Loudon Wainwright III: "The good news is, think of all the cool people who died!"

LUdon Wainwright III teaches the 75-year-old me the realities of life. My hip joint will probably be replaced," he says, with a subtle smile on the corner of his mouth, speaking on a video call from his home on Long Island. On his left shoulder is an old map showing an aerial view of the surrounding Suffolk County, the easternmost part of New York State. "I was doing what I call an 'organ recital,'" he says. "How many times a night do you have to pee, etc."

Reflecting on this irrefutable evidence of physical deterioration, Wainwright,editor of The New Yorker, 8} I consulted my partner Susan his Morrison and came up with some words of comfort. "I found myself saying, 'Good news, think about all the cool people who died.'" "If you think about it, Muhammad Ali is dead. Wow. William Shakespeare Dead.Katherine Hepburn is dead.It's a pretty cool club."Adolf Hitler is dead too but we're going to kick him out of the club." I've written songs about it. He points out that the first words on his first record, his 1970 Loudon Wainwright III, were, "In Delaware, when I was young...". "Aging and mortality have always been in my wheelhouse," he says. Still, turning 75 last September was an important milestone for Wainwright. That meant he outlived his parents. His beloved mother Martha was 74 when she died in 1997. His father, Lifewriter Loudoun his Wainwright Jr., died of cancer nearly ten years before him. Wainwright sings about both in his second-to-last ironic song on his new Lifetime Achievement, "How Old is 75." ``Mommy is 74, but I thought it would be a little more.'' ``My father kicked at 62 / Too young, what can you do?''

One of the things Wainwright did was write and stage a solo exhibition about his father. Surviving Twin, filmed as his Netflix special in 2018, includes songs by Wainwright himself and a lavish 1971 obituary for his dog, John Henry. It is a combined reading performance of the father's column. "He was a great, great writer," says Wainwright. “It was really rewarding to do that show and be able to share his work with people.” He can see the similarities in the types of writing each creates. "He was a little straighter than me," he says. “He grew up in a different generation, but I think my father was a strong confessor and was very concerned about his parents and children. He probably wrote about it in a more conservative way than I did.

Wainwright outlived his forebears, and he "chronologically I entered what I call my final years. What exactly has he accomplished in his lifetime? He wraps it up in the album's title track. "That means it always wins a Grammy," he says (2010,High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project, Best Traditional Folk Album). Awards] I won a Lifetime Achievement Award a few years ago, but hardware doesn't really count. It always comes back. What have you done with other people, family, and loved ones? ”

I also write songs. On "How Old is 75.", longtime Wainwright his fans noted the lyrical references to "Swan Dive" and "Jack His Knife," one of his best moments. a nod to his 1973 "Swimming Song," which is. "This is one of his songs I'm famous for," says Wainwright. "I still perform it. People still scream for it. It's been documented more than any other video, and it's been used in more movies and TV shows. It's an important song, so it's a reference."

Recorded in Nashville for Wainwright's fourth album Attempted Mustache, "Swimming Song" features two banjos instead of one, featuring Wainwright and folk singer Kate McGarrigle. enthusiastically strummed by They married the same year and had his two children, musicians Rufus and Martha Wainwright, but had divorced long before McGarrigle's death in 2010. In the producer's chair that day was Bob Johnston, a legendary figure for his work with the likes of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. and John Wesley Harding,” recalls Wainwright. "I was so excited when Bob Johnston said, 'I want to make a record with you. He was considered one of the popular "new Dylan". The position has been vacant since he crashed his motorcycle Triumph T100 in 1966 and went "missing". “The label, as usual, was looking for someone who could be the new Bob Dylan,” recalls Wainwright. "I play guitar, I'm a man, I write good songs, so I'm tagged as the 'new Bob Dylan' alongside John Prine, Steve Forbert, and even Bruce Springsteen. Bob, of course, is and will always be the new Bob Dylan.

Among Wainwright's early fans was influential Radio 1 DJ John Peel. "He played my first two records and single-handedly created an audience for me in the UK in the '70s," says Wainwright. “They are in their 70s now, but many are still showing up.”

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Wainwright also released the 1994 comeback album American Recordings. made a fan of international icon Johnny Cashwho recorded his song "The Man Who Couldn't Cry" at the US."Wow, it was a thrill," Wainwright says. . “I went to see him play here in New York at Carnegie Hall and was able to meet him backstage. , he laughed some, and I said to him, "You laughed, so you got it." Johnny Cash recorded 'The Man Who Couldn't Cry', Mose Allison recorded my song 'I'm Alright' and Earl Scruggs recorded 'The Swimming Song'.

When the final curtain rises for Wainwright, it feels like he's still trying to narrow down his final words. One of his sharpest and witty tracks on the new record is "Hell," in which Wainwright describes a repeat offender returning to the devil's realm, playing Hitler, Pol his poto, and Slobodan playing softball with Milosevic. Imagine being addicted to the game of How does Wainwright actually see the afterlife unfolding? I stared at the trees outside the window. "But there's something there. I don't know what it is, but it's big, it's beautiful, it's about love."

Loudon Wainwright III's "Lifetime Achievement" Released on his Proper Records. His UK tour begins in York on his September 7th