Photo by Barfly

Johnette Napolitano’s new album is “Naked”… and not in name only. It’s a strikingly stripped-down production. And the minimalist approach leads to maximum emotional impact.

The record is dark, beautiful and brilliant - like the resilient Napolitano herself.

A true rock icon, Napolitano is best known for her ongoing work as lead singer/songwriter/bassist with the influential band Concrete Blonde.

In 1981, she founded the group in Los Angeles with guitarist James Mankey. Lyrically, Concrete Blonde went to places rock rarely ventured, certainly not so eloquently or profoundly. The hit “Joey” offered an intense, unvarnished, moving portrait of an alcoholic. Other unforgettable songs include “Someday?,” the vampiric “Bloodletting,” “Caroline,” “Walking in London” and “Heal It Up.” The alternative band’s evocative music has been featured in numerous films and television shows. They continue to reunite for occasional, short tours.

But Napolitano has also carved out an impressive solo career. She’s one of the most distinctive, daring singer/songwriters of our time.

And now comes “Naked,” perhaps her masterwork. The atmospheric melodies and poetic lyrics will linger in your mind, conjuring up vivid imagery.

Throughout, Napolitano plays the instruments, including guitar, piano and viola. The acoustic guitar’s subtle, edgy distortion adds just the right, slightly unnerving touch.

And oh, the vocals. Napolitano can rivet you with a wail, warm you with a whisper, chill you with a penetrating vocal delivery. A brief spoken phrase can drip with drama. Her voice is endlessly expressive, exuding genuine emotion.

Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night, as the album opens with the arrestingly tense “All About Eve.” The lovely “Here” presents a remarkably evolved, unselfish view of love. A terrible torment pulses through the sparse, but powerful “Memory Go.” Napolitano segues from the deeply unsettling depiction of evil “Pastor Finch” to the gorgeous purity of “Christmas Morning.” A basic, addictive blues-rock riff carries the ultra-cool “Jazz on Vinyl.” The road is a theme that weaves through so many rock, folk and blues songs, but rarely with the transcendent sense of mystery found in Napolitano’s “The Highway.”

As carefully chosen notes on the piano establish the mood, Napolitano tells the story of “Constanze Mozart,” a despairing tale of love, devotion, sacrifice, creative genius, loss of identity and searing loneliness. It sensitively brims with passion and pain.

Napolitano artfully paints the pathos of “She’s Gone.”

And there’s “Lady Day,” a smoky, sultry, poignant, after-hours homage to Billie Holiday. With piano mingling delicately with guitar, it’s a song and performance that will haunt you.

“Naked” will take your breath away, a stunning album. And each time you listen, you’ll be even more immersed in this hypnotic work.

Napolitano is a gifted multimedia artist, who has poured her many talents into a book called “Rough Mix.” She is working on a second volume, as well as a screenplay.

Pop Culture Classics reached Napolitano at the home she shares with a rescue horse and other animal friends. It’s in Joshua Tree - nature’s spiritual oasis in the California desert. There the artist continues to bloom.

In conversation, her words flow forth in rapid, tremendous torrents, reflecting the myriad thoughts - farsighted and far-ranging, intuitive and insightful - that dance endlessly in her marvelous mind.

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
Do you decide when it’s time for a new solo project, rather than a band album? Or do the songs make that decision for you?

Johnette Napolitano & Star - photographer: Amber Rogers

JOHNETTE NAPOLITANO:
I kind of knew I was going to do this for a long time. I’ve been touring this show for well over a year now. My goal was to develop it to be shot for a DVD. And it wasn’t as easy as it seemed, the balance of the material. The new songs, I had been playing for a while. And that was really good, because for quite a few years now, it was basically about writing in the studio. And this was very much kind of like back to the old days, where we were on the road quite a lot and I’d be sitting around in dressing rooms or a hotel room and writing things.

So the things started to really develop and sit next to the old stuff real nice. And the audiences seemed to know the new stuff real quick. I don’t know how. But they were responding really well to some of the new songs, so I decided, “Well, it’s time to record them.”

Anyway, my goal was to do this for a DVD. I read from my book. And that isn’t as easy as it sounds at all. I mean, it took me a while to learn how to do that right, to pace correctly, to emphasize. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be. So it took quite a bit of time to get the pacing of the show and the dynamics of the show the way I wanted them. And illustrations. I illustrated my whole book, so in the venues, most of the venues have screens now, so I had a really good time drawing on the spot, the images to project, at soundcheck. And then they’d shoot them out. So every city had its own illustration. And that’s going to go in the second book. So it wound up to be quite a creative process, which I really enjoyed.

