of other places.
I grew in a different direction away from his politics, which were more extreme. And I started to get into more sophisticated musical adventures, so I began working with other musicians in the mid-1980s.
I understand that Pete’s wife, Toshi, also had an influence on your first wife, Carol Sauvion, by turning her onto ceramics.
She never wasted a minute. She was Pete’s manager really. He had another manager named Harold Leventhal. He put together big important deals, like the Columbia Records contract, or any movies or documentaries. He was behind the ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ movie and documentaries about Woody Guthrie, The Weavers and Pete Seeger. He raised the money, but Toshi was the nuts-and-bolts manager behind the scenes.
What I remember about her is she had this big folio, a very big book 2 feet by 2 feet. She would make these massive books and put etchings in them. She had a calendar that had every day of the month on it and every hour in every day. That’s why it had to be such a big thing because it had a whole year’s worth of stuff. Every hour for the whole year.
She would have that open, have Pete Seeger booked to do something at just about every hour of every day. She’d pencil it in. ‘You’re going to go the Beach Social Club this morning, then this place, then into city, dinner with Grandpa.’ It was worked out. That was the opposite of me. I was always trying to avoid responsibility that was not essential and still am. He was taking on all this. And he was there, but she did a lot of the work: made his food, his shirts, cut his hair. She looked after her boy and took really good care of him. She was wife, mother, partner, lover, all that stuff rolled into one. It was interesting to be around to see it work.
Your latest album, ‘American Boys,’ reminds me a bit of your signature song, ‘American Pie,’ in that it’s an homage to rock legends. Did ‘American Pie’ come to mind at all while writing ‘American Boys’?
No, that’s the last album I’m going to make. I’m not going to make any more albums.
It turns out that title originally was going to be ‘Country Boys,’ but I changed it to ‘American Boys’ not thinking about anything but that it sounded better. I’ve never used a title like that since 1971, so it wasn’t done on purpose. It was just the same thing and the right thing dramatically for the song.
But there won’t be any more albums. I might write another song or two, but I’m done with all of this album stuff.
What label was ‘American Boys’ released on?
It was on Sony Orchard. The same label is releasing something like 23 of my albums that I own. This year, they’re putting out three. They did six last year. They keep releasing albums every few months on CD and vinyl.
Is the title of the movie ‘American Pie’ inspired by the song?
I don’t know. They just took the title and bastardized it with their stupid movie. I threatened sue them, so they paid me a lot.
Have you seen the movie?
No, I don’t like stuff like that.
The Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts consider ‘American Pie’ to be one of the five greatest songs of the 20th century. Is that your greatest accomplishment or is there something that tops it?
I’ve fathered two children. I’m pretty proud of that. They turned out to be nice people.
As far as business, I have many, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, induction in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville. My song is in the Smithsonian. There are so many things, I can’t think of them all.
I sold 50 million albums worldwide and have six gold records. I don’t have enough wall space for them all. The Perry Como album with ‘I Love You So’ went gold.
Another one of your greatest songs is ‘Vincent,’ an ode to Vincent Van Gogh that inspired the title of your current tour, ‘Starry Starry Night – A Night of Hits and Stories.’ Can you share a story about how and why you were inspired to write ‘Vincent’?
I was desperate for material and put everything I had into the ‘Tapestry’ album. That was my masterpiece, that album. I was changing songs all the time. I had 40 songs that didn’t get on the album. I cared about the ‘Tapestry’ album more than the others, and everyone turned it down, but I finally got a record deal and put ‘Tapestry’ out. I was working to get lot of underground airplay and playing colleges all over the country. Then in six months, it was time to make another album. I didn’t have any material so I was really writing up a storm about things. I had about 10 things, but I didn’t have ‘American Pie’ and I didn’t have ‘Vincent.’
I was reading a book about Van Gogh written by his brother. The brother talked about the illness they both shared. I light went off in my head to write about this, and for some reason, it just clicked. It was fun, and it was a pretty bold idea because it could have been a very bad song. I was thinking, how can I make this beautiful, and I came up with the idea of using the imagery from the ‘Starry, Starry Night’ painting. I stared at the painting and wrote the song.
I was singing it one evening for a bunch of high school kids. At that point, I was still struggling to make living while working on the ‘American Pie’ album. So I was singing for them, and they weren’t paying much attention to me, but when I sang that song, they stopped what they were doing and listened. I was like, wow, that’s really great that it had that effect on them. And it had the same effect on other people. It focuses attention.
What do you like most about the children’s books ‘Vincent’ and ‘American Pie’ inspired and why?
I like both of the children’s books because I think they’re for children. I don’t think much is left for children. We’re so busy rushing them into the digital and computer age that they don’t have a childhood. It’s nice to get ahold of them when they’re 5 or 6 or 7 and have their thoughts about a story. That’s blissful instead of all this computer stuff. Once a child gets ahold of a phone or computer, and they see all this murder, like the shooting of Charlie Kirk. For a child to see him get shot like that is terrible. Within the psychology of growing up, they’re not supposed to see things like that. My children in my day were protected from things like that. I remember great Christmas parties and big birthday celebrations. They were blissfully ignorant of their environment. In the summertime, my ex-wife wanted to schedule them mercilessly, but I wanted them to have a childhood.
