Rickie Lee Jones
 

AN INTERVIEW WITH RICKIE LEE JONES by Melody Alderman continued

NWMS: Both of your parents were raised in orphanages. I know first hand, as most of us do, the effects our family history has on how we ourselves are nurtured and raised. How do you feel this effected your upbringing by your parents? Also, how do you think your upbringing has effected the way you have raised your daughter?

RICKIE: Actually my dad was not raised in an orphanage. His dad was a vaudeville star and the dad was always traveling. My dad went to boarding schools, but ran away I guess at a young age. He was on his own, quit school, sixth grade. Self educated, went to the Pasadena playhouse to study acting when I was three. He loved literature, loved to write, I am sure felt a bit shy about quitting school, but was very proud of his love of literature and made sure I learned it, reading to me from Shakespeare and don Quixote so that I would appreciate the great works. Of course I didn't. But I can know the play about the pound of flesh and the female jurist who extracts from the Jew not one drop of blood be spilled in his collection of his debt. My dad made me read that with him when I was twelve, or fourteen, or something. It was torture then. But now I think of it and see myself, trying to impart something here or there to my own daughter. Funny.

The main thing I think is this itinerated thing, this sense of being a westerner, a pioneer, a traveler. We are always moving on. WE are not the Europeans, or even the easterners, who settled and stayed. We are that spirit that keeps moving on. The gold miners, the cotton pickers, the waitresses and the truck drivers. The actors and the singers. That is kind of the spirit of the west, I think. That is why the architecture is poor here, because everything seems to be built temporarily. No one thinks they are going to be here much longer, so they build it to fall down. At least that's my theory. Why else would they keep building these terrible strip malls and new housing developments that are falling down before they are ten years old? Must be a kind of unspoken ethic that no one is going to stay here anyway. That makes the idea of quick money ethical. It's a strange morality out here in the west. You can really see how we are descended from the gun fighter, the cattle rancher, the miner. Poor people fighting the river to build a cabin and fight hostile forces just to have a new life when they could have stayed out in St. Louis. Of course, probably better that they left. the westerners!

NWMS: You were brought up Catholic. How would you describe your spirituality today?

RICKIE: I was brought up Catholic. I like them, I still visit priests, go by the church from time to time. I was never really indoctrinated. I can't go for all those rules and do it like this or God can't hear you. But I enjoy the church, and the idea that people are also looking for God. I don't like the idea that they are looking for a church, though. I don't like that they get pompous and puffed up, or that they recite the mass like they are reading a laundry list. I don't think there are rules. I think we make God as we go, that that is the nature and divine intrigue of faith. If you believe you will create it, if you do not believe it will not be for you. Its not like they say, 'don't believe, its ok, we will be there for you.' They make it quite clear that you must believe. So I think it is crucial, this fight with good and evil, if you will, the fight for life over extinction, that we believe all good things, and make them manifest. Believe God is all loving. Let go of all that sin stuff. Remember that you are going to create the thing you are, so be forgiving, kind, hopeful. Bring your best into the world and watch it come right back to you. Do it for itself, not for what it brings, though know that it brings goodness. Celebrate, God wants lots of singing and joyful noise and celebration. Wake up and say thank you, lay your head down and say thank you, thanking yourself, God, the air and the sun. Don't spend time grieving and complaining. We need your good energy and power. We are so magnificent and filled with power we spend a lot of time creating all kind of imaginary architecture to trip ourselves, to entertain ourselves. Let some of that go, and watch how you catapult yourself into the direction you choose. Choose. Choose a direction and go in it. Keep seeking, and the prayer is for guidance, for serving, asking to go in the direction you are meant to be. Then I believe you will see the way. You must use your own oars to get there. But you can get where you will be happy if you are intent on serving, and you keep faith that your way is guided, that you have good to bring, that a magic is at work, and that you can never know or define the true nature of things. First, because it is still to be written, and second because it is not in our physical nature to be able to discern. But we sense it, in terms like good and evil, or in terms like life and death, here and there, now and then. Time, space, all those are representations. Have faith that you are a part of the Word being spoken. Feel the glory all about you.

NWMS: You chose to start your own record label. There seems to be a great revolution occurring in the way music finds its way to people. How do you feel about the music business today verses the music business twenty-five years ago?

RICKIE: The music business is totally different. When I started the music business was an extension of music, of musicians, somewhat anyway. That died, it was taken over by non musician businessmen. Now they have run it to the ground, and the internet and great minds stole the music out form under these greedy bastards. Now they are having to lose their jobs while it reforms. I like the idea of the internet, and I also like the idea from back then of a large package, album size, with great art. It was fun. I miss it.

NWMS: Furniture For The People is a very eclectic and diverse website, both socially and creatively. How would you best describe the site?

RICKIE: Well I think you described it already. It is an evolving community. I want to see it do things like create music, and I want even to see the community do some of the creating. It will take time. It's an act of faith which also requires some monitoring. Bad folks come from time to time. Bored and capable, they try to bring it down! But it's primary goal is to be a haven for left thinking, to remind folks that the right does not own any flag or patriotism or country or government and to provide cheap products from myself.

NWMS: What is like to tour in the year 2003 compared to touring when your first record was released in 1979?

RICKIE: This tour now is completely different. I am not afraid. I am there to welcome you. When I was a beginner, I was afraid you might not like me. Now I know I can comfort you when you come. It's a completely different situation.

NWMS: I recently met a high profile artist who seemed to be highly intoxicated and possibly under the influence of something other than alcohol when I met them. I know that you yourself have had experiences with drugs. What would you say to an up and coming musician with their entire career laying before their feet?

RICKIE: To all of the independent artists who are just starting out and trying to find their way, this can be a very difficult career path and an uphill journey. You know, every single person must carve out their own truth, that is the nature of our spiritual path. The thing you will find out is that you serve, and that will give you your power. You are there to serve, the audience puts itself in your hands, not the other way around. You are the one with the cup, the wine, the sacrament, they come to hear the mass, but you simply perform, and they receive what they have come for. You have good nights, better nights, but you give what you can and that's it, that's your job. Then you go home and take care of your children.

< Previous Page
 

Photograph by Bruce Moore
Copyright 2004
Copyright notice. All material on PureSongwriters.com is protected by copyright law and
by international treaties. You may not reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display,
or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).
 
Contact