But my other issue was, how do I record this? And so, every location, I was really considering. I considered doing it in Australia, because that’s always been a really amazing country for us, and me, and we got our first gold record there. But I decided that I wasn’t that crazy about doing it in front of a live audience, because they’re quite unpredictable. And sometimes a bit unruly. [Laughs] And the whole point of doing this was that I got sick of seeing people posting stuff on YouTube and it’s not very good. And it’s for a lot of the same songs that I haven’t been paid for in almost 15 years - there is a big royalty battle going on there now. And so I decided, I’ve got to really rage against the machine here and come up with new stuff that rivals the old stuff - which it does, to me. But you have to prove that to people, because that’s the only thing they really have in their heads. So I’m really, really proud of the set.

Now, having done that, I didn’t know how to record a new album. All my gear, as it is with computers - I’m really over. And I live way the hell out here in the desert, so to get away is difficult, because I have a horse and a goat and three dogs and it’s hard to get somebody to come out here to look after everybody. And I couldn’t do it in L.A., because it’s just too hard for me to be away that long. And I didn’t think I’d really be able to do what I really felt I wanted to do. I didn’t want to feel pressured. I didn’t want to be considering what was being spent every day to do the album, you know, to worry about, “Oh, my God, this is $800 a day. I’d better work my ass off.” I didn’t want to go back in that mode either. So I was kind of getting pretty depressed by it.

My friend Brian Mansell, he and I both worked for Leon Russell for quite a long time. And when you work for Leon, you develop a standard that is very high and just a whole spiritual approach to the work. And it’s like a support group [laughs]. And working with Leon… he’s Leon! There’s only one. And he’s quite the master of space and time. They don’t call him that for no reason. And Brian was Leon’s tech guy. People don’t think of Leon as a tech guy, but he’s way ahead of his time. He built one of the first mobile units. He said back in 1979 that the future of music was in video. That was before MTV. And he was letting a lot of young bands, a lot of punk bands, record at the studio. And he had a three-camera shoot going on. And he was way ahead of his time with computers and a lot of things like that. And he surrounded himself with the best minds in that field, who all wanted to be around him. So it was pretty cool.

So Brian said, “You’ve got to make a record.” I said, “I don’t know how I’m going to do it, because I’ve got to update all of my computers and I can’t really afford to do that. And I’m just kind of over it.” I’ve recorded a couple of records myself here, the limited editions projects. But now, thank you Apple, there’s no sound card available for my G4 anymore. So it’s really a hassle upgrading anything. And with Mac, God bless ‘em, you have to do that like every five minutes.

So Brian, this is last July, he said, “Look, I’ll bring out the mobile unit and I’ll stay there for a month.” And that was really great, because he was literally living here, on the property, in the mobile unit. I only go out for a week at a time. I think next year I’m going to have to go out more than that. And so he was able to stay here and feed the livestock and everything else and then, when I came back, we just got right to it and recorded the album. He just ran the lines in my cabin. And I was able to be at home and record at home and work at my own pace. But sometimes that was real quick, too.

Brian would wake up, he’s a night guy and I’m up in the morning really early to feed everybody. I’m always up between five and six o’clock. Lately I’ve been staying in bed another hour, because my horse is spoiled and, if I go out again, I have a neighbor that’s going to come over and my horse just has to get over the six o’clock feeding. She’s got to wait till seven or eight. But she’s real spoiled [laughs].

So we did it. We laid it out. We went through the tracks, went through everything. And we slammed down the ones that were easy, the ones that I‘d been playing all year, and then I’d go to bed, Brian would stay up all night, mixing things. And then we’d get up and do it again. I’m like, “What do I need lyrics for?” And then in the morning, I’d work on lyrics and, by the time Brian got up, I was ready to record. So we got one or two things done a day. And that slowed down a little bit towards the end, because a lot of stuff wasn’t finished yet. But I was real happy with it.

PCC:
As well you should be. You played a number of instruments.

