Bruce Hornsbywasn't planning to write a new album. Or even new songs.
After a nearly seven-year span from 2019, when he'd written more than 40 compositions for four records and collaborated with New York chamber sextetyMusic, Bon Iver frontmanJustin Vernonand Shins founderJames Mercer, he was, admittedly, burned out.
Then the "germ of an idea" for what would become the title track to his new album,"Indigo Park,"out now, infiltrated his brain.
"I was giving it the stiff arm for months and months," Hornsby, 71, says, chatting from the wood-paneled studio at his longtime scenic home in Williamsburg, Virginia ("My next move is into a pine box," he jokes).
But he couldn't quash the burgeoning song concept.
"It would wake me up in the middle of the night so I finally said, 'OK, I will take this deep dive and write the song'," Hornsby says. "A lot of this record could be called myRoger McGuinnrecord because the Rickenbacker 12-string is in full force."
Indeed, though Hornsby'sheady musicianship as a pianistis well-documented, he's also playing the electric 12-string guitar on the first five songs of what he calls "a pretty wild record."
Amusical adventureis expected from an artist who broke into the mainstream in 1986 with the philosophical jazz-pop smash"The Way It Is"(hardly typical MTV fodder), cowrote and played on Don Henley's"The End of the Innocence,"toured for a couple of years with The Grateful Dead, composed numerous scores for Spike Lee's films and worked with artists including Chaka Khan, Stevie Nicks, Robbie Robertson and Bonnie Raitt.
The latter adds to the electronic-spiked, beat-propelled"Ecstatic,"while Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig guests on the sprightly "Memory Palace" and late Grateful Dead stalwart Bob Weir adds his unconventional style to "Might As Well Be Me, Florinda."
The cerebral Hornsby – who willtour most of the yearstarting April 9 with his band The Noisemakers – delved into how "The Way It Is" still resonates, working with Weir and Raitt on"Indigo Park", and why hallway-walking is his fallback exercise.
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Question: Before we talk about the new album, it's the 40thanniversary of "The Way It Is." When you wrote the lyrics"some things will never change," what were you thinking about?
Bruce Hornsby: I was just reflecting on my upbringing, growing up in a small, Upper South Town where those narrow-minded attitudes prevailed. That's how I grew up. It's referenced in a sort of interesting way on this new record on "Silhouette Shadows," which is a look-back song. The last verse is about where I was and what happened when Kennedy was assassinated. (Recites lyrics) "The kids erupted in glee/shouting 'Hooray, Nixon can take over'/Ms. Nimmo jumped their ass and tore 'em down/I was really alarmed and confused/watching the children parroting parents' views." And that was sort of Exhibit A of the pervasive mindset in Williamsburg, Virginia, at that time and "The Way It Is" is sort of another version of that.
And the song has lived on.
It seems to be a song set up for the ages, and that's lucky me. The hip-hop community's embrace of ("The Way It Is") plays no small part. Tupac's is of course the most notable(1998's "Changes"). But hell, in 2021, the great Chicago young rapper, Polo G, did an amazing version called"Wishing for a Hero."It was basically his homage to Tupac, but then (laughs), it's my song. But he had a beautiful gospel choir. So it's still being sort of refreshed in that way.
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Is it the one song you can't take out of your set list?
Well, occasionally I won't do it. And the reason I won't do it is that we're up there and the place is so deeply involved and so intensely demonstrative about (the music) that I go, well, you know, we don't need to play this tonight because (the audience) is so ready to receive what we're doing now. But invariably I'll get a nasty Facebook or Instagram screed from some fan, quote, unquote, who's not really a fan, but …
He knows your hits.
Exactly. I understand that. But I'm not going to be a prisoner to that idea, that I have to be that guy who plays those old songs. I could never do that. I'd rather teach driver's ed than do that.
What's the backstory on getting Bob Weir on "Might As Well Be Me, Florinda"?
I ran into him at theRobbie Robertson tribute concertat The Forum in Los Angeles (in October 2024) a few months after he had passed. It was a wonderful night and we were hanging out in this bus and I thought, "hmm, this might be a good match, Bobby and this song." So I told him I had this song I wrote with (longtime Grateful Dead collaborator Robert Hunter) and if you hear yourself singing on it, great. He went, "Send it to me. Yeah, maybe. Oh, forget it, I'm in." It was so funny, so great. We finally got it to him in May last year and he sent us this wild vocal. His vocal is crazy.
It's so him.
It really was just perfect. And that was really lucky. You never know when you ask somebody to perform for you what it will be like when you get it back … We called and gave him all the laudatory remarks and then he went off to do the Dead & CompanyGolden Gate Park concerts. I was hearing little rumblings about some health challenges that he was dealing with, then I didn't hear anything else and all of a sudden, wham, in January, I get the call abouthis passing. That stuff hits hard because you're not expecting it. So I feel fortunate and so happy we have this last little recorded document that might be the last thing he recorded.
It's also great to hear Bonnie Raitt's voice on "Ecstatic." You played on her"I Can't Make You Love Me,"and the last time you were on record together was for your 1993 "Harbor Lights" album. Why was this the ideal song for her?
I thought that it wasnot her standard wheelhouse. Stylistically, it's not a bluesy thing. I did give her one blues thing and she said, "Hey, thanks, at least I've gone this one thing where I can lay into a blues note." (Hornsby sings) "I'm committed to the unseen" – it's that line. So I thought if she was feeling adventurous that this would be something fun for her. Bonnie, I feel like she's my big sister in music. We've been so close. We'll get on the phone and talk for an hour, often.
Let's talk about the upcoming tour. You've spent so much of your career on the road. Do you still tolerate it well?
I hate it. Well, tolerate, yeah, and here's why. It's 2-2 1/2 hours of playing that is great fun. I always say it's more fun than anything you can do outside of a bed and that's still true. But the other 21 hours, the long bus rides, the overnight rides when you're in the bunk and you're being jostled by the funky road. Who likes that? I mean, Bob Dylan probably likes it (laughs) because he's done this never-ending tour for 20-25-years plus. So that's my conflicted feeling about the road. Love the playing. The rest you can have.
Do you try to get out and go for a walk or do something to break the monotony when you're traveling?
I have my routine and it includes a walk. I'm also good at hall walking when it's terrible weather.
You mentioned that you also do that at home when it's too cold to go outside.
Yeah, although in my house I don't have maids looking at me going, who is this tall, goofy guy who keeps passing by?
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Bruce Hornsby on new 'wild' record featuring Bob Weir, Bonnie Raitt
