Questions + Answers

Installment #5

Hi Substack friends. I hope you enjoy this question and answer series, which I hope to post weekly, on Fridays. It means the world to me to have you here, so thank you again for joining me, and thank you for providing these great questions.

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Thank you, Steve S., for these 4 questions that came in 1.

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1. When you decided to do this, did you have questions in mind you were hoping to get asked? On the converse, were there questions you don't want to have to have asked?

2. One of my favorite songs of yours seems to be one of your less favorites...'Believe you me." What was going on with you that influenced that song and how do you feel about it now. What changed for you, if anything that affects your perception of that song?

3. If there is a person you have not collaborated with, but could, who would that be?

4. What song did you not write, but wish you had or would consider a perfect or near perfect song? (I consider so many of your pieces as perfection!)

Dear Steve,

I will respond to each question with its number.

1. Did I have any questions in mind that I was hoping to get asked — no, I can honestly say that I did not. I was instead curious about what folks want to know. I’m also interested in how honest people are with their questions — for instance, I know some people are probably dying to know what drew me into certain relationships I’ve been in, etc. but most people are too polite to ask. I appreciate that a lot. And that sort of thing is a double-edged sword: there are things I wish people actually knew the truth about because I realize there are a lot of untruths out there, but I also know it’s none of anyone’s business. There is always a desire in me for my truth to be told whether it ultimately matters or not. Maybe that’s why I write memoir.

   In a general sense, I don’t answer questions I don’t want to answer.

2. “Believe You Me,” is a good song on a good album, The Duel. I love everyone who worked on it dearly. But here’s the deal with that entire record — I was lost and in trouble. I was in a relationship/marriage that wasn’t supportive of my individual artistry, but rather hinged upon my cooperation in being part of a “team” that existed to support another person’s agenda and ultimately lack of courage to pursue their own art. In short, I became a puppet/mouthpiece for Butch, who is, while very talented and intelligent, not the most positive guy, and his songwriting followed his character. When I expressed my desire to write songs on my own and more deeply develop my own artistic sensibilities without him, the relationship, which was abusive and dysfunctional from the beginning, was over. “Believe You Me,” is a good song. It has little to do with me.

3. I relish the opportunity to collaborate with most people. I’m interested in the ways that other artists work — how they get from A to Z — and am mostly always honored to be part of someone else’s process. I don’t think there’s someone in particular that I’m just dying to do something with. I think the universe takes care of things most of the time and puts us in the rooms in which we’re supposed to be.

4. Whenever someone asks me what my favorite song is, I always say “A Song for You,” by Leon Russell. To me, it’s perfect in a few ways: it’s melodically, structurally, and lyrically put together like something that wasn’t put together at all but instead came fully formed and that’s what the best songs sound like — like you dug them up rather than made them up. Plus — the lyrics whisper to my artist’s soul in a way that makes me feel like they know me — they know my fears, my strengths, my bullshit, my greatness, my failures, my loves…… the narrator is quite implicated but irresistibly and mystically honest and charming, and therefore irrefutably lovable.

Y’all have a great weekend.

AM

16 July 2021

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