Photographer: Catherine Copenhaver

NAPOLITANO:
I wanted to play everything, because I’ve never done that. I mean, I’ve always done it, but I’ve never done it on record. I used to play quite a bit of guitar in Concrete Blonde, but I don’t think a lot of people realize that. And I play drums. I play everything. I love to program stuff. I’ve become a much better guitarist, because of touring alone for so long. But that’s how I started, as a 12-year-old, sitting on my bed, playing guitar. My Dad gave me a guitar for my birthday and that was it. I got a viola. I’ve always wanted one. I had a violin and wanted a viola. And Laurie Sargent, who I tour with a lot, she had a viola that she wan’t using, so I bought hers and, oh, my God, it sounds like heaven! So amazing.

So I was really happy, because, even people that I’ve known for 20 years, I’d say, “I’m touring by myself” and they’d say, “Really? Well, what do you do?” I’m like, “I’ve been playing guitar since I was 12 years old and I can do a lot of stuff.” [Laughs] I’m really comfortable with the show. It’s a good time, as long as I’m out for a week. Laurie and I are going out to Texas in February. We’ve got three shows there. I think we’re going back to New York. And I keep wrestling with Australia. But as long as I’m out for a week out of the month, I don’t feel like I’m away from home so much that I’m emotionally unstable, which is easy for me to do on the road.

I really do have my roots here and my little animal family here and my horse and I’m real happy at home… for the first time, possibly, in my life. And so it really stabilizes me, emotionally. I get pretty wild on the road still. But that’s what it’s supposed to be. Laurie and I have been driving around, just the two of us, for a year now, and it’s a blast. I’m not surrounded by a bunch of crew. I’m not surrounded by a circus. We can basically move when we want, how we want, drive when we want, stop at a diner, if we want. And it’s not like hauling around a whole community on your back, which is hard on me a lot. So it’s just been fun. And it should be fun. And if it’s not fun, there’s no point in doing it. There’s a whole lot of things you can do in life that aren’t any fun. But touring and making music should be fun, especially if I’m still doing it.

I remember when I turned 40, I said, “Well, shoot, it’s got to be over now. I mean, I’m 40.” And so I spent a lot of time in Mexico, painting. But it seemed like the work was still there. People still wanted me to come around. And I’ve got the catalog now. One of the good things you can say about getting older is that you’ve got a body of work. When we were young and first starting to tour, I’d look down at the set list and I’d be terrified, because that was all the songs we had. And I’d get really scared, because I just wanted to play bass, basically, and I’d look down and go, “Oh, my God, song number four is coming up. Geez, how does it go again?” And it was pretty stressful. I can still have anxiety attacks, but finally talk myself down and just say, “Look, you’ve been doing this now for 30 years. If you’re not good at it by now, you’re never going to be.” [Laughs] So I don’t care anymore. And it’s very freeing.

PCC:
In putting together the material, when you looked back at it, did you find a connective lyrical thread? How do the songs reflect your mindset? Your emotional landscape?

NAPOLITANO:
I have learned, because in the old days, everything was so personal with me. But I’m a bit of a method actor [chuckles] and all that stuff would go through my head, when I was playing and I wasn’t very happy. Just because you write a song when you’re unhappy doesn’t mean you want to be in that state of mind all the time. So it’s taken me many years to emotionally detach from the songs as being part of my DNA and just stand back and appreciate them for being good songs. And that I wish I would have learned a long time ago. But it’s hard, when you’re so emotional about it.

The material is inspired by quite a few things. I lost my Dad and that was one of the reasons I wanted to do record all on my own, because I just felt he was encouraging me to do that. He didn’t understand the rock star thing. There was a long period of time where we didn’t speak at all - for 17 years, as a matter of fact. I think, when he came around and he saw me doing that, he was pretty shocked. When he’d read about me in the paper or whatever, he didn’t quite understand it. But he also knew it was a tough life. My Dad was a road dog and a chopper rider. He really liked being on the road, so he understood that part, but he also understood the pressure was no good for me, because he saw me very unhappy a couple of times.

So I wanted to just really enjoy these songs and make them simple. The first one, “All About Eve,” it’s always about a couple of people or a couple of things. My friend Jason Bogart gave me this really wonderful painting and that’s always been one of my favorite films, but the dynamic, I think I always related to it - being older, there’s always somebody younger coming up behind you, ready to take your place. And I always see artists my age trippin’ about that. It especially depends on the genre. And one of the things I knew I could do, as I got older, was sit and play guitar. It’s about aging gracefully, to me. I’m from Hollywood and I see a lot of people who have a problem with that [laughs].

PCC:
The song “Here,” is that a result of coming to a new perspective on what love should be?