I spent my summers in the woods dreaming of being a cowboy or Tarzan, something where I could live out a fantasy all day long. I was outside for one thing without being able to be contacted. I didn’t have a computer or a phone, something where someone could contact me all the time. I went out in the morning and came back at night, and nobody knew where we were. I didn’t have to call my mother because I didn’t have a phone.
It’s a big loss, I think, a big, big loss because my world was real, my childhood was real. And my career is real. I’ve played every kind of place, seen every kind of city, small town and major city. I’ve been everywhere rather than only successful in the best places, all the time catering to the busiest cities. I think that’s garbage. I don’t like that. I head a real life in every way. So that is partly because of the way I grew up.
What like about Pete Seeger is he had all these big gigs, but he had a wonderful reputation as the Godfather of Folk Music. He didn’t overdue it. He would go and play local children’s center for the poor kids. He’d bring me along sometimes. I just loved that.
Pete and I were close for a few years. We were going New York to sing for Eugene McCarthy, a big hope for the liberals in the 1968 election. He was a pompous guy, a teacher or whatever. We were going to Madison Square Garden, and Seeger was just driving like he didn’t care, hanging out with his banjo. So he plays for McCarthy. And we’re listening to his speech, and he’s saying, ‘I’ll never withdraw from this race. I’ll be in it until the end.’ And the next day the guy withdrew from the race. I hate these fucking guys. I already hated them when I went to Madison Square Garden. I was like, ‘That’s over! Fuck these guys! I hate them!’
It’s interesting that candid is in the word candidate. It’s a special word we use for an individual running for public office. The candidate is supposed to be honest, but they’re the biggest liars anywhere.
How did it feel to inspire Lori Lieberman’s ‘Killing Me Softly with His Song,’ which was a big hit for Roberta Flack?
The inspiration occurred when Lori Lieberman, who really helped write the song, saw me at The Troubadour. I was singing ‘Empty Chairs’ at The Troubadour. She was screwed out of royalties and credit for that song even though she was a major contributor to the lyrics. I went to bat for her and turned that story around, so now, she does get credit because she had written comments in a notebook about seeing me. She’s the one who did that. She’s the one who pushed that song out. The other writers, Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, were the producers of Lori Lieberman. They treated her very badly in my opinion, used her and tossed her away and then later on, sued her. They could have given Lori 10 percent of the song. But not Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox. I don’t like them at all.
They were her record producers, wrote one album they made with her. From her recollection and her notebook, she recorded the song ‘Killing Me Softly’ written from her reminiscence. It was on Capital Records. Robert Flack heard the song on an in-flight music channel, fell in love with it, went to her producer, Joel Dorn -- who I made the ‘Homeless Brother’ album, which had the song ‘Wonderful Baby.’ Joel cut that wonderful record with Roberta Flack.
But Lori wrote a good third of that song. Those two guys very unfair to Lori Lieberman.
How did you meet Paris Dylan, and how long have you been dating her?
We’ve been together 11 years. She was a fan of mine. I had just finished with my second horrible marriage. I fell for her. She’s my baby.
Do you think you’ll get married again?
No, I don’t think we believe in marriage. Marriage is not a great thing for me. I don’t think I’m cut out to be married or a father or a family man. I’m too much of a rambler. I like my freedom. We have a nice arrangement that’s worked out well for us.
How long have you lived in Maine?
I bought a home in Castine, Maine in 1985. I moved there in 1990. I’m still a resident of the State of Maine. I spend a lot of time there, as well as out in California.
What do you like most about Maine?
The air, the light, and the weather. It’s a wild place. Winters there used to be very powerful. I loved that I could ride a horse in the winter in snow. When I was younger, always had at least three horses. I used to have them there for at least 20 years. I loved the outdoors.
That’s going back to what I liked about Pete Seeger. He loved to be outdoors, take canoe trips, go skating, or skiing on Mount Beacon. But where he got the most out living was on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, this really big boat. It was really the people’s boat, but he got to play with and sail it. We sailed that boat from Maine to New York City with a bunch of singers on board, as well as serious yachtsmen and sailors. The captain of that ship, Allan Aunau, was a genius at sailing. We made stops along the way from Maine to New York City. It was a great time to be there when all the tall ships were going into New York in the summer of 1969. We were singing sea shanties. I just loved to sing outside and still do.
Don McLean, left, is pictured with his mentor, Pete Seeger, in 1969 on the maiden voyage of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. PHOTO COURTESY OF DON MCLEAN
Is there anything I didn’t ask on which you would like to comment?
I would like to say that I think the very strict and very dangerous division of left and right in America is primarily due to the fact that we have two different TV stations -- Fox on one side and MSNC on other side -- that broadcast 24 hours a day opposing points of view. I grew up with three networks, and there was a rule that you had to provide equal time, so if Nixon got an hour on CBS, Kennedy got an hour on CBS. That way, there wasn’t one broadcast network constantly propagandizing the country with their point of view. That’s what has divided the country. I truly believe that and hope that Trump may do something about that. I don’t know. In the end, all this talk of fake news is starting to make news that is not fake and giving everybody reason to oppose one another. I would like to say that should be corrected because it’s very bad thing for the country.
Bob Makin has produced Makin Waves since 1988. Follow Makin Waves on Facebook and Instagram and contact Bob at [email protected].
