Lee Hazlewood: cynical cowboy bard
September 27, 2007 Not long before he died, the man who wrote "These Boots Are Made for Walkin' " and much, much more sat down for a wide-ranging, freewheeling interviewContinued...
And that same year, you played some dates in Europe.
And there wasn’t a gray head in the house. We’d start to play a song, an obscure song, and they’d start applauding. So I just stopped the band and said, “How in the hell do you know this song?” And one of the kids held up his hand and said, “My grandma, Lee.” And I said, “Your grandma?” And he says, “Yeah, she had the record, and she played it for me, and that’s where I learned the song.” And I said, “Well, I’ll tell you one thing: From now on, grandma PR is all I’m using throughout the world.” They liked that. It was like playin’ for your grandchildren, for Chrissakes! Only there’s a few thousand of ’em.
How did your first new album in 20 years [1999’s Farmisht, Flatulence, Origami, ARF!! & Me, standards by the likes of Fats Waller and Duke Ellington] come about?
Al Casey, he said, “I want you to do those songs that you always whistled around the studio.” I said, “You’re talkin’ about my dad’s two-beer songs, aren’t you?” Two beers, and you sing one of these songs.
On Cake or Death, you refrained from collaborating with your hip rock-star fans, dueting with your granddaughter Phaedra on “Some Velvet Morning,” and Scandinavian jazz singer Ann Kristin Hedmark, for instance.
The question I’ve been asked the most is, “Why no stars, Lee?” Because I didn’t ask any names, any big record-selling people. I think some people figured, oh, well, Lee did that because he knows he’ll [not] get to be the boss if he gets somebody too big, but that’s not true. I picked people I like. Tommy Parsons—he literally saved my life some years ago. “She’s Gonna Break Some Heart Tonight,” that’s a promise made, and a promise kept.
There’s a definite warmth and love that comes through, with every song, even though stylistically it’s very diverse. You voice your political opinions, as well, with “Baghdad Knights” and “Anthem.”
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