Photographer: Catherine Copenhaver

NAPOLITANO:
Yeah. Yeah. “Here” is an acceptance of the idea of, “Look, all I can be is here for you.” It’s about freeing, letting somebody be themselves and not imposing some template on someone, a template of what you think a relationship should be, whether your model is your parents or society or Hallmark cards. You just really have to let somebody ebb and flow and be who they are. And when it’s there, it’s there and it’s great. And when it’s not, it doesn’t mean you’re not there. So just, “I’ll always be here,” I think that’s the greatest thing you can say to somebody - “I don’t need to hear it every day. I don’t need to look over your shoulder. You don’t need to look over mine.” And especially if someone is very driven by what they do, you know that their other love is what they do. It’s not necessarily another person. Jealousy and insecurity is a very unattractive trait… in anyone. And I used to have that - a lot of insecurity. But I just really worked on that over the years and I’m much more secure now, in myself, in what I do.

And just because I want to be alone… that was always real hard for somebody. It’s easier for a man, I think. It’s harder for a woman. It’s not like I come home and somebody’s going to be there doing my laundry. You know what I mean? So it’s like, when we first started touring, I had a lot of problems with that, in relationships. Just because I’m on the road doesn’t mean I doing anything. I’m drinking a bunch of wine and playing music and then going to bed in the bus and letting the crew watch porn in the front or whatever.

So it’s like, it doesn’t mean I’m doing anything I shouldn’t be doing. But I’m in love with my music and I always have been. And sometimes that’s hard for somebody to accept. And it’s hard to accept in someone else, unless you really understand it. And I’ve seen so many people, I’ve seen a million casualties in this business, with artists in general, who have a hard time with that. A lot of casualties, man. I’d be out on the road and one of my crew would be like, “My wife just emptied out my bank account and she’s leaving me.” It’s just like, “Jesus Christ!” So I just think “Here” is a very mature song about relationships - I don’t expect anything and whatever you want to give me, whenever you can, I will treasure it and that’s great. But there are no demands, no conditions, no nothing. People really like that song a lot and I finally recorded it. And I really like it, too. And it’s about limited time.

Life goes by so fast and I’m out here in the desert. That’s where “The Highway” comes in, too. I wrote that pretty quick. I had that as a poem and before Brian woke up, I set it to music. And I’ve seen carnage out here - human and animal. But the human really shakes me up. There was a local musician who was hit and killed on the highway and I just thought, “Man, this highway has seen so much stuff.” Came upon a dead guy on the highway. I came upon another guy who was dying and ended up being taken off life support. It’s really brutal out here. I don’t know particularly why. Well, you know, they come out to the desert and get their party on, on weekends or whatever, and then they drive around - they wouldn’t do that at home. But here, they tear around. A lot of drinking. And it’s really dark. It’s a very dangerous highway - Highway 62 - notoriously so. So it’s just the highway, boy. If the highway could talk, it would have a lot to say.

PCC:
Do you find the road to be kind of mystical?

NAPOLITANO:
Absolutely. The road it calls people. The road called my Dad. My Dad went out on his Harley. He went on the Four Corners ride, back to Wisconsin for the anniversary of Harley-Davidson. There’s something about the road. I think it’s that there’s always the sense of possibility. And the moving. The always moving is really something that I’ve tried to analyze for a long time. And, of course, greater writers than me have written about it for a long time. It’s like, you come, you party, you leave. There are no strings attached. You meet people and everybody’s happy. And there’s a show and it’s great. And you see new things. I call it “the front lines.” When you’re out there, it’s like being on the front lines of America. Laurie and I just driving around, unencumbered by having to stop, like when you’re on a bus or something like that. Just going through towns, seeing them.

I remember how the country changed, from back in the days before Starbuck’s. Seattle was kind of divey. And then all these communities that were abandoned and were going to hell, the artists moved in and started the little coffee places, started the little poetry scenes. You know, downtown Portland was a dump and crime-ridden. And to see the gentrification of the city… to have lived in New Orleans before Katrina, to see it after Katrina. Just the evolution of America. To go through Michigan, to see all those amazing, huge houses, miles and miles of abandoned houses… the stories! Oh, my God! These houses just rotting. There’s these gorgeous, two-story houses and you’re going, “Jesus, man, it’s like a ghost town! People lived here for generations.” And I’m just thinking of grandmothers. My God, you couldn’t even afford to live in a house like that anymore and heat and cool it. It’s just really seeing, first-hand, on the front lines.

PCC:
Driving around like that, it must give you a lot of good ideas for lyrics.

Photographer: Amber Rogers

NAPOLITANO:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I’m not a very literal writer. Never have been. But the thing that’s more valuable to me is the emotion that it invokes. And humans, we have the same emotions. And they’re triggered by the same things. I feel a real sadness, wondering about the history of some of these places… or the happiness within those four walls, the Christmases, the holidays, the Thanksgivings, or getting word that your son died in the War, in Vietnam, or whatever. I’m thinking, “God, what went on in these places? What went on here?” Just the nostalgia is amazing. And it definitely is an emotional thing to see.

PCC:
And “Lady Day,” is it the emotion of BIllie Holiday’s songs, her vocals, that resonates so deeply with you?

NAPOLITANO:
Yeah, absolutely. I was always a huge Billie Holiday fan. She was just amazing. My Dad, having the Italian-American influence, of course, we always had the Rat Pack on in my house, always Dean Martin, always Frank Sinatra. And I was listening to a Sinatra special the other cay, because of his 100th birthday, and they were saying like what a huge influence Billie Holiday was on him. And I’ve just got to say, as a singer, I really want to work on the craft, at what I do, and be the best, rather than be all wrapped up in my own emotions. And her phrasing was so impeccable. To listen to somebody that good is really like, damn. I mean, damn!

Once again, as a woman, it’s really rough and she was taken advantage of by a lot of men. As a matter of fact, I was just listening to “Lady Sings The Blues” the other day, on my turntable, and I was thinking, for the first time, “Geez, lady, you’ve got to stop getting so hung up on men, you know?” [Laughs]. I mean every single song is about men.

PCC:
“Christmas Morning” is hauntingly beautiful.

NAPOLITANO:
I always wanted to do a Christmas song. Always, always, always wanted to write a Christmas song. And time isn’t waiting for me. So I figured, okay, we’re making this record in July, I’m going to have an opportunity to do a Christmas song. And I’ve always wanted to. I wrote one for kids, many, many years ago, when my nieces were little. But now they’re all grown up and it needs to be sung by a kid, so I’m going to have to get a demo together of that, because that’s a good one, too. But I’ve always wanted to write one. So I finally did. I got off my lazy ass and did it [laughs].

PCC:
And “Constanze Mozart” - was she always an intriguing figure to you?

Photo by Amber Rogers

NAPOLITANO:
Constanze Mozart, well, Mozart, in the first place is an intriguing, amazing human being. I mean, he was just incredible. I have a book called, “Mozart’s Letters” and it’s the letters he wrote to his father. His father completely pimped him out, ever since he was a little kid and worked him to death. And all he wanted to do was his own music. His father wanted to have the social standing that he did, which in those days meant kings and queens and the clergy - I mean the Popes and all that shit. And so he pimped Mozart out to teach.

And Mozart’s letters are just unbelievable. He was really a punk rocker, man, you know? He was just like, “I’m teaching these princesses who can’t sing.” And he’s having to write all these operas and all these things for people who can’t sing, musicians who can’t play. And it just frustrated the hell out of him. It’s amazing, as a writer, he worked with what he had to work with, but he just hated it. So he would write for whoever he was commissioned to write for. He was always broke. And his dad always sent him out to do stuff he really hated doing and he’d stay up all night and work on his own stuff, which was what he wanted to work on.

But then, when he married Constanze, her family was very musical, as well. They were a well-respected musical family. And it’s very interesting, because Mozart was seeing two women called Constanze at the same time. And he ended up marrying the one with the “z” instead of the “c.” And Constanze Mozart, his dad was not happy. His dad did not want him married, because it would interfere with his work and he did not want that to happen. Mozart was on the road quite a while anyway.

That song took me six years to write, because I’d written the piano part first and I knew the vocal had to be an absolutely certain melody, which it was for a long, long time. But the lyrics had to come from a place that came from her. Like, what was she feeling, playing the piano herself at night alone, waiting for her husband to come home, waiting for letters to come from home or a new piece of music? She would have to take the new music to the publisher and have it copied. And she did all this stuff to support him and never got anything but shit from his dad.

And she ended up losing a couple kids, having a bunch of kids. And I can’t imagine what that was like back in those days. You don’t even have running water. I just have no idea how they did it. But she always just got shit. And the letters from Mozart to his dad, he’s telling his father he wants to marry her and it’s just so like, “Please father, give us your blessing” kind of a thing. And his dad did not want him to do that. So I think that this woman really took a lot of crap from Mozart’s dad and he just kept sending him away, sending him away, sending him away. And he didn’t want to go. He wanted to work on his own stuff.

