Lucinda Williams is iconic, a songwriter’s songwriter.
Her landmark album, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame this year. She was also named as one of the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters by the New York Times.
At 73 years old, she continues to write and release music. Williams spoke with GBH’s Morning Edition. The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Mark Herz: I thought I’d start with maybe a little history, a little origin story. I was wondering if you remember the very first album that you bought with your own money?
Lucinda Williams: I remember one of the first albums I heard, probably one of the Beatles’ early albums, “Meet the Beatles,” and, you know, “Beatles 65,” I would have been 12. It made a big impression on me in the same way that it probably made on millions of other people.
Herz: But millions of other people didn’t go on to become great song creators.
Williams: Yeah.
Herz: So something happened there that was special, right?
Williams: Something happened that was special and felt very positive. Sunshine and flowers and sunshine, you know, Strawberry Fields Forever and all of that.
Herz: So when you were 10 and 12, were you already a musician? Were you playing guitar? Were you figuring out the songs?
Williams: When I was 12, I started taking guitar lessons, which was in 1965, which was, of course, the peak of the folk music scene. And Bob Dylan’s music was what I really latched onto at that point. I’m just unashamedly in awe of him still. The poetry of it, I think, you know, the lyrics. I didn’t understand it all when I was 12, but something spoke to me. The first album ... that really did it for me was “Highway 61 Revisited.” That one just left an indelible mark on me.
Someone in the press referred to me as the female Bob Dylan at one point. Which of course was extremely flattering. Well, apparently Bob [Dylan] caught onto it and heard about that. I was playing a music outdoor festival thing with him recently. A couple of other artists and I was able to talk with Bob a little bit before he went on. So I mentioned that to Bob when I got to talk to him, I said ‘Hey, you know, there was this idea about this female Bob Dylan going around.’ And he smiles all big and he goes, ‘Is that you’ and points to me. And I said, yeah, and I was real sheepish and kind of shy about it. I felt kind of, you, know, just self-conscious. He didn’t make me feel that way. I didn’t know how he was gonna feel about it or anything. And I think he got a kick out of it. But then what really got me was, a few minutes later, he said, ‘Well, who else would it be?’
Herz: Clearly a lot of great musicians listen to your stuff and people go out and cover your stuff. I mean, I have to confess that I found you through Mary Chapin Carpenter decades ago.
Williams: I love Chapin [Carpenter]. We’re great friends. She has excellent taste.
Herz: You’re not like in some sort of country rock Brill Building where you’re just churning out songs for other people. You do these songs and then people hear them and then they want to do them. What’s it like when you hear somebody else do your song?
Williams: I always feel extremely flattered when somebody else does one of my songs because I know what it’s like when I do someone else’s song, which I love doing. I love interpreting other artists’ material. It’s always going to come out differently. You know, I don’t push that too much, but whenever I do somebody else’s song, there’s going to be something a little different about it, just organically. At the end of the day, it’s about the song.
Herz: I was thinking how [for] a lot of people, music might be their hobby. It’s been your whole life for so long. Do you have a hobby that you can actually keep up with outside of music?
Williams: That’s a really good question. It’s kind of funny though. It sounds kind of corny, but I love crossword puzzles and word puzzles that are really challenging that get that part of my brain working. That’s what old people do when they sit around. But then again, I’m old now. So I’ve just got to accept the fact. But that’s what I love to do when I’m not writing songs. It’s one of my guilty pleasures, because I always feel like I should be working on a song instead of doing that.
Herz: There’s plenty of people younger than you already looking towards retirement. You ever see retirement coming at you?
Williams: I don’t know. I think about it, but then it just, it doesn’t last that long in my brain, I think for a second. And then I think, what would it be like? I don’t know if I would like it because I hear different feedback about it. You know, some people, it was a great idea. Other people, you know, get bored and I wouldn’t want to just, you know be sitting on the couch all day. And of course, musicians don’t get things like pensions and all of that, you know, because we’re self-employed.
Herz: Well, I guess that’s music to the ears of your many fans, I would say.
