This interview was originally published in a May 2017 issue of NME magazine
The first song I remember hearing
Percy Faith – ‘Alfie’
“My parents were huge into music and they played everything on the Magnavox – but that particular song I remember really well. I must have been three or four. My parents played in a big band and they played everything from Stan Getz and Stan Kenton and Buddy Rich to even more popular stuff. They would come home from gigs and they would play everything from big band music to crooners to James Taylor and The Beatles – but mostly when I was really young I heard a lot of big band music.”
The first song I fell in love with
Petula Clark – ‘Downtown’
“I remember vividly being four or five years old and learning all the words to ‘Downtown’ by Petula Clark. I would sit in the very back of the station wagon singing ‘Downtown’ at the top of my lungs, so I clearly have an affinity for British pop.”
The first gig I went to
Recommended
Peter Frampton
“It was on the Do You Feel Like I Do tour right at the height of his popularity and I was 13. We had nosebleed seats and I was with two other 13 year old girls – our friends mum bought us and let us go in by ourselves and waited for us. We managed to make it all the way down to the floor. It was the first time I ever smelled pot – it was a great night!”
The first album I owned
The Jacksons – ‘ABC’
“Santa Claus brought it!”
The song I do at karaoke
Sheryl Crow – ‘Picture’
“I don’t do karaoke, the only time I’ve ever done karaoke was to my own song! It was in Detroit and it was with the guy I wrote it with, Kid Rock. I don’t think that constitutes karaoke I think that constitutes drunken performing in a bar of your own music.”
The song I can no longer listen to
Coldplay – ‘Yellow’
“I can’t really listen to ‘Yellow’, believe it or not, and I love Coldplay. It was really popular at a time I was in a really bad relationship and it immediately makes me want to throw up! I’m sorry Chris and Coldplay – I love you guys.”
The song that changed my life
Sheryl Crow – ‘All I Wanna Do’
“Without a doubt. It allowed us to travel all over the world – it put my career on a path. We were out drinking margaritas in Pasadena and we went to a bookstore and I picked up this book of poetry and the poem at the very front of the book was called Fun. Then we went back to the studio and we were jamming to a Marvin Gaye song and I started singing some of the words to this poem thinking that I’d go back and rewrite the song, but we could never beat it. I actually thought the song was a throwaway and I wasn’t planning on putting it on the record but then it became the biggest song.”
The song that reminds me of home
Tony Bennett – ‘The Shadow Of Your Smile’
“My dad, when I was little, used to always sing that song. He still kinda sings it sometimes. Whenever I hear it I always think of my parents and being home and being little.”
The song I want played at my funeral
‘Morning Has Broken’
“I kind of vacillate between ‘Morning Has Broken’ and ‘The Theme from Pink Panther’ – the song is hilarious. But ‘Morning Is Broken’ is so hopeful and sweet and uplifting.”