So Constanze would have his own stuff copied and taken care of, while his dad pimped him out, basically, to do all these crappy things that he had to do that he didn’t want to do, because his dad wanted the social standing of it with the court. So I just thought she was fantastic. She was an amazing woman. And she got a lot of criticism, too, because his most famous piece, the Requiem, was what he died doing, he died before it was completed, but he had a commission, which would be paid when it was finished. So she had to have somebody else finish it. So there’s a lot of controversy and mystery surrounding that particular piece of music. And she gets criticized a lot. But she did what she had to do. She had kids to support. Here her husband died, because he was worked to death.

PCC:
Well, it certainly makes for a powerful piece on the album. And “Pastor Finch,” where did that come from?

NAPOLITANO:
“Pastor Finch,” there’s a story I’m working on called “Witch.” It’s a true story. A friend of mine who was a teacher and a mentor of mine in New Orleans and she was a psychic down there for almost 40 years in a place called The Bottom of the Cup Tea Room. And she had quite a life. She was tried in 1962, as a witch, in Arkansas. I got the transcript from the D.A. She had read for a woman who passed way and left her everything she had. Well, the woman’s husband found out about it. Imagine Arkansas in 1962 for one thing. 1962 was an amazing year in this country. That was around the time Kennedy was shot. There was a lot of stuff going on.

So I’m working on this screenplay and I’ve designed the clothes, done the research, and the set, and the score, and I’m not sure exactly now to produce it, but I’m going to publish part of it, in my next book, just to make sure that it’s there and I don’t get ripped off, But it’s a true story. She said to not work on it while she was alive. She died early last year at the age of 96. She had said,“ Don’t work on it until I’m gone, because of all those people I helped in that courtroom. There was an amazing, true ending in that courtroom. Her lawyer quit. It was a pretty heavy. And she was a really dear teacher and mother figure to me for many, many, many years in New Orleans. So she taught me a lot of stuff. She worked for the cops, found bodies, and all kinds of things like that. And they were a very powerful group down there, as far as fourth-generation Irish psychics.

So “Pastor FInch” is her nemesis in this play. And the Holy Rollers were all against her, because they were Bible-thumping Holy Rollers and she was this psychic woman. And so she got a lot of death threats. And she said, “I don’t want to go through that again - looking down in that courtroom at all the faces of all the people that I helped, that were claiming to not know me.” She said, “I don’t want to go through that again.” So I was committed to working on that. And it’s coming along slowly, but I really like what I’ve got. And that’s Pastor Finch’s song. The pastor’s up there, preaching, basically, saying, “You owe me your love.” That’s the character of him that I’ve come up with, that I’ve kind of given flesh to. That’s the song that he sings. That’s his theme.

PCC:
And you can relate to having to fend off the Bible-thumping Holy Rollers?

NAPOLITANO:
Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, look what we’re going through now. Look at it. I know good Christian people, let me tell you. But there’s lots of them out here in the desert that are convinced of the End Times, the haters. Those people aren’t Christians to me. The hypocrites. Yeah, I can totally relate to that. The haters. Especially with Facebook, the things people post to each other, the stuff that I see going down online, this whole going to war against Islam and, oh, my God! It’s just - come on, man! What would Jesus not do? What you’re doing. [Laughs]

PCC:
Do you find that generally, the songs tend to come to you from some mysterious subconscious or unconscious place?

NAPOLITANO:
Yeah, I have a tattoo of Nikola Tesla [scientist/engineer/futurist] on my right arm. And Nikola was one of the greatest heroes to me, because he admitted, “This stuff doesn’t come from me. It comes from somewhere else.” I just discovered this Victorian writer, Marie Corelli, who was like a female Tesla. She was like the biggest-selling writer, Queen Victoria’s favorite writer, but you don’t hear much about her anymore. And Joe Meek, who was a very famous producer in the 60s. “Telstar,” which was Queen’s favorite song. And that’s an amazing film, if you can get a hold of it - “Telstar.” It’s just heartbreaking. And he was just channeling it in from somewhere else.

And I believe in that absolutely. Absolutely. Definitely. Especially out here in the desert. On a good night, all of a sudden, something wakes you up at three in the morning and there’s a planet peeking in your window and all of a sudden you’re hearing these things and it’s quiet enough for you to be hearing what’s inside your head. And all of a sudden, there’s a song in my head… and I have to learn it! And “Lady Day” was one of them. There’s a chord jump that I had to do, that I didn’t even know how to do. I had to figure it out, because that’s what I heard.

PCC:
To this point, what are the most rewarding and the most challenging aspects of your life in music?

NAPOLITANO:
I had a really talented, young musician out here the other night and we had a really good time, making some music together. And she was kind of going through the same thing that I went through. I said, “You’re an artist. Unless you really need five cars and the three houses, you must be happy with creating itself.” I have my cabin. I have my little family. I have my health, which is the most important thing. It may seem like a cliche thing to say, when you’re 21, but you get to be my age and you see people being struck down with cancer, people who have just gone away, and you have your health and you just think, “Thank God. What did I do to deserve to be here?”

You have to create for the simple act of it. I would trade anything for good inspiration, because nothing is worse to me than not feeling like playing. But I’m not one to say, “I’m going to force myself to sit and play today, even though I’m not inspired.” I’m not going to do that, because I just don’t see the reason for it. It’s not any good to me. I have done that, because I feel guilty, if I’m not doing it. But I’d much rather be inspired and there’s nothing in the world like the rush of great inspiration, where you really want to play, to write, you really want to sit down and jam.

The thing you’ve got to get over is that there’s some goalpost. And there isn’t. If you want a Grammy, if you want a lot of money, if you want all kinds of awards on your mantlepiece, that’s a whole other ballgame. That’s a business. And you’ve really got to do if for the sake of the art. And basically, the money doesn’t matter. Money does matter. You need it, right? But how much of it do you really need? I mean, what do you really need? Do you need 60 pairs of shoes in your closet? Do you need more than four dresses? Do you need more than two pairs of boots? People don’t know what they want. And people don’t know what they need. So it’s a matter of remembering why you’re an artist in the first place. I have this theory that you are truly who you are before you learn to drive, because after you learn to drive, you start feeling like you have to go places and do things, And you start comparing yourself with other people and what they have.

What do I really need? I have my sewing machine set up, because I love to sew. I’m doing a couple of alterations for some of my friends. And I’ve been drawing and painting and doing clay since I was a little kid. And I’ve got my guitar in front of me. I’ve had a number of guitar and I look around, going, “I don’t need this many guitars. I need one guitar, on a Willie Nelson level. And I need to keep playing. And I need to keep enjoying it.” And nothing in the world can compete with that - no possessions, no nothing can compete with the simple pleasures. And it’s easy to lose your way, along the way and feel like, “Well, this man has that… “

I would see road crew do it all the time - “Well, we need a bigger bus. More of a rider. We need more beer on the rider.” Why? You’re going to end up at the end of the tour with 16 cans of tuna, 14 containers of yogurt, not being able to take it anywhere, more booze than a liquor store. And I’m like, “Why do we need all this?” I don’t even have anything like that anymore. I’ll get my own bottle of wine during the day and a couple waters and maybe a bag of chips. If the venue gives us dinner… I can generally take care of myself. I’m an adult. I don’t need to eat all this stuff, because I feel guilty before going on stage. It was horrible. I was in terrible physical shape, because I’d be eating, when I didn’t want to, what I didn’t want to. And I would just wind up with all kinds of fluctuating blood sugar, weight problems. And I would feel terrible going on stage half the time, because they’d be feeding us dinner at six o’clock. And I don’t even eat then. But I’d feel like I had to, because they’d made it. Just trying to please everybody. You can’t try to please everybody all the time. You’ve got to take care of yourself. It took me many, many years to realize that.

PCC:
Have you found a way to coax the muse?

NAPOLITANO:
Oh, a bottle of wine usually does it [laughs].

For the latest news on this extraordinary artist, visit concreteblondeofficialwebsite.com.

UPCOMING JOHNETTE NAPOLITANO SOLO TOUR DATES:

DEC 29 2015	Yoshi ’s - Jack London Square - Oakland, Ca. w/Laurie Sargent
FEB 04 2016	One World Theatre - Austin, Texas w/Laurie Sargent
FEB 05 2016	Live Oak Music Hall - Ft. Worth, Texas w/Laurie Sargent
FEB 06 2016	Dosey Doe/ The Big Barn - The Woodlands, Texas w/Laurie